My Personal 2007 Highlight

It's unclear when exactly I first heard the story, but off and on throughout my life it's clear the impact of that first time has spanned close to 30 years. Once again, the story was the highlight of my 2007, but before I get to that, we have to go back to the first time I remember it influencing my life.

My personal recollection begins in the mid-1980s when my grandparents visited us over Christmas in the Philippines. Only seeing your grandparents one out of every five years makes any opportunity to see them a HUGE deal. The "over the river and through the woods..." just doesn't do it justice when there are literally thousands of miles of separation across oceans and continents making river and forests a quick jaunt across a State line. So when Oma and Opa informed us that they'd be coming to visit for Christmas, it was an anticipated Christmas unlike any other in my life to this point and a Christmas we'd never forget.

We had an absolutely wonderful several weeks with them. In addition to celebrating Christmas, they brought with them many US treats including apples, a Butterball turkey and presents. Throughout their stay we spent lots of time with Oma and Opa reading books, playing Coleco Head-to-Head Football (in college mode mind you, Opa didn't like the pros because they played on Sundays) and travelling with them to various parts of the country sight seeing. Why He chose us, I'll never know, but my brother and I were the last grandkids to play with Opa, for, some time before their scheduled return to the US, he passed away. But one of the projects Opa and I worked on together before he left this earth is the first I can point to the story's impact on my life.

That Christmas my grandparents gave me several balsa wood airplane kits and Opa and I had spent the days after Christmas reading the directions, identifying the correct pieces, cutting them out of the panels and assembling the models (It's like I did it yesterday because I've been working on one with my Dad since July). One of the models Opa and I built was a replica of one of the small Piper airplanes and when it came time to decorate the model, I knew it had to be bright yellow just like Nate's.

Fast forward just short of 30 years to July, 2007, spin the globe about halfway around and locate Smoketown, Pennsylvania. That's where I attended a Wycliffe Family Day on a summer Sunday afternoon this past year. Having gone to school and dormed with the kids of parents who were involved with translating Scripture into native tongues or were flying planes and helicopters into jungle airstrips and even some of those kids now involved in the work themselves; I knew of the ministry of Wycliffe firsthand. The draw to this event was my Dad wanted to fly in an airplane and I convinced him that we wouldn't find a cheaper flight than a $15 ride around the airspace of Lancaster County. Though I knew about it beforehand, for it received top billing on the press releases, I didn't expect the impact the yellow plane would once again have on me.

As we found our parking space, there it was tied down in the grass, N5156H, this time in a life size version, but still a replica of course, for the real one was shredded to pieces on an island beach on the Curaray River decades ago. Amazingly, the actual airframe was discovered in 1994 and is on display at the headquarters of MAF. Though I had seen the movie with the entire Grace Church staff in 2005, on a whim I had just read the book last Spring; my eyes tearing regularly as I turned the pages learning even more about all that God's been doing among the Waodani.

And once again, the story which I first heard as a blue-eyed blonde-haired kid was surfacing in a rush from the deep recesses of my memory. I got to meet Steve Saint, Nate's son that day, shake his hand and talk briefly with him. I'm guessing, based on the response he receives worldwide and the prominence of End of the Spear, that the story impacts many people in similar ways that it has impacted me.

I felt heart tugs that afternoon that I haven't felt in a while and off and on since, I've contemplated and conversed with God as to what He's trying to tell me. Here some six months later, I'm still trying to listen intently through the distractions of daily living and the hustle and bustle, but that day opened the door to an unexplored room or at least one I haven't explored recently. For now, the exploration continues until He leads me to a point that requires faith and action.

And so my highlight for 2007 was the yellow plane. I'd built a replica with Opa years ago and now I'm building another one with my Dad... well, trying to. I'm having trouble identifying the different pieces on the balsa panels. Go figure. What God has in store for 2008 and beyond is yet to be discovered. But whatever it involves, He's always at work around us and He'll be inviting me to join me in what He's going to do. I look forward to it. Happy New Year!

Photo by Peter Norton

Grace Church - 2007 in review

I enjoy all the nostalgia that permeates the media outlets this time of year - Person and Sportspeople of the year editions, the year in review and best-of montages - it all gives me an opportunity to reflect on all that's transpired over the past twelve months. Capturing the events of a year was our main task when I worked on our high school yearbook and one of several lessons I learned from my yearbook classes, ingrained into my mind by our teacher/advisor, was to highlight what made the particular year stand out from all the others.

In years past, December-January meant Annual Report time where, like a dentist, we painfully extracted reports from each ministry area. The Annual Report has gone the way of the old 8-Tracks and that cheering you hear is the noise of ministry leaders across Lititz celebrating. In it's place take this as my 2007 Grace Church Yearbook or Annual Report.

By the what-set-this-year-apart criteria, 2007 will go down as the year of the Rodeo at Grace. It consumed much of our time and energy in planning for it; I don't think we'd spent that much time planning an event in the history of our church and in people-power terms, it consumed enormous amounts of volunteer energy. No doubt, that was the one moment that captures how 2007 was different at Grace Church than any other year.

On Sunday's we considered... How Great is Our God? To You... From God, From the WHALE to the World, Angelic Instant Messengers, Summer Heat, iBook, Real Family, Lost, Just Add Water, Vision Month, and we started the year with Back to the Future.

The largest number of people at one time took the step of baptism at Grace Church in 2007 and we celebrated Communion on a Sunday morning.

And while we said goodbye to former co-workers (Crouse, Nelson, Snows, Brightbill), we welcomed Tim & Susan Auld, Matt McElravy, Lindsey Wilson, Lisa Weidman and Megan Wilkerson.

A year ago, while I was working in the office between Christmas and New Year's, the office was in disarray due to re-carpeting. This year it's in disarray because of repainting. Usually you'd paint before re-carpeting, but we got a deal on buying the carpet in bulk that I couldn't turn down. The office area hadn't been touched since it's original construction in 1989/1990. We got a full 17 years out of the original layout and decor and I spent 10 years planning in some way shape or form, planning the current makeover.

Our Sunday worship attendance continues growing, though at more manageable rates than we've experienced in the past three years - we've grown in attendance by around 3.5% over last year. Even more incredibly, while we challenged the congregation with an income budget increase of 10%, which we knew would be a a bit of a stretch, thus far, giving is up by some 12% over last year.

All in all, 2007 has been a positive year of ministry at Grace. And while a lot of effort and planning goes into many of the things I've highlighted, we're just the puppets carrying out the plans and directives of our Master Puppeteer. He guides our every action, plan and thought and is The One who receives all the glory.

And while I've been privileged to have a small part in what God has accomplished through the ministry of Grace, I have yet to list my personal highlight of the year; that will be my topic next time.

Madame Tussauds in Lititz

Approximately 100 chairs have wax on them from the candlelight services earlier this week, with about 30 of them judged to be severe. Nathan spent most of yesterday with an iron and paper towels dabbing up the wax off of the 30 worst. In most cases the wax dripped onto the backs of chairs as guests held the candle in front of them as they sang carols.

Maybe we should send the most-waxed chair to Madame Tussauds.

Wax on / Wax off

One of the downsides to a candlelight service is the side effects of the candle wax. Wax drips on the chairs and the floor and presents a post candlelight-service clean up challenge. In the past, our Senior Pastor would expound on the proper candle-lighting procedures, so much so that it's part of our folklore. We've also tried only having the candles lit for the signing of Silent Night to keep the burn times to a minimum. Even with those efforts, there was always wax to be cleaned up after the service. This year neither of those public service announcements were employed and whether it's a true cause and effect relationship we'll never know, but there's a lot of wax to be cleaned up this week. In fact, much of Jay's day today, if not most of this week, will likely be devoted to wax cleanup.

We contemplated for just a bit the use of glow-sticks in place of the candles, but that just didn't feel right. And as I marvelled at the sight of 800+ people in the Auditorium singing out the Christmas Carols with candles lit, I wondered if the atmosphere would be enhanced if we held the candlelight services outside. A thought to ponder for future celebrations, I guess.

Or maybe we'll devote our next Digging Deeper elective to proper instruction on candle-lighting and burning and fly the guest speaker in from Arizona.

A World Transformed - Part 2

Though not a quote one other principle caught my attention from the Bush Administration (41st), his attention to building relationships. The President detailed how throughout his political career, he worked to build relationships with foreign leaders and specifically, establishing them away from the conference tables and outside of the office. He used Camp David and Kennebunkport extensively as casual, relaxed settings to establish a comfortable atmosphere to enhance open dialog with world leaders. The President understood that if he had a strong bond with the key leaders of the world those ties would stand the test of each crisis that would arise. He would be able to take them back to their casual exchange of ideas, in some cases, years prior to remind them of the mutual trust and respect they'd have for each other. Brilliant!

I also got a chuckle that like Reagan almost did to a small cottage prior to one of his watershed meetings with Gorbachev, Bush too had a run in with starting a log fire in the fireplace, though his was in the Situation Room, set off the fire alarm which in turn had the Secret Service busting into the room with weapons drawn. We're all human.

A World Transformed

Prior to vacation a while back, I took time to walk the aisles in the Lititz Public Library scanning the titles and came across A World Transformed. I enjoy reading and learning about the behind-the-scenes perspectives of events and things I can relate to, like the coup-de-tat in the Philippines in 1989.

Scowcroft and the President detailed the meetings and diplomatic challenges in how the US chose to respond to the political crisis. While they were doing their thing, I was living it on the otherside of the globe. Since our boarding school overlooked Manila, we were in relative safety, but also had a peanut-gallery view of the action. We saw the smoke from the fire that ensued as a result on the airport attack and the rumblings of tank artillery lulled us to sleep at night. We prayed a lot that week for our friends, classmates and teachers, some of whom lived within less than a mile of the action... fortunately, no one was injured. My most serene recollection was, with school closed, a group of us were on campus playing a softball game while a war was being carried out but just several miles away and as we focused on catching fly balls US Air Force F-4 Phantom's were circling overhead providing air cover. Planes that Scowcroft and the President had authorized to be there.

One quote from the book caught my attention. Though I don't remember the specific conflict, the principle applies to any... That evening also reinforced one lesson for me - never believe the first descriptions of a crisis. Amost invariably, early reports are erroneous or garbled, and making decisions based on them could lead to serious mistakes. The difficulty is that there is nothing else to go on, and inaction is rarely a feasible option - one of the major problems of managing a crisis.Brent Scowcroft - p.453-454A World Transformed - President Bush & Scowcroft

It's a principle for me to employ as we face crises at Grace and one I wish the media outlets would accept and apply to their reporting!

What's the connection with the CAR?

Why orphans in the CAR? First and foremost, we believe God has opened our eyes to see that it's an area where He is working, He's invited us to join Him in what He's doing and He's brought us as leadership and as a local fellowship to the point of requiring faith and action. So we're making the local body aware of where we think God is working to see if the church body senses the same thing and shares our passion and faith to take action and join. That's the succinct answer, but there are ancillary reasons...

Having not grown up in the Grace Brethren Fellowship, I've been surprised by some facts that many GBC'ers don't seem to be aware of, one of which surrounds the Central African Republic (CAR). The largest concentration of Grace Brethren members worldwide is found in the CAR and not by just a close margin, I don't have the data, but I know they out pace any other country by the thousands, if not the tens of thousands. So that's one connection between Grace Church and the CAR.

Secondly, Pastor Scott and I have been talking, spurred by the passion of Greg and Rebekah, about the plight of orphans for the better part of a year. Scripture (James) is explicit that the church is to care for widow's who's family is unable to provide for them and for orphans. We've been aware of our calling to widows and strive to fulfill that responsibility, but we've been negligent in our responsibility toward orphans. This appears to be a natural place to start.

Thirdly, the work the Grace Brethren Fellowship is doing in the CAR is church-based and looking to address the needs through church-sponsored schools. Hmmmm, sounds similar to the Grace Church/Lititz Christian School setup. While I believe Matthew 28 to set the purpose/mandate of the local church, I believe Acts 1:8 to describe the approach. While the CAR is as close to the "ends of the earth" as I can think of, a church-sponsored school is as close to a Samarian-type ministry as I can think of. Samaria being similar, yet different from Judea. A church-sponsored school in Lititz partnering with church-sponsored schools in the CAR. The ministry opportunities that this provides are exciting to contemplate - mission trips for church groups, school students, school sports teams, you name it!

You can participate in the Birthday Gift for Jesus by marking such on the Special Line of your giving envelope, on the memo line of your check or by placing cash in an envelope labeled with your name and Birthday Gift for Jesus.

What about the Cambodians?

I'm not sure how long we've been doing the Birthday Gift for Jesus at Grace, but it's been at least 10 years, probably more. For the past nine years we've used the Gift to support three Cambodian national missionary families for a full year's support plus additional projects related to their church planting efforts in Battambang and surrounding areas in Cambodia. This year, we're using the Gift to support at least three church-sponsored schools designed to educate, clothe and feed 150 of the 200,000 some orphans in the Central African Republic (CAR). I want to dissect this in total, first, we'll start with the Cambodians, are we no longer supporting them?

Nope, starting with the 2007-08 budget, we moved our support of the Cambodians into the annual budget. We're sending monies to them on a monthly basis to allow their ministry to continue. We still support three families of Cambodian nationals - one or two of them have changed because they left the ministry for other pursuits etc., but we're still very active in joining God in what He's doing in the Battambang region.

Through Mike and Joan McCracken, our ties and investment in the Cambodian ministry remains very committed. If you have a desire to participate further in that extension of the Grace Church ministry, let me know, talk to the Mike and Joan or talk to Pastor Scott.

We see us using this approach, the Birthday Gift for Jesus to launch future endeavors to join God where He's working. After a few years, assuming the work is on going and we sense the congregation is connected and invested in the ministry, we'll fold the regular support into the general operating budget and use the Birthday Gift for Jesus to launch another new outreach.

Next I'll answer, so, why the CAR? Why orphans?

Christmas Prodcution Mid-West Tour

By now you've probably heard that for the first time in probably close to a decade, Grace Church won't be producing a Christmas program of some sort. This year, we're emphasizing the Christmas Eve Services. Of course, the past two Christmas' featured a Walk-Thru.

Knowing that we weren't planning to do a Walk-Thru this year, when asked, we agreed to loan many of the sets and decorations to the Grace Brethren Church in Ashland, OH. At least, I think that's the church, but I can't find any mention of it on their website. We loaned the sets for them to produce their own version of the Walk-Thru this Christmas. Maybe since I've yet to experience the Walk-Thru (I helped behind the scenes when we did it) I'll travel west to catch their production. For that matter, you can make it a full mid-west road trip and catch a light show in New Branson otherwise known as Topeka, Kansas.

And for those afraid to make the trek in the uncertain winter-weather, our Christmas Eve Candlelight Services are Monday, December 24 at 5:30 and 7pm.