Pastor Scott's Thoughts

Get Radical

As I have been preaching through the Gospel of Mark this year I have been reminded repeatedly how often Christians divide the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus from his life and teachings. I hope no one would articulate it this way, but at times I have a feeling that some Christians view the point of Jesus' life as his death on the cross ("he came to die") and his life and teachings were a nice bonus that he gave us on the way to his true purpose.

So it's wonderful to come across a book - written for everyday Christians - that encourages believers to take seriously the full gospel of Jesus. Dr. David Platt is the lead pastor of the Church at Brook Hills, a four-thousand-member congregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Cynically one might expect a mega-church pastor to be writing books about self-actualization in order to draw in more Christian consumers. But Platt has written a wonderful and challenging book calling believers to be Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

Platt wrote the book after realizing that he "was on a collision course with an American church culture where success is defined by bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings." The problem for him was that the Jesus he encountered in the Scripture "actually spurned the things that my church culture said were most important." And so he had to decide whether or not he was going to take Jesus seriously. And he is hoping the reader will wrestle with the same dilemma. As he puts it, "...this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind our materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have... A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are."

The strength of Dr. Platt's book is its accessibility. This is a perfect book for a Sunday school class or a small group to wrestle with. There are two things I especially like in what he does. First, he forces readers to consider if American Christians have merged the "American dream" with the gospel - thus giving into a form of idolatry. As he states, "While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God."

Secondly, Platt exposes the way in which all of us tend to think that the hard claims of the gospel are for someone else. The call to "go into the world" with the gospel is not just a call upon those called to be missionaries. It is a call for the entire Church. As a pastor and preacher I especially loved his section on "receivers and reproducers." Platt argues that all believers are called to be reproducers of God's Word in the world but we tend to be receivers. Here is the difference:

Imagine being in Sudan. You walk into a thatched hut with a small group of Sudanese church leaders, and you sit down to teach them God's Word. As soon as you start, you lose eye contact with all of them. No one is looking at you, and you hardly see their eyes the rest of the time. The reason is because they're writing down every word you say, "Teacher, we are going to take everything we have learned from God's Word, translate it into our languages, and teach it to our tribes." They were not listening to receive but to reproduce.

Now journey with me to a contemporary worship service in the United States. Some people have their Bibles open, while others don't have a Bible with them. A few people are taking notes, but for the most part they are passively sitting in the audience. While some are probably disengaged, others are intently focused on what the preacher is saying, listening to God's Word to hear how it applies to their lives. But the reality is, few are listening to reproduce.

We are, by nature, receivers. Even if we have a desire to learn God's word, we still listen from a default self-centered mind-set that is always asking, "What can I get out of this?" But as we have seen, this is unbiblical Christianity. What if we changed the question whenever we gathered to learn God's Word? What if we began to think, "How can I listen to his Word so that I am equipped to teach this Word to others?"

This changes everything. All of a sudden the pen and paper come out...

As a pastor and preacher, I loved this! What if the congregation came to understand that they were not there to be receivers but were there to learn what they needed to become reproducers of the gospel in the world? I can't imagine how fun it would be to preach if people believed that they would have to in turn teach this same material to others.

Dr. Platt has a Ph.D from New Orleans Baptist Seminary and my one complaint with the book is likely just a Wesleyan one. Although Platt does a nice job calling Christians to take seriously both the cross and the teachings of Jesus, I don't think he connects them together very well. His description of Christ's work on the cross is entirely substitutional in nature. (On the cross Christ becomes our substitute and bears God's wrath against sin). Although this is an important aspect of the cross, it is not they only work Christ accomplishes there. The cross is also Christ's victory over sin and death and it is the very way of the kingdom. Let me give you three examples of how this narrow view of the cross hurts the book.

First, although Platt does an amazing job of taking seriously some of the hard claims of Christ's teaching, he ignores the one that I think is central to the gospel - "If any want to become my disciple, they must take up their cross daily and follow me." This is the central claim of discipleship but it's essentially ignored in the book. If the cross is only the means by which Jesus took on God's wrath, then I'm not sure what it would mean for a disciple to take it up. But if the cross is the way of the kingdom and the central means by which Christ overcomes evil with good, then the disciple's cross makes sense.

Second, although he mentions the kingdom of God in several places it is usually associated with heaven or the life to come. The more I wrestle with the four Gospels in the New Testament, the more I am convinced that the primary message is that "the Kingdom of God is at hand." I think Platt leans a little too far toward associating the good news with going to heaven when we die. The good news is not that we go to heaven, the good news is that heaven has come here (and we can live in it now and for eternity). For example, when Platt talks about the death of Stephen he is primarily described as an example of how the blood of martyrs (ancient and contemporary) is seed for the Church. But I think it is equally important to recognize that when he dies that Stephen sees "the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father." That is kingdom language. Stephen lives as a member of the kingdom now and therefore he can pray a prayer of forgiveness upon those killing him because they don't (or won't) see that the kingdom of God is already at hand.

Third, I wish he took more seriously the redemption of creation. He has a very interesting reading of Romans that rightly calls all believers to be instruments of the gospel in the world. But I think he ends before getting to the "groaning of all creation" as it waits for redemption. Platt rightly calls people to enter into places of poverty and brokenness in the world, but more often than not he thinks we should do that because Jesus calls us to be compassionate and because we need to help the lost get to heaven. I just think Platt would be better served with a more robust understanding of the presence of the kingdom and God's desire to redeem all of creation. The result would be the same. Believers would be going to every corner of creation. But we would go not just to obey a command or to get people to heaven, but we would go because God's kingdom has claimed every inch of the creation and where God's kingdom is, his justice and righteousness must be also.

I think these issues are more than just nit-picking. (It's not a good thing that the resurrection is only mentioned twice). But I don't think any of these critiques invalidate how helpful this book would be for groups of Christians to wrestle with.

The best, and most unique, part of Platt's book are his five suggestions at the end of the book for believers to dare to live out. I won't tell you what the five are, because I think you ought to buy the book and read it. There are other books out there that call Christians to live out the radical claims of discipleship, but most of them end in somewhat idealistic and impractical places. I really appreciated Dr. Platt's suggestions for believers who want to take first steps toward radical discipleship and I think you will appreciate them also.

If you are looking for a wonderful book that will create some exciting, lively, and important discussion in your Sunday school class or small group, get Radical.

The Last Week in Peru

It's Friday morning and we leave Cusco, Peru in about four hours. If everything is on schedule I should be home in 26 hours. I can't wait. It has been an incredibly long last week for the WW team with several highs and lows. I'm sorry I haven't been able to blog more about it but as we've traveled this week internet connection has been inconsistent. But now that we're about to leave let me catch you up on our loco last few days.

Sunday - August 2

In the morning we attended two worship services. The first in the new parsonage that we helped finish in the Florida region of Pucallpa and the second in the parsonage that we built from the foundation up in the Jordan region. The churches are probably no more than a mile to a mile 1/2 apart but its all dirt roads and so it seems a little further. Although the walls on both churches are complete and the trusses are built, the roof isn't on yet - and the floor isn't finished and the walls aren't plastered.

Both services were filled with children. Peru is a very young country population-wise, but the kids out number the adults at the two new churches by two or three to one. There will be room to have a volleyball court at the Jordan church and there are kids all over the area who will come and play. I don't think its inconceivable that either church (if they had the help) could have VBS programs with well over 200 children at each church. Between the two services I counted about 40 to 50 kids and the churches have been meeting in "homes" (I put that in quotes because if you've seen the pictures you know our definitions of what qualifies as a home are a little different).

I preached in both services but they were led by their pastors (who are brothers and very nice musicians). Pastor Atillio and his wife Martha and their children are very excited to move into the parsonage at Florida. The church raises about $1000 a year and so Pastor Atillio suppliments his income by driving a motortaxi during the week. He has one of the most beautiful families I have ever been around. Martha is the one that cooked for the team and all the workers each day at lunch and may be the kindest person I have ever met.

I am still trying to process the poverty that we witnessed in Pucallpa. As I talked with Larry Garman about it he kept telling me the "real poverty" is in the villages along the river in the jungle where they have spent much of their 45 years, but the poverty in Pucallpa was enough to leave me quite shaken for a while and I hope personally changed at some level.

The defining moment for me on Sunday was when Atillio and Martha, in tears, shared how excited they were to move into the new parsonage, not because it was bigger or nicer than their current house, but because it will help them reach more people in the neighborhood and because now they will be able to give their current home to a poor woman they know in the area who has no place to live. I am continually in awe of the Christians like Atillio and Martha who have the least to give and yet are far and away the most generous. They are the embodiment of the "widow's mite." Thay have little to give, but what they have is given to God. It makes my giving out of abundance seem weak and at some level even embarrassing.

The service in Jordan was led by Atillio's younger brother and pastor of the church, Pastor Eloy. Pastor Eloy is 28 and is engaged to be married in January to a beautiful young girl also named Martha. Martha was at the service and was busy working with all the children. There were around 25 children at the service and they had seated many of them all against the wall in the very front sort of where the choir loft would be in a church. They were beautiful and putting them there helped the preacher preach much shorter :).

Eloy also holds several jobs to make his pastoring possible. He and his older brothers are all graduates of the small Nazarene seminary Larry and Addie established in Peru. Eloy and Atillio worked on the project with us every day. Eloy has been living in the supply shed on the Jordan site. He told us about one night when the wind and rains came and the rain was blowing through all of the open spaces in the shack making everything wet. He found one dry space in the corner of the shed where he could stand and lean against the wall and that's where he slept through the night. So he too is very excited to have the parsonage with a dry roof over his head.

In the evening we attended the church pastored by the oldest of the three brothers. It was the church we attended the previous Sunday morning. Their father was apparently a wild alcholic and drug runner. His wife got very sick and was going to die. Somehow he came in contact with the Church of the Nazarene and knew his only hope was to ask God to heal his wife. When God did heal his wife he became a Christian and radically his life was changed. His three sons and their families are the direct result of God's grace in his life.

The service in the evening was really well attended. Several of the congregations in the area had people come to the church that night and sing special songs. We sang a lot of great praise songs and I ended up preaching. It was a wonderful way to end the week in Pucallpa. I am very glad for the work we accomplished, but it is the love and commitment of the people that will stick with me for a very long time.

Monday - August 3

We left the hotel for the Pucallpa airport at 4:00am. Dad had been sick since Saturday afternoon and had been working really hard to get his "tourista" under control so he could travel, but he did not look good. My dad dehydrates pretty easy and two or three times over the last few years has passed out from dehydration when he's been sick, so he was chugging Gatorade and trying to keep his fluids in balance.

We had to wait in the lobby of the airport for a while as the son of the hotel owner who helped us get to the airport was checking us in as a group. My dad was sitting on the stairs and asked me to come over and help him get to the banos because he was feeling pretty weak. We were about half way across the lobby when he went out completely. Thankfully I caught him and Bob Brock was nearby and saw what was going on and helped me get him to the floor. I won't describe everything that happened because I'm trying to erase it from my memory, suffice to say that he was very sick and when he blacked out he lost control of everything he had been trying to keep under control.

The team was amazing. Pat Brock started fanning him and just kept on getting him some air. Irene Matlock sprung into action and was checking his vitals. After a while she tried to start cleaning him up even though she had been very sick the last couple of days as well. The team started praying. Cathy Vanderlaan was trying to get a doctor, medical personnel, or even a blood pressure cup to very little avail. Larry was taking care of him. The DS from Pucallpa was doing his very best to try and clean dad up. The other pastors and their families showed up about two minutes after it happened and they were now all around trying to attend to dad...I was running back and forth trying to get the airline to pull dad and my luggage and re-book our flights for that night. It was chaos. Unholy, smelly chaos.

It took forever for a "doctor" to get there and at 5am in the morning there were no ambulances available yet in Pucallpa. (They apparently don't go on duty until about 7am). So finally we got a stretcher and a small station wagon taxi. Up until this point nothing had been funny. (Except for the lady who kept telling Larry to help dad put his head between his knees). But I will admit that watching them try to get dad in the back of the taxi was extremely funny. They put the back seat down and tried to get him in but his legs were still sticking out about two feet beyond the bumper. Larry jumped in next to him and one of the pastors rode on the bumper to make sure the hatch didn't come down and hit dad. Addie and Aubrey and I jumped into Hiro's motortaxi and followed behind. Dad didn't remember much about the ride to the clinic, so he didn't know how far his legs were sticking out the back. I joked with him that they were out so far that we had to tie a red flag around his toe.

The first clinic was closed but the second one let us in. Dad was conscious enough to shower and they helped him into bed. They gave him several medications and two liters of fluids. Apparently you don't want to go to the hospital in Pucallpa. The hospital is where they take people who have no money for health care. You want to go to a private clinic. The doctor and nurses at the clinic were very nice and the needles and equipment were very sterile, but it was a typical third-world building. If any of us walked into it in the states we would walk right back out. But we were thankful for them. BTW, a full day of care, iv's, and three prescriptions medications cost a total of $125.

We checked with LAN Airline to confirm our seats on the 9pm flight, but they told us they had already sold our seats and that the next available seats were on the 9pm flight Tuesday. But that would mean that we would miss our connection to Cusco Tuesday morning. The next part is a long story, but we spent a couple of hours arguing with LAN which got us tickets for the 6am flight Tuesday morning. Just for fun we went down to the airport Monday night, and by the grace of God two people didn't show up and dad and I got the only two stand-by seats.

We got to the hotel in Lima around midnight.

Tuesday - August 4

We left around 7am for the airport and for Cusco. The flight over the Andes was spectacular. The elevation in Cusco is so high that it feels like the plane is still going up when you land on the runway in Cusco. Our guide picked us up and took us to lunch. We drove to the town to catch the train to Agua Calliente near the base of Machu Picchu. On the way to the train the guide announced that there had been some trouble with the tickets and that most of the group would be on the 4pm train as scheduled but that six of us had to go at 8pm.

As luck would have it dad and I were among the six whose tickets got bumped by the train folk. We shopped with the other four and spent a couple hours in a cafe killing time. We got to the narrow streets of Agua Calliente and the hotel again around midnight.

Wednesday - August 5

We got up early and headed for Machu Picchu. I had originally planned to hike up the stairs to the top, but I hadn't really slept in a while so I rode the bus to the gate with everyone else. We did hike to the top of the ruins and two or three of us hiked through the jungle trail to the Inca Bridge on the cliff wall.

There is too much about Mach Picchu to describe here. It was one of the most amazing places I have ever been. The mountains are spectacular and the sheer size and ingenuity exhibited in the making of the city is beyond belief. Everyone needs to see it.

Thursday - August 6

We took a tour of several other Inca sites around Cusco. Each one was amazing in its own way. Unfortunately we saw a horrific crash at one of the sites. The driver was apparently drunk and went off the road and was killed when his van hit a tree below the embankment.

In the afternoon we walked all around Cusco and shopped at the market. In the evening we at dinner at a place that had native dancing and an amazing guitar, flute, and pipe band.

Which brings us to today. It was a wild and at times exhausting week. But God helped me through it and helped me really enjoy it. This will be a trip that sticks with me for a long time.

Peru WW - The Last Couple of Days of Work

The Pucallpa WW team finished up work on Thursday and Friday. I got really sick on Thursday afternoon and evening and so the team grounded me on Friday. It may sound silly but I really did miss working with the team on the last day. But I'm glad I stayed in and now am feeling much better. I don't know if I caught a bug or was just suffering from heat exhaustion, but either way, I'm finally able to eat again and keep it in me.

The team really did work hard and got more accomplished than we expected to. We were able to finish the parsonage at the Florida site that the team before us started and we were able to finish the parsonage and get the walls and trusses done on the church at the Jordan location. You can see what we accomplished in the picture section.

Saturday we are going down to the boat docks on the river. Pucallpa is growing so fast largely because the road between here and Lima is complete and it has become the primary port for the villages down the river. After we see the boats we plan to go to the local zoo and see some of the amazonian animals.

Sunday the plan is to worship in the morning at our two new churches. We'll have a service at the Florida church and then a second one at the Jordan church (which was our primary project). The roof isn't on yet and the walls aren't yet plastered, but it will be a real blessing to get a sense of who the people are who will benefit from the work we've done. We will go to a different church in the evening and then we leave for the airport at 4:00am to head to Lima. Seven members of the team are heading home and the rest of us are heading for Cuzco and the mountains for a few days of site-seeing.

Thanks to all of those who prayed for my temperature, etc. I'm feeling much better and am very grateful for your love and concerns.

Peru Days 7 & 8 - Back to Work

Monday and Tuesday - the 27th and 28th - have been fairly uneventful. We have gone back to work and unfortunately the sun came back out as soon as we went back to work.

We are getting close to finishing the outside of the parsonage at the Florida site. Today and tomorrow the Peruvians celebrate their Independence Day so there were parties going on in the neighborhood all around us today as people had the day off from work. It was nice to hear music and see people out playing soccer and volleyball. Unfortunately they have cancelled any parades because of the fear of swine flu being spread.

We are at that point in the trip where the foundational work at the Jordan site has been finished and so now the big jumps begin to take place that really make you feel like we're making progress. The coolest thing that happened today was the raising of the tresses for the roof on the Jordan parsonage. The national workers were incredible at attaching them to the walls and the team worked at raising them up. I have attached a short video clip to give you a feeling for what it was like.

We're all doing well and working hard. Continue to keep us in your prayers.

Raising the Roof in Peru

First Weekend in Peru

I apologize for the late update. The internet access was down for the weekend at the hotel. It's not exactly the most high quality access, and making sure we have access is not their highest priority on a weekend. So in several ways our first weekend in Peru didn't start out so great. I got pretty sick Friday and Saturday night. Five or six of us have come down with various ailments so far. So far no one has become seriously ill. I either picked up a virus or I had come down with heat exhaustion. But I'm doing much better.

We had an off day on Saturday and so we took little boats called "pecky-peckys" (because of the noise the motor makes) out on the lake to a little village called San Francisco. It took about an hour to get there. One of the interesting things about Pucallpa has been the very few people who speak any english at all. There is little or no tourism here and so it is really hard for those of us with little or no Spanish to communicate. But when we got to San Francisco (a small jungle village) they speak one of the many native languages and not Spanish.

After hanging out in the village we headed back across the lake to a small zoo where they have several jungle animals. The big attractions were the Anacondas. They have seven or eight giant anacondas that they let tourists hold. They were a little too smelly and creepy for me, but several in the group held one.

One of the interesting sights on the lake was a pod of fresh water dolphin. They were breaching just like Pacific dophin but they were much smaller than those at home.

Sunday morning we headed back down to the lake for a baptism service. There were four people getting baptized and they had asked me to do the honors. Of course Larry was razzing me all the way to the lake about the Pirhanna in the lake (which is true). But he failed to tell me that the lake is filled with these little fish who nibble at the hairs on your legs. So the entire time I am baptizing the folk, little fish are nipping my ankles. It was truly one of the neatest and strangest experiences of my life all rolled into one.

We went to church together in a wonderful little church that looks like what our two buildings will look like when they're done. They sang a special for us and our group sang for them. I got the privilege to preach for the service. I used the "Him Again" story at the end and discovered that "detective" doesn't translate well into Spanish.

In the evening we attended the Peniel church which also meets at the district center. We had a good time worshiping with them. (They sang "Trading My Sorrows" in Spanish). Dad preached in the evening. It has been great being with Larry and Addie Garman. They have retired but they have come back to help with WW teams over the summer. They are truly some of God's best people. It has been really neat for my dad to be here with Larry in particular. They have been friends for a number of years. My dad brought a team from Seattle 26 years ago to the jungle to build a church. Being part of the church gives one great friends.

We're still having a good time and love the wonderful people we are meeting. They serve the Lord so joyfully with so little. Being here had truly been life changing.

Peru WW Day 4 - July 24

It was a very good work day today even though people are wearing out a bit. We are working at two sites that are not very far from one another. The primary site is in a neighborhood called Jordan where we are essentially building the church and parsonage from the ground up. The other site is in a neighborhood called Florida. The team from Georgia that left on Wednesday worked on that site.

The roof is on the parsonage in Florida and the walls on the church are up. A few of us went over to keep working on the walls of the parsonage. Its coming along although I learned today that I swing a hammer like a preacher. I have the purple thumb to prove it.

The bad news today was that when we got back the pool was closed, so we had to take naps and watch spanish television. South Americans are apparently very into talk shows hosted by some strange puppet or an even stranger cross-dresser.

Tomorrow we are going to take a trip to the river to see an Anaconda.

Peru Day 3 - July 23

More of the same today. We worked hard from 8:00 to about 4:30. We got a lot accomplished today even though it got really hot in the afternoon. In the afternoon I got to go with the young guys over to a second site where the team before us was building a church and parsonage just like the one we are building. We got to put the sides on the parsonage. The wood here is very heavy and hard so it was pretty tough work.

It is hard to get used to the poverty which only makes the level of gratitude from the people for what seems like very little that we are doing for them even more amazing.

The absolute highlight of the day was some of the kids performing some of their VBS songs for us. It was also Sharie's sixth birthday and Jimena's tenth birthday. The were SO excited to have a birthday cake. The last team (from Georgia) heard about their birthdays and bought them both dolls. It was incredible to watch them get their gifts and share in their cake. It was truly a picture of pure joy.

Below is a short clip of us trying to sing happy birthday to the girls. More pictures are in the photo section.

Download Peru Pictures 072309 044

Peru WW Trip Day 2

We started working today. Devotions at 6:30, breakfast at 7:00, and headed to the work site at 7:30am. Most of the travel on the streets is done in motorcycle taxi cabs. So two-by-two a whole herd of moto-taxis took us to the work site.

The four young bucks (David, Jesse, Josh, Phil) and I were sent to the lumber yard to fill a truck with lumber to build the parsonage. The wood is extremely heavy (almost like mahogany) and so (not to whine) but it was really hard work. We also saw our first tarantula underneath one of the wood piles we got to load up. The five of us had to ride from the lumber supplier to the site on the top of the truck. One of the funny things about WW trips is that you do things you would not normally EVER do. But we were so hot, sweaty, and covered in saw dust that riding standing up with the wind in our faces felt great.

The church is in a booming "neighborhood" near the airport (one landing strip). It is really just row after row of shacks on dirt roads. But the people do get to own the land. We would call it a slum at home, but it is a rapidly expanding part of the city. The church and parsonage we are buidling is inside on the edge where the growth is taking place. The pastor (a seminary grad) lives in essentially a shed right now on the land. He is getting married soon and so the house we are building is where he and his wife will live while they pastor the church.

Most of the team worked on the church today. The church will be made of brick and the house of wood. We all learned to be brick layers. So far everyone is doing pretty well health wise. You really don't want to get sick. (In the pictures for today I put a picture of the neighborhood dentist so I can only imagine the hospital :)). In the pictures there is a shot of the banos. It is a raised shack. We built the beginnings of a new brick bathroom with actual toilets today. I don't think they will ever flush, but I think you take in water with you to wash everything down.

I'm not sure I have ever been as completely filthy and dirty as I was by the end of the day. Around 1:00pm all we could talk about was getting back to the pool at the hotel. We finished working at 4:30 and were in the pool by 5:30. Everyone is pretty well wiped out. We'll see if everyone can get out of bed in the morning.

One of the great parts of the day was getting to meet the pastor's kids and many of the kids that belong to the folk who are helping us build the church. This is a picture of my new friend Juan (I kept calling him "Juan in a million" - I'm not sure he gets the joke but he laughs anyways). The people are wonderful and very thankful that we are here.

We found an ice cream place near the city square where we can chill at the end of the day. Vic (who goes every year and is the one who knows what he is doing) HAS to find ice cream.

We are sore but content and feeling great about what the Lord has asked us to do. It goes without saying, but being here makes one realize how much we take for granted and how those who have been given much all have much required of them. Blessings, and keep praying.

Arrived Safely in Peru

The work and witness team from PazNaz arrived safely in Pucallpa, Peru. We left from the church at 8:30am on Monday and finally arrived in here at 5:30am on Tuesday. We spent the day getting acclimated and exploring the city around us.

Pucallpa is the fastest growing city in Peru. There are about 300,000 people in the city. It has become a major center for getting goods down the Amazon river to smaller communities. It has the feel of a city in a poor country trying to keep up with its growth when it has little infrastructure.

We start on the work project early in the morning. One of the most touching things so far was Larry Garman (missionary) meeting us at the airport with the national District Superintendent, pastors, and members of the congregation whose church we will be building. They sang and welcomed us warmly and beautifully. I doubt that many folk in American congregations would show up at the airport to welcome even the most important visitors. They are lovely people and we are excited to get started and help them build their church.

Thanks for your prayers.

All Things Wesley - 7/29-30

I had a special opportunity while we were over here in England to do a couple of days of "all things Wesley."

On Tuesday I hopped a bus (yes a double-decker) with a grad student from the college and went to visit the Rylands Library at the University of Manchester. The Rylands houses the largest collection of Methodist related original sources in the world. I got to hold for example Samuel Wesley's (John's father) Hebrew Bible in which he made many, many notations as he was studying. (The notations were in Greek interestingly enough). Then inside the front cover John writes about when he received the book from his father, and then Adam Clarke writes on the cover how he received the volume after John.

I held one of the oldest known Charles Wesley hymn books and in it (in Charles' own hand) were written the lyrics to what is now Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Christ the Lord is Risen Today.

There were literally thousands of pieces to look at. Some catalogued and some not catalogued. The rare privilege was getting to look through them with the archivist in the actual archives because it is not a public area.

On Wednesday I got to go with Wesley expert (really the Wesley living encyclopedia) Dr. Herbert McGonigle and visit Epworth - where Wesley was born and raised. There are several pictures of the day in the photo galery, but the main sights were the Epworth Parrish Church where Samuel was the rector (pastor) and where he is buried, the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, and the rectory or home where the Samuel and Susanna raised the family.

It is quite well known that when Wesley returned to Epworth after his father's death that the new rector of Epworth would not allow John to preach in the church. So he preached at what is called the town cross which is a monument in the center of town where public announcements were made. But he also preached on his father's grave. The grave is right outside the church walls but it is technically Wesley family property. So although he was forbidden to preach on church grounds, he stood on his father's grave stone and preached to large crowds.

The rectory was also very interesting. More than anything you leave the house with an appreciation for Susanna's ability to educate her children. In many ways she was the backbone of the family. She had 19 children (10 survived infancy) and she educated them all. The three boys all went on to the prestigious schools of the day despite the fact that their family would have been considered quite poor.

John spent 51 years as a travelling preacher. He preached about 45,000 times and travelled about 300,000 miles by foot or horse. Charles also travelled as a preacher while also writing 8,500 hymns.