Rachel Travel Update

   I thought I'd better keep the blog up to date in regards to Rachel's move to Asia. She and Janna got in to the Singapore Airport about 11:30am our time this morning. There's a great app for my iPod called FlightTrack Pro which gave us real time updates of where the plane was, how fast it was going and how high it was. During the night last night is kept us updated every time the expected arrival time changed. Sometimes there's a bit too much information. But it was cool to come out of PrayerPoints gathering last night to see that she was flying over the north pole.

   She texted Dinita from the taxi on the way to Kenneth Sin's home in Singapore. They got all their luggage and through customs without a single hitch. She's now Facebook friends with Veronica's sister in Singapore and they are planning on dinner together on Saturday night.

   In two words ... "I'm jealous!" Way to go Rachel! Have a blast. Love ya!

Quick Travel Update

We saw our little girl off this morning about 9:30 at the Cleveland Airport. I think that there were just about the right amount of tears shed. Some wonderful hugs and even a huge smile. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us ... don't stop now! She took off a few minutes after 11:00 and as I write this, the web site FlightAware.com says she is right over top one of her most favorite places on earth ... Beulah Beach. He friend, Janna is waiting at O'Hara airport for her to arrive and the two of them will get on a flight headed for Singapore. How thankful we are that Rachel has a such a good friend going to Jakarta with her.

My LIttle Girl Is Ready to Fly

The picture above was taken 21 years ago at the Pittsburgh airport as Dinita’s and my family said good-bye to us as we headed to Thailand. The little 15 month girl between me and my dad is Rachel. Things have changed quite a bit at airports since 1992 so we’ll not be walking to the gate … but we will be dropping Rachel off at the Cleveland airport as she leaves for Jakarta, Indonesia and I’m just now getting the flood of emotions and pain that my mom and dad must have gone through that August morning so long ago.

I can’t imagine a more bitter-sweet moment. (Although the day that I walk her up the isle will likely top this one!)

There is incredible joy and thanksgiving to God for the abundance of His grace in her life. How many young people have great dreams in their early years but the dream so often fades or gets sidetracked? We have watched as God continued to foster in Rachel’s heart and mind a vision and dream of teaching children of many different cultures. In about 8^th grade when most kids are studying the Toys-R-Us catalogue in November, Rachel had a catalogue from Global Adventures posting all the different short term missions trips. She didn’t want Christmas gifts ... she wanted money to go on a missions trip. She ended up going to Costa Rica for two weeks. Since then she has become a seasoned world traveler and sometimes she seems more at home in foreign cultures than she does in Fairlawn. She easily engages people of different cultures and has a way of building bridges with them with just her smile and laugh. Those at IWU who were her mentors and instructors talk in glowing terms of how she was able to so naturally embrace education principles for a broad variety of cultural backgrounds. Those who worked with her during her student teaching in Sheng Yong, China told her after a couple of weeks that it was like she had always been a part of the school. She just fit in perfectly.

During a visit with Rachel’s principal adviser for education I thanked him for all he and IWU did to help her grow into such a godly woman. His response was that they are able to do only so much, it really is a matter of what students bring with them to school, and then he added, “She brought a lot with her.”

I remember the first time that Rachel played an offertory at church. I got up and almost couldn’t go on I was so incredibly proud. I feel that way to the 10^th power today. And I have only the Lord to thank and praise for the way he has blessed her and us through the years. It’s his grace and goodness that has brought this joy and pride into our lives!

But then, there is tomorrow morning.(July 17)

I can very easily recall the emotions that I had the day that we put her on the plane to go to Costa Rica for two weeks. I can’t imagine what I’ll be feeling like, 24 hours from now.

Thankfully, now there is email, Facebook, instant messaging, Facetime and Skype. The world has gotten smaller with the technology. But these past few weeks of having her at home and traveling through Thailand together are going to be cherished memories. Her warmth and joy will be missed. I might even come to the point of missing those early morning fog horn nose blowing sessions. She is fun! And her leaving will mean a “fun” deficit of sorts.

This morning I was in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15a: But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.(NLT) 

I’m going to miss that “Christ-like” fragrance that Rachel has brought to our lives, family and our church. But He has led her as His captive to Indonesia where she will spread the knowledge of Christ like sweet perfume.

I love you Rachel and my prayer is that His grace would continue to flow through you and touch lives for His glory just as he has used you to bless us for these past 22 years.

Grace, Peace, Joy and His Unfathomable Love to you!

Dad 

Vacationing in Cha-Am, Thailand in June

Graduation Day

We watched Lyndsay graduate from Copley High School yesterday ... So what do you say when your youngest throws her cap into the air? Dinita and I just got done watching the video that Rachel made for Lyndsay's graduation. I know it is a cliche, but "Time doesn't stand still" is way too true.
I pulled the photo album that my mother put together for me and I saw it there as well. As she documented all my "last" events in High School. I read through mom's album differently.

A couple of months ago I was in a discussion group with two other young couples who both had kids under one year of age. They were still a bit frazzled trying to make the adjustment from being a couple to being a family and a little bit of intimidation of raising kids in this day and age. They asked me what Dinita's and my secret was. I didn't have to think for a second. It is all of God's Grace. I'm sure that I did more to harm than help. But God's grace was incredible.

When I watched that video an hour or so ago, it was like, every clip was a glimpse into God's incredible unmerited favor and love. If I were to say what is the most prominent way that God has shown himself and character to me in the last 21 years ... I would say that it is in my precious two daughters. Thank you Lyndsay and Rachel for being what God has made you to be!

Short Weeks!

I didn't get to dig into my "Sunday Night Reflections" even though I did have some reflections. I was doing something far more valuable ... taking Rachel to school. Interesting to me that I dropped my blog right after taking her to Indiana Wesleyan University a year ago. I get the feeling that it is always going to be a bitter-sweet experience. Its so tough to let go and see her flourish ... and yet how rewarding is it to see her becoming more and more a woman of God. Thank you, Lord!

I was SO encouraged by the two full glass jars at the end of Sunday's service. That people are taking so seriously the call to be the relational bridge by which others can come to meet Jesus is so critical! We are the Church and we are a vital link between those without Christ and Christ.

As I studied for last week's message on spiritual leadership it seemed to me to be so critical that EVERY believer have a burden to help lead others to Christ. On Tuesday I was in the book of Job and came across Job's yearning for someone to come along and mediate his case before God.

If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Job 9:30-33 (ESV)

Job had a conflict. He looked to his "friends" to help lead him out of that conflict, but they weren't of much use. He longed for an arbitrator, someone to negotiate some peace between him and God. But at that time he found no one - the arbitrator that he so longed for and needed to mediate the conflict would come to earth thousands of years later - Jesus Christ!
Now, thousands of years after the coming of this Arbitrator, people still have the same need. And they need someone to lead them to the Arbitrator! That's where THE CHURCH comes it! We who have been recipients of the Arbitrator's grace and peacemaking work through His own blood now have the incredible privilege of leading others to know the divine and eternal Arbitrator.
That is in large measure what Back to Church Sunday is all about - An opportunity for one beggar to tell another where they can find bread for their soul and peace before an Almighty God.
When I talked about the characteristics of a good leader of people's souls on Sunday I wonder if I did an adequate job of applying it to leading people to Christ. Think about the qualities of leadership that are essential for leading people to know and experience the fullness of Christ in their lives:

Reputation for Peacemaking - Ask God to help you display the peace of God in your life to those around you that they would wonder "What's up with the person?"

Filled with the Holy Spirit - Seek the Spirit's fruitfulness to a higher degree than ever. Keep in mind that the fruits of the Spirit (from Galatians 5:20) are best on display in the midst of conflict and stress. When you feel the pressure coming on - trust in the Lord for his supply of grace!

Filled with Wisdom - Be open and aware of things that the Lord would put in your mind that would lead you to someone who you'd never expect to be led toward to invite to church and that He will give you the words to say that will prompt the Holy Spirit's work in someone.

Filled with Faith - As God to fill you with the wonder of His ability to do beyond what we could think of or imagine. May he show himself to be VERY big in our eyes this week.

Filled with the love of Christ - May those to whom the Lord is leading us become objects of our affection because the love of Christ has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.