I am actually writing this on the plane from JFK to Chicago, even though I won’t be able to post until I get home tonight. If you want to know about the Guyana mission trip I have been on, then read all about it at www.nwguyanateam.wordpress.org. We got to New York City yesterday afternoon and went down to Times Square and ate at the Hard Rock Café. If you are one of those people who have a list of things you want to do before you die, go ahead and add “Times Square at Night.” We then took the wrong subway train in the wrong direction, got a bit lost, extremely tired and finally back to the hotel. This morning we hired two drivers to take us all over NYC and we saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Southside Harbor, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. Obviously we didn’t stay anywhere long, but it gave us a good overview of the city. I don’t know if we could have seen more in 20 hours.
That being said, I have now been gone for 10 days and experienced an unbelievable range of places, people, situations, obstacles, blessings and adventures. But sitting here on the plane I find myself thinking about the value of planning. I have a good friend who I often have lunch with who once told me that when he interviews people he asks them what they would do if they were planning a party and at the last minute the caterer called and said they couldn’t make it. The correct answer is, “I would go to Plan B.” This has been a week of Plan B’s…and C’s, and perhaps even an occasional D. And then there have been times that all of our plans were simply round pegs that wouldn’t fit in the square holes we were working with and we just had to throw away all assumptions and see what worked. Sitting here now looking back, we made a few mistakes, had some great victories, created a few challenges and overcame even more, but I think we all shared in a great adventure.
And I have to say that when it came to these moments that I always knew two things. First, that God would get us through whatever came our way or that he was opening a great door for us to go through. Second, that it was time to talk to my friend Eddie. There are few people who I admire, trust, and respect so much and it was a beautiful blessing to work with him and especially just to spend so much time with him this last week. And let’s be honest, you have to respect a guy who believes he can bid nil with four spades in his hand. That’s just the kind of guy that Eddie is…somehow, somewhere, there has to be a way. And whether its spades or life, I consider myself blessed to have him as a teammate.
Hey Kent. I like your comment about my dad. I often think that if somehow in life I can end up like him I’ll be doing alright. I know sometimes he wishes he was more like me because my preaching reminds him of his father, but I think I would trade all of that if I could just be more like him. I also read your 7th day lesson. It reminds me of a chapter in Jon Levenson’s book “Creation and the Persistence of Evil” that I turned into a sermon. Levenson points out that if you notice it does not say, “There was evening and there was morning the seventh day,” like it does all the other days. This phrase distinctively ends the other days and prepares us for the start of the next one. Why does the seventh day have no end? His answer and the answer of many old Jewish rabbis was because it is not supposed to. The real point of creation is not the first, third, fourth, or even the sixth day (even though it says “good” twice). The real point of it all is Sabbath, and it is not supposed to have an end. It must extend into all facets of our lives. Every day must be the Sabbath day, i.e., the 7th day.
God bless and I hope you are resting from you long mission trip
David
At first I thought it was a joke, one of my team members was playing on me. I googled “Guyana Mission” and got my entry and another one with in the same last 30 day by a Kenton Brown. Then the Seventh day was on the title as well.. Hitting too close to home. Turns out I’m a Seventh Day Baptist who just got back from a mission in Guyana. We believe the Sabbath is the rest we have in Christ and still we keep the literal commandment out of love and obedience of the Creator. Just as we don’t murder literally and in our hearts we strive to love all our brothers. We don’t commit adultery and aim to keep sexual immorality from our minds. etc. We’ll I am glad you had a fruitful mission and pray God blesses you and your ministry. Oh, and I’m also the youth minister in my congregation.. very interesting.. ha ha.
God Bless
Clint