Pack horse-ing around

We have 2 days left in Seattle. It's already been a wonderful week of life and friendship and packing stuff.

One last NU faculty friends dinner

Grandkids and nephews

One last visit with the tribe

We'll be taking back less than we'd hoped but need the priorities we'd earmarked for the year. What's in the suitcases, beyond our clothing?

• equipment for teaching and working abroad.
• a few books for teaching, reading, and art - oh, how I missed English books! We were library hounds and now we have to purchase online books that are not blocked. That's tough on me: W loves to read online. I read like mad while in the States.
• household / hospitality items that are too expensive or not available in Bandung. We host foreigners and Indonesians educated abroad, so we stock up on items we'd do without for ourselves.
• walking shoes. We've worn the soles off our shoes. If we could find them in Jakarta, they'd cost $100s a pair. Here, Sierra Trading Post had them on clearance @$30.
• my Bernina sewing machine. I missed missed missed it. I'll cover the utterly worn furniture left in the house, saving $$$ and having a creative outlet. 

Goodbye to my brother and sis-in-love 

Nephew and his grandma 

One last church service together,
Miss K standing on a chair back and hugging Oma

What else?

• DIY household items - sink stoppers, drains for the showers, hooks, oven knobs, etc. - that were permanently "out of stock."
• a few favorite foods and Trader Joes teas. Yes, we're packing some big bars of chocolate.
• a slipcover from our Seattle home. It fits the Beddinge sofa someone gave us in Indonesia. God brought a big smile to my face, unbelievably sending us the exact IKEA sofa we knew, no longer available in the USA market. (Instead of buying new furniture, I updated our Seattle LR by getting slipcovers on clearance over the years. Now I just need to get one home to Bandung.)
• a few trusted makeup and hair products. Nope, I can't get it there or I refuse to spend $$$$ for find equivalents in a country with few blond heads. We're also bringing some things requested by fair-skinned coworkers.
• canvas drop-cloths from Home Depot = slipcovers. I'll use Sharpee markers to "decorate" fabric with the upholstery weight cloths.
• Sheets and bedding donated to us here. Some sizes are only available in Indonesia at high-end expat stores. (Again, it would be $$$. Nope, not doing that.)

How will we fit it all in? We don't know yet. God always provides, though.

We say goodbye to our Indonesian kids,
studying in the States and living in our suite

I haven't cried during farewells, but I remember tearing up a week or two after arriving. I think that will be the case when we get home. I'm a delayed responder. 

Do you cry on the spot or later?

Read more:

*Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:13,16 NIV

*And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything
according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15 ESV

*Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12 ESV

C. S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain

Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness. For about a hundred years we have so concentrated on one of the virtues—“kindness” or mercy—that most of us do not feel anything except kindness to be really good or anything but cruelty to be really bad. Such lopsided ethical developments are not uncommon, and other ages too have had their pet virtues and curious insensibilities. And if one virtue must be cultivated at the expense of all the rest, none has a higher claim than mercy. . . . The real trouble is that “kindness” is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. 

Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that “his heart’s in the right place” and “he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy: it is not so easy, on the same grounds, to imagine oneself temperate, chaste, or humble.

You cannot be kind unless you have all the other virtues. If, being cowardly, conceited and slothful, you have never yet done a fellow creature great mischief, that is only because your neighbour’s welfare has not yet happened to conflict with your safety, self-approval, or ease. Every vice leads to cruelty.

Guest blog: God, Can I have a Cookie? The Question of Prayer

Today it's a delight to feature a guest blog by Jennifer Baker. Feel free to respond below or directly to Jen at jenzbaker@gmail.com

Remember the Ikea television commercial, with the man in a lab coat repeatedly wrenching a cupboard door open, saying “Mom, can I have a cookie” and then slamming the cupboard shut? When I ask God for something I just plain want, like a parking place, a laptop, or good weather for a game, I can’t help but think about this commercial. Am I just bugging God for something that may not be good for me and doesn’t seem important in any context outside of my own desires?

But I want it! My Christian traditions and Bible teaching have taught me that:  

·     It never hurts to ask (John 14:14)

·     ·     It doesn’t matter how insignificant the request is, God cares.

·     ·     If I keep asking, God will eventually cave. (Parable of the friend at night, Luke 11:5-13)

·     ·     I can ask God for a sign (this comes with dangers)

·     ·     I can pray for gifts like patience, a peaceful spirit (but I won’t because that will probably bring hardship and testing first!)

I pray with the belief that if what I’m asking is in God’s will, and if it really is in his will, he will grant my request, which is what I’m saying when I pray in Jesus’ name – the one who said “not my will but thy will be done” (Luke 22:42).

Then there’s the mini-person on my shoulder (who looks a bit like my grandmother, who had many wise and cautionary things to say) that says, “Watch out what you pray for!” The thing is, if I am praying for something I just really want, it’s not in the same category as “Please heal my dad.”

Even so, I know that God still listens to me when I treat him like a vending machine: “Okay, I need to get home in 20 minutes or I’ll be late for choir; and I need to find a dress to buy that’s under $50; and I pray little Nicky will be in a good mood so I can get dinner on the table without clobbering him. Uh, I mean, well, thank you. Jen out.”

I don’t doubt that God cares about me personally and all my concerns and worries, having experienced human life himself through his son Jesus. 

But sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just put a cork in it? Shouldn’t talking to the Almighty God who created everything command a measure of respect from me? What shall I say to him in my little selfish moments that he doesn’t already know?

What about the repetitious prayers? Is it really necessary to pound on God’s door with the same request for healing every day? Am I annoying God with my prayer to “Please heal my dad?” And lay out my fleece, like Gideon (Judges 6:37) – “Okay, if you just give me a sign – if his blood count is up today, then I’ll know you are healing him.” – isn’t that just hedging my bets? 

Do I believe God can heal? Yes. Do I genuinely think God will heal if I pray in Jesus’ name? Not sure, maybe. Will it help to ask for a sign from God to give me a hint about his will? That would be no, in my opinion. And if I repeatedly ask for the same thing, do I think God will eventually relent and give me what I want?

Yes, there’s a protocol for talking to God – the Lord’s Prayer – in which we are given an outline of how to pray. We can know Jesus on a personal level and truly ask God for anything, because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross: I can pray to God with a daughter’s assurance that no matter how silly my request is, God will listen. And then smile that wry smile that he saves for me when I ask stupid questions before letting me down gently! Luckily the King of the Universe is accustomed to being the smartest one in the room!

Perhaps, however, when we pray for small individual needs and desires, our focus is a bit off. Although lots of Old Testament prophets and kings conversed directly with God (who spoke back), and many New Testament people were lucky enough to know and talk to Jesus in person, the Bible includes few individuals praying for personal gain or small needs.

When God speaks to people in the Bible, it’s not about donkey parking places or test taking success, it’s about what’s good for the community, or smiting evil, or healing someone in front of witnesses. Do we believe the disciples also prayed to the Heavenly Father for themselves? Probably. Some things didn’t make it into the Bible: “And Peter also go the new net he asked for.” Do we think Jonah just meekly treaded water as he was swallowed by a whale, or possibly prayed, “Please don’t let this thing eat me?”

We will be swallowed by our world, spat out somewhere God needs us, inconvenienced, and realize that our status as children of God allows us to ask whatever we wish, but I’m thinking we might wish higher!

Read more:

*Happy are those who make the Lord their trust. Psalm 40:4 ESV

*Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer. Isaiah 49:26 ESV

*The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28 ESV

*Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. Hebrews 10:35 NIV

Moravian Prayer: God of the cross, God of the empty tomb, God of everywhere in between—no matter where we find ourselves, you are there, ushering in newness of life, both now and forevermore.

Dear Lord, make us servants of your peace. May we be faithful to you in our work in this world, preaching your word of grace. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity:

This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic,and what not. 

But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.

In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.

One week to go ...

While the mangosteens ripened at home, 

my Dad sent funny pictures of growing up. The piano was in my bedroom.

Note: my reluctant pupil (Norm) and I were too small for the bench 

so we had to sit on a book.

W and I played around with the grandkids at the park

and fed them junk food.

Sunday, we drove across the state to a conference. 

Each morning we walked at 6am, enjoying the beautiful sunrises of Coeur d'Alene. 

Sunsets were amazing, too. (This pic of our resort by Eric Fromm.)

What a great time, cheering on presenters and speakers.

We visited with people devoted to serving Indonesia and other parts of the world,

and hung out with those we've missed over the past year. 

The new network leader encouraged women

to act and not to wait, to do what was at hand or create new things,

and then to watch the doors of service open.

We celebrated Mel's retirement from a long-term job 

with his family and our dearest friends.

Our Jakarta pastor preached the ordination service - 

and among those charged with living out their calling was

our good friend Terry G.

We drove back to Seattle under a glorious sky.

I was so happy to enjoy a Thursday morning coffee at Third Place Commons, 

one more time.

We've begun packing to return home next week. 

The process is never easy or pretty but we are excited to go back.

Read more:

*For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. Job 19:25 ESV

*For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-15 NIV

*May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13  NIV

From C. S. Lewis: The Weight of Glory

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. 

But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists 

between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian

neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

Pleasures in many shapes and sizes

Another week is done. It's been filled with ...

Walks in the sun and dandelions

Jamieson Furniture Gallery in Bellevue: 

a visit with a friend's friend,

who has an eye for one-of-a-kind furnishings

Wednesday, it's back to school: 

a classroom of information and passion for soul care

...with beloved faculty and girlfriends

A trip to ToysRUs with my granddaughter
= a princess in a princess bed

My dad starts to catalog old pics. Here I'm 6 or 7 years of age 

and with my three brothers.

Thursday, Asha, who is an artist, visits with me and brings me
a lovely hand-painted card and present

What a warm welcome at Neighborhood Church when
we speak to an Indian gathering on Friday

Sunday, we drive across Washington State to a conference,

stopping in Spokane, where friends show us
their new property - full of wildflowers

The week begins with inspiration and encouragement.

after which we eat pizza, huge cookies, and ice-cream
with a new friend, Mary Kidwell,
and others. (Mary was sharing this treat with 3 other people!)

Read more:

*Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request. 1 Chronicles 4:10  NIV

*For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10 ESV

*To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. Colossians 1:27-28 ESV

*I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, \he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:13-15 NIV

*Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 ESV

So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment,  now that you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness. 1 Peter 2:1-3  NLT

Prayer: At the end of one day and the beginning of another, you alone, O God, know what we need. Thank you for forgiveness and for loving us despite our failures.

Help us to find our hope and joy in you. We are so grateful for Jesus. Amen

The story in pictures

Too busy to write. Busy enjoying life with friends. Busy following the Call. Busy and happy. Life is good.

How many of these faces do you know?

Random Canadian: mukluks and parka. Yup, it's April.

Agreeing that the stormy 4'-square picture is a no-go in her dark apartment, Kirsten and I modified it with pastels.

Before:

 

After:

We are enjoying Seattle so much that I haven't written. Doesn't mean we're not thinking about you though...

• A friend received a special acknowledgement today. Hurrah!
• We spoke at three venues in April and enjoyed each one.
• We attended a few workshops.
• Canada - especially, seeing our parents and siblings - was wonderful.
• And girlfriends, thank you for making time to get together. My soul is filling up.