The Next Thing

Today is our final day at ICCT in Wheaton. The July 24th departure date is ever looming. We've spent all month learning about asphirated stops and retro-flexed affricates. Phonetics is more difficult that we imagined. On top of that, we really miss Jonathan and Cori! But today it ends, and after a month we will finally see them again this evening. Renee' and I are both excited about that.

I am very happy that the C&MA requires this Second Language Acquistion course for all outgoing missionaries. I think it will prove an invaluable tool as we proceed into the long and arduous task of learning a second language. Experts in the fields of second langauage acquisition, linguistics and phonetics just spent the last three weeks pouring everything they have into us. Teachers consisted of Wheaton profs as well as SIL staff. The first couple of weeks of our experience seemed a little pointless. We had to kind of go on faith that everything our instructors were teaching us would eventually make sense. We were learning sounds, not words. That became a bit wearisome. bid ... bid ... bod ... bod...

But it all changed the other night when we made a new friend. A native Mongolian speaker who lives here in Chicago came to teach us the Mongolian alphabet. As she began to go through the sounds, it all came together. We were able to reproduce the sounds and began to put them into real words that mean something (Thanks Chimee!). It was an exciting moment for both of us.

After a tough month, we leave encouraged and eager to see our kids.

Pray for us as we begin the more difficult task of saying meaningful goodbyes.

The Legacy of a Place: Thoughts From Wheaton College

Today is June 24th. We leave in one month.

It seems fitting that Renee' and I prepare for our July 24th departure to Mongolia living at the Wheaton College campus. These days of learning about aspirated retro-flexed affricates (all of which are great new words!) have been challenging, to say the least. We miss Jonathan and Cori and continue to grieve over the space between us and the life we lived six months ago. However, room for reflection at Wheaton has been abundant. This is the place where Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and Ed McCully attended college and a place where significant spiritual formation took place in their lives. The lives and death of these men were exactly what God used in the spiritual formation of my own life. As a floundering and aimless teenager, I read Jim Elliot's Journals from cover to cover. I realized that this man was real, passionate and had something that I lacked - and something I desperately wanted and needed.

Without a car, Renee' and I have done a lot of walking this month. (This is probably good because we need to get used to having to walk and take public transportation everywhere - that will be life in Mongolia - and because there is so much good food everyday at the Wheaton Cafeteria!) As we walk through downtown Wheaton, my mind wanders back to what this little town might have been like over 50 years ago when those men wandered the same streets. What might have been going through their minds as they prepared to leave their families and loved ones and all that was familiar? It's one thing to say Jim Elliot's immortalized words in a sermon. "He is no fool who gives what he can not keep to gain what he can never lose". It's quite another to feel the loss before you really experience the gain. That's what I think the Bible calls faith - and it's what I am realizing to be in great demand; often nearly beyond my capacity. Just because the man described above is indeed 'no fool' (I really do believe that), it doesn't mean that he doesn't feel a fool. At least a little bit, sometimes.

At one of those plenteous Wheaton Cafeteria meals, Renee' and I were sharing with someone at the table our "Steven Curtis Chapman Concert Experience" of a few years ago. Those who know Renee' and I know of our inner skepticism of popular Christian Music. We went to this concert with very little expectation - but knowing that Jonathan and Cori would like it (For Jonathan's sake - I want you to know that he's moved way past SCC, today. One listen to his online MP3 player will clue you in on that one!). As the concert progressed, SCC began to tell the story through video and song of the five martyrs and their families. The wash of emotions Renee' and I felt as that well-known story progressed was profound. However, it was the end that turned the evening into a memory that still ignites my heart to this day. Steven Curtis-Chapman introduced Steve Saint, the son of Nate Saint, who then proceeded to introduce Minkaye: the very man who brutally speared his father. Minkaye is a God-follower today. Steve Saint's children call the man who murdered their Grandfather: Grandfather. Minkaye worshipped the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his native Waodoni tongue, as Steven Curtis Chapman sang "My Redeemer is faithful and true". It was one of the most beautiful pictures of redemption I believe I'll ever witness on this side of eternity.

This month at Wheaton has been difficult. However, as I walk these streets - the very ones that Jim, Nate, Ed and others have walked - I know my Redeemer is faithful and true. And though there are times when I wonder about the wisdom and foolishness of it all - I know the One who is all-wise. Making Him famous in as many lives as possible in all of the earth is the one thing that will last forever. His renown is the desire of our soul.

Mark Driscoll on '24' and Expository Teaching

Mark Driscoll is one of the 'emerging church' leaders that I really appreciate. I particularly enjoyed his take on '24' (one of the few things on television worth watching, in my opinion). I knew there was reason I liked this show. You can read the article in his blog here.

An End and a Beginning - Wheaton College

Yesterday was the end. I have been thinking about this in terms of being the end of a chapter in a great story. Renee' spoke of a better analogy this afternoon. It is really more like the end of Book two of 'The Trilogy' (or what is it when there are four, five or six books in a series? I'll have to look that one up … ). Yesterday we cleaned out our house of five years. We put a large mass of our belongings into storage at both of our parent's houses. We put even more belongings into the garage to be sold or given away. A smaller portion were put into boxes and shipped to Mongolia late Wednesday night. (I am confident that both the woman behind the counter and the people who were unfortunate enough to get in line behind me all pretty much hate me.) The rest are in Jonathan's old room, stacked in the corner, waiting to be whittled down a little more. We need what's left to fit into eight suitcases; weighing 23 kilograms a piece (translate that to 50 pounds). We cleaned the house. We said goodbye to our dog and took him to his wonderful new home (Thanks Brad and Melanie and Cody for letting Chipper live with you now!). We vacuumed and cried and turned out the lights; locked the door and flew to Chicago.

It is indeed the end of this book. I don't really know what book number we're on - Book II? Book III? Which ever it may be, it is indeed the end. But with every end, there is always a beginning. We are beginning to walk in that right now. Renee' and I are at Wheaton College to participate in pre-field orientation (read: "How to be an Alliance Missionary" - actually it has been helpful so far. We have enjoyed getting to know IM leadership other new missionary families). Next week we begin a Summer course here at Wheaton called Second Language Acquisition - which is a part of Wheaton's ICCT (International Cross-Cultural Training) program.

So in as much as yesterday was an end, so I know that today is a beginning. I don't have any real expectations. As I sit and listen to the numerous trains that pass by our little apartment I am reminded of what I know: God is faithful. He is enough. He is good. And He will ultimately make His name famous in all of the earth. The fact that my family can play some small role in making His name famous is thrilling and humbling, indeed.

The Bearable Lightness of Things

The past several days have been spent going through everything we own and placing them into one of three catagories:
1. Pack it
2. Store it
3. Get rid of it anyway that we can.

It has been an arduous process - and we're still not finished. However, there is a freedom that comes from the discipline of limiting life to 15 boxes and 8 suitcases. It is sobering to realize how quickly things accumulate - and how little of this mass of accumulation that we really need. Renee' has been saying that material things feel like a leaded dental xray apron. As we begin to get rid of things, it is very much like the lifting of that apron. The weight is off. Breathing becomes easier. There is something about walking into simplicity that makes life more bearable; less complication is better - and the race to accumulate things really does tend to make life comlicated. Lift the apron - I am happy to have the lead off my chest. Although I am weary of yardsales and packing and deciding what to do with tiny little items, I am happy to be loose some poundage and to simplify. We can not go to Mongolia with a lot of weight. The writer of Hebrews tells us to "lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles." This tells me that things don't have to be sinful. (The verse very clearly differentiates between mere 'weight' and that which is 'sinful and entangling'. I think it's an important differentiation to make.) But things can be quite heavy and make running the race set before us difficult, if not impossible. Lay it down we must, because it's about the running not the accumulation of goods - however good they may be. (See Hebrews 12:1-6)

Ralph Trainer spoke some wonderfully encouraging words at our Commissioning service last Sunday. You can hear his message here. You can read his introductory words here.

My previous blog can be found here. You can read a little about our life before this road to Mongolia, if you're interested.

Welcome to our website - and to our Journey.