Love … from a friend

I’m still processing my thoughts about my previous post, and would still welcome feedback … but a good friend responded with this today and I thought some of these were really good. Enjoy:

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, ‘What does love mean?’

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:

‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore..
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’
Rebecca- age 8

‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’
Billy – age 4

‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’
Karl – age 5

‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’
Chrissy – age 6

‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’
Terri – age 4

‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’
Danny – age 7

‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss’
Emily – age 8

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’
Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)

‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’

Nikka – age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)

‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.’
Noelle – age 7

‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’
Tommy – age 6

‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’
Cindy – age 8

‘My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’
Clare – age 6

‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’
Elaine-age 5

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’
Chris – age 7

‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’
Mary Ann – age 4

‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’
Lauren – age 4

‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’ (what an image)
Karen – age 7

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’
Mark – age 6

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’
Jessica – age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
‘Nothing, I just helped him cry’

Love…

This word gets used ALL THE TIME.

What do you think of when you hear the word love?

What do you think it means?

Go…

… update … Marathon … and an Africa question

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated, so I thought it was about time.  Thanks for the thoughts and conversations on repentance.  Still something I’ll continue to think about study … try to do.  I mean really, I think/convinced myself that I’ve repented … but repentance means turning away from and never going back to, and I’m not going to try to fool you, or myself for that matter, into believing that there aren’t things/areas of my life/sins that I hold onto … as much as I want to be rid of them, not sure I’ve really repented of them . . . asked for forgiveness over and over again (which I realize is ridiculous, because Jesus forgave me once-for-all), yes, repented … no.  So, I guess I find myself on this journey toward repentance…

Onto other subjects!  I’ve decided to run in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 11th!  I must be crazy.  But, it has been something on my life’s “to do list” that I always thought would be cool to say I’d done.  In addition, I’ll be running with a team for World Vision.  We’ll be raising money to help build clean water wells in African villages.  The marriage of the two things (the marathon, and the ministry to Africa) seemed a perfect fit for me.  So, I’ll be beginning a rather intensive training program in the next month or so for that!

After attending service on Easter Sunday, my friend Hayward said he had a question for me.  We sat down and he proceeded to ask me a question regarding my trip to Africa, and mentioned that it might be a good topic for a blog post … I agree.  I love how he thinks about things and is always searching for more information.  Many people would have just finished reading one of my updates about the trip and left it at that, but not Hayward his 80+ year old mind is continually learning and searching for more information, and that’s one of the things I love about him.   Anyway,  Hayward’s question was regrading how our group (a Christian church group) was able to show the Jesus film in these villages where the primary beliefs were from the Muslim faith.   Great question Hayward!

After I spoke with Hayward on Sunday morning, I started thinking a little more about this, and really I think the only answer is that God prepared the way for us to be able to show the film.  By no means am I an expert in the culture of Mali or the different villages in which we visited, but from my limited study and research before we went on the trip I learned that a lot of the beliefs were what were being called “folk Islam.”  Meaning that these were stories passed from generation to generation, that most of the people would probably identify themselves with that faith, but that a small percentage were actually practicing.  That being said, I think this could be one of the reasons why they were open to allowing us to show the film.  Another thing to consider is that we were in the villages for positive purposes.  We were not trying to persuade or force anyone to do anything they were uncomfortable with, and one of our main purposes being to teach them about the water filtration system helped them to see that we really did care about them and their well-being.  Culturally they were a very open and welcoming people.  Even the village that had previously not allowed the group to show the film was welcoming to our presence in the village, they just opted not to show the film there.

As a team we spent a lot of time in prayer leading up to the  trip that God would go before us and prepare the hearts and minds of the Malian people to receive the message of hope through Jesus Christ.  We prayed for men and women of peace in each of the villages, and I think the best answer to Hayward’s question might be that God had heard and answered our prayers, and that His Spirit had been at work so that the chiefs in the villages were open and willing to let us share the film.  While we were in Sebekoro we even found out from one of the chief’s sons that at some point the chief had become a believer!  God was and is definitely moving among the tribal regions of West Africa.  Thanks for the question Hayward!

Another Africa note . . . I’m finally going to be able to share with my home church this weekend about my trip!  Green Ridge Baptist Church played a large part in forming the foundations of my faith, and have consistently supported me in my ministry endeavors through my time with No Longer Quiet and most recently for this Africa trip.  It will be a sweet time of fellowship with them as I get to share the stories of what God did to reward their faithfulness to support and pray for His work in Mali!

-E

Team World Vision Video:

Jahweh, the chief in Sebekoro:

Repentance …

… what does that mean …

Something I’ve been wrestling with the last week or so.  Any thoughts?

-E

Africa Journal: Day 14 – January 9, 2009

From my journal:

” … this was my last morning to wake up in the bush.  I pray  that You would give me a broken heart for the lost in the world.  Continue to bring to my mind the people in Seboccoro and Bangassi as well as the new believers in Marena …

God there are so many things to be learned from these past 2 weeks.  Continue to burn those lessons into my heart and mind to continue to transform me into the man that you created me to be.  Father, teach me to recognize temptation and the work of the adversary, and to counteract it with strength and power from Your Word.  Teach me to make decisions in Your Spirit and not in my flesh.

Thank you for Your beauty, for this sunrise, for the sounds of Mali!  Thank you for Your work around the world, and for the invitation that You have given us to be a part of it.  What a blessing and honor.  Help us to see that our “duty” here  is not done.  You have called us to these people, and now more than ever, as we leave with many new believers here, it is vital that we pray for them and their spiritual growth/journey.  Send them a national pastor.  Raise up a young leader who can rightly divide the Word of truth into their lives, love them and shepherd them.  Help these new believers to have assurance that You are who You say You are!  That their lives would be evidently different, and that You begin to produce fruit in their lives that shows and proves the power of Jesus for Your glory and fame, not for anything we’ve done, but for Your renown …”

I just remember spending most of the morning praying … that’s what my journal was today, just prayer.  I remember walking back from the place where I had been doing my morning quiet time, greeting the people in their courtyards as I passed and praying that God would be real to them.  Then, as I packed my bins, and as we packed up camp, hugging and playing with kids, and praying that these kids would grow to know Jesus.

It was definitely bitter-sweet pulling away from Bangassi that morning.  There was a spirit of celebration among our team as we recounted what God had done over the last 2 weeks, but sad that we were having to leave our new friends.  It was neat to pass back through/by the villages we had visited this week, to go back through the checkpoint that we had such a “close call” at just a week ago and to see how God had constantly been at work among us.

We arrived back to the guest house in Bamako, unloaded our things and started showers!  Woo-hoo … we had been taking “bucket baths” for the last two weeks, so running water and flushing toilets were awesome … After everyone had an opportunity to clean up, we walked a few blocks to a restaurant for a team meal … shis-ke-babs.  Very tasty.   We spent some good team time that evening around the dinner table sharing our best and most difficult moments from the trip.

What a blessing to see what God had done in the lives of my team members over the last few weeks!

-E

Last morning sunrise … pictures don’t do them justice:

Packing the truck to leave:

Our team at the dinner table: