Stuff That Matters in Life

I haven’t gotten back to reading one book a month since Perspectives. I just finished one, I’ll count this for July.

I got this book from one of the Perspectives speakers who is on staff at Barnabas International to care for those in cross-cultural ministries. After reading this book, I am convinced of the need for people to care for cross-cultural missionaries. A “tender”, a person who watches over the dangerous job of a commercial deep sea diver is analogous to what a member care personnel does for a missionary.

Missionaries are generally spiritually mature, but they are not immune to sin, discouragements, misjudgments, conflicts, marriage problems, etc. They also have cross cultural adjustments that aggravate those issues. On top of that, if they are effective missionaries, which we hope they are, the devil will not leave them alone, a spiritual reality that we don’t take seriously in the West.

The main thing I apply from this book is to pray for our missionaries, and ask God to provide people to care for them. I read this book because I would be open to caring for missionaries, IF God calls me to do that. I don’t think I’m qualified, but that’s a good thing. Moses and Jeremiah did not feel qualified for the job God called them to do. But I think that is something I would be interested in.

Overheard: “He’s really immature.”

Response: “Everyone is immature.”

It is true that everyone is immature in one degree or another.

Thinking back to 5 years ago, I was really immature in certain areas. Even to last year, I can think of ways where I’m more mature today.

And I’m immature today compare to next year when hopefully I will have matured in some areas.

So to say someone is immature as a negative trait is not quite right, as if everyone else has arrived. In fact, we are all immature.

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I was very encouraged by Pastor A yesterday. I told him I felt stressed about an upcoming children’s event, that attendance may be low and results not as expected. As the senior pastor, my supervisor, what would he say?

He said, well, then just take it as a learning experience. You’ve done all you can.

No pressure to meet the numbers, no pressure to produce. He understands that I’ve done my part and trust my work ethic to do my best. That’s all he expects. The rest is up to God.

His answer assured me that if anyone complained about this or about me, he has my back.

It is this type of gracious atmosphere that keeps me at my work. It is this trust among our staff and ultimate dependence on God that I’m grateful for.

This is a sign of growing maturity.

 

When you’re young, the best thing about Disneyland are the rides.

At my age, the best thing about Disneyland is spending time with the people you go with.

And some of the rides.

I enjoyed almost 14 hours at Disneyland with my 2 daughters and SIL. We walked (clocked in over 24,000 steps!), talked, took in all the sights and sounds of the magic. The one thing that I had to do was watch Frozen, and it did not disappoint. I miss Aladdin though because it’s a better story than Frozen. But Frozen was very well done.

We stayed for fireworks so it was a long day. I didn’t know if I would last that long. I’ve been having pains in my leg and was afraid it would bother me. But thank God I was fine. God is so good, reassuring me with this that I’ll be ok going to Taiwan STM.

There’s nothing better than spending a big chunk of time together with people you love. There’s no better way to go deep. It could be anywhere, but Disneyland is not a bad place to go to spend that chunk of time.

I usually choose fun over responsibility. Today I chose responsibility. Now I am slightly regretting.

I don’t usually regret choosing the fun option. I don’t want to miss out on something that will never come this way again. However, the fun today could come again, so I chose to stay home to support my husband to get ready for guests. I still have regrets.

Had a open conversation yesterday with the guys about struggles of a pastor. On the surface, the work of a pastor doesn’t seem like much. But the emotional struggles are real. Time management is not straightforward when it comes to giving time for people. Relationships, the basis of pastoral work, are all consuming. That’s not the case in other jobs. As a pastor you cannot do your job without caring for people. Caring for people is emotional work. Burn out is real.

Like Elijah,  it is God who ultimately cares for the caregiver. The hard part is to keep our eyes on Someone we cannot see or feel. So the church is the Body of Christ, embodying Christ to give sight when walking by faith is hard. We are important to each other.

 

There was more personal sharing at staff meeting than usual. I appreciated hearing what God has been showing the staff. We all agree that church has become too busy. Where is the heart of worship and praise of God? Are people more excited about doing things “for God” more than enjoying God? Is there depth of spiritual life? Are we concern for personal holiness? Do people come to meet God or to meet people?

We want to critically examine what we do – cut the dross and maintain or add only things that contribute to disciple-making. We’ve said this before and have done a bit of it. But the culture, the mindset has not changed. But I am at least encouraged by the conversation. I will look at where Children Ministry can streamline and be more effective. Building a strong base of volunteers who have depth of spiritual life is the life blood of CM. If the volunteers are shallow, the children will grow up with shallow faith. We don’t need dynamic leaders and teachers, we need leaders and teachers with deep abiding love for Jesus.

And that is my challenge – to live it, teach it, exemplify it, and lead with it. I need to set it as an expectation for my volunteers to grow a deep walk with God.

 

Talked to parents of 2 special needs kids, one through a translator and our JOG coordinator, the other speaks English.

Neither are Christians, they just know that church is a “good” place for their kids. They think of church as a social environment with good people to help their children socialize.

I am glad Christians still have a good reputation among unbelievers. But I made a point to tell the parents that the teachers are all volunteers, not professionals, here to teach their children about God. That allows the parents to attend worship service to learn about God.

The parents of one of them said while they are Mandarin speaking (heavy accent though no problem communicating with me) they prefer attending the English service. The Chinese Bible is very hard to understand. The dad said, the Bible is different from ordinary English (which I agree); the Chinese Bible is even harder than that.

The parent of the other special needs child asked if there was a fee for her child to come to Sunday School.

I don’t remember what it’s like to go to church for the first time and know nothing about church. Maybe a little like when I visited a mosque.