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bhutanese refugees, and michael j fox

Not only did we have our third child last week, and not only was CareFest 09 last week, but the night before Finn was born and two days before CareFest our next refugee family arrived in Chicago. They were supposed to be here in late March, but one of the kids contracted chicken pox so they could not fly. The timing could not have been worse for me personally, but I have learned the worst time for me is often the best time for God.

The family arrived late Thursday evening. Grandmother, 76, mom and four girls ages 2-8. We knew they did not speak English, we new they were Christian (rare!), and we knew they had been in a refugee camp in Nepal since the 80's, and that is all we knew. Of course you can research a lot.

Our first glimpse of the family was at the baggage claim. They were standing atop the escalator in the security area waiting to come down. Except they did not know how to negotiate the stairs. They had never been on an escalator! After 24 hours of travel, and probably without eating much, their first big obstacle was to get the down the stairs. I was with three people from our team and three Bhutanese who were going to translate for us. We were not sure what to do, we couldn't go up there without being arrested, and yet nobody was stopping to help them down. Grandma was the first to try the stairs. She was able to jump on board but nearly fell. I "caught" here when she reached the bottom. The three older girls were able to jump on ok and we caught them as well. Mom was very tentative and when she finally got on fell backwards onto her 2 year old. That is when of my team sprang up the stairs. A security guard of course appeared out of no where to "help" and I thought to arrest our heroic team member. Mom and baby were ok and we got them home safely. Nobody was arrested.

Culturally this family could not be more different than Americans. They eat everything with their hands, the stand on the toilet when they have to go, they flush diapers down the toilet (not god!) and other things they find normal. All of that is part of adjusting to the new culture.

We were able to furnish their apartment and moved them in last Friday after only being here seven days. We have already connected them to a local Bhutanese church and they really enjoy it.

Yesterday I took the mom and oldest daughter grocery shopping. They had never been in a grocery store. Ever. They were overwhelmed. They were afraid to touch anything. They were embarrassed by the amount of food they had in their cart. They had never had so much food at one time in their lives. The bill was $80. Eight zero. I am embarrassed to say I spent more on Mothers Day Lunch I cooked myself for three moms in my life. That is a blog for another time. The short version, we are rich, richer than can be comprehended until you experience real poverty. The Bhutanese family went from the hell of a refugee camp, oppression, aggression, fear were experienced every day, to downtown Wheaton in one week. Could there be more of a contrast?

Which brings me Michael J. Fox. I like him. Family Ties was one of my favorite shows in the 80's. Secret of My Success one of the funniest movies of the 80's. His battle with Parkinson's is truly inspiring. Which is why he makes me sad. I was so disappointed to watch the TV thing he just did on Hope. What a load of excrement. What caught my attention was the 15 minutes of the show spent in Bhutan. A nation of happiness. Seriously. That is how he saw it. The nation does not care about Gross National Product but Gross National Happiness. Really. It is clever disguise. Promote peace and happiness. A magical, physically beautiful country of harmony and peace. It would only take .21 search on Google to see that is a bunch of bull. Bhutan has generated more refugees than any other country its size. Apparently if you are unhappy with their government you are tortured and imprisoned and everyone one in your people group are expelled from the county. Especially if you are not part of the ethnic majority. The current government has "cleansed" the county of most ethnic minorities. I suppose that is one way to generate "peace". The real reason the people might be happy is because they are not aware of the prison they are in. Gosh it sounds like the Matrix!

Michael, hope will not come from happiness. Hope will not come from President Obama. Hope will not come from forced peace and harmony. Hope can only be found in a place not yet of of this Earth. Yes we will encounter hope here on Earth, in our lifetimes even.  But those temporary moments of hope are only a glimpse of the kingdom to come. And unless you find the King who brings true hope, you will never find the Kingdom He reigns over.

David @ the dentist

Perhaps you have not seen “David after Dentist”? My wife and I watched it last week and thought it was pretty funny, but also wondered why someone would put something like that on the Internet. It just seemed a little personal to me. In case you have not seen it….

Pretty funny huh?

Now there are several versions out there. One of which is here:

Ok so now I am not sure if this is so funny. I don’t know how I would feel if my son became a celebrity in this way. Sure by the time he is old enough to really care these videos will be replaced by something else. But still, it is impossible to know what kind of effect this will have on David both positive and negative. Shouldn’t he have the option of whether or not to post this on-line himself one day?

Laura posts videos of our kids on-line all the time. In fact I got her a sweet hand held video recorder so she does not miss anything. We will need to be careful about who we allow to access the videos. I am not sure Jack and Shay and baby #3 will think those videos are as cute when they are in junior high.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? - election day

 

Acts 4:23-31

23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
   " 'Why do the nations rage
      and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
      and the rulers gather together
      against the Lord
      and against his Anointed One.^[c]'^[d] 27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people^[e] of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

 

So today is election day. I voted. I do believe we all should. But this year was different for me. It was the first time since I became old enough to vote that I was not excited. Not because I do not like the candidates, although I don’t like either. I really can’t find a ton to like about Obama or McCain. It seems to me we should not have to choose based on who will do the least harm. But that is really not why I am not excited.

I ask only one thing from our government. Allow us to live in peace. Pave roads, protect the citizenry, preserve freedom, yes all of that. But the government seems to think it ought to do that and a whole lot more. The government, republican controlled or democrat controlled will never come close to achieving the Mission God has given the church. I am disappointed in some of my brothers and sisters for putting so much faith in one candidate or another. I am not a republican or a democrat, no I belong to the party of the Lamb. I do not believe government is a friend of the church. Yes in our part of the world government tends to stay out of Church matters for the most part. But as America becomes increasingly secular so will our government.  That is neither good or bad it just is. I do not need nor want the governments help in accomplishing the Mission of God. The government ought not try to do what God has called His Church to do. We should not rely on the government to do what we ourselves are unwilling to do.  Instead I will rely solely on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe if we are doing what we are called to do we will annoy our leaders both republican and democrat equally.

There is a lot of evidence in the Bible (Have you read the book of Acts lately?), and the world today that when the government actually stands against the church, the church grows. If you were at Worship here on Sunday you heard Mooi tell stories of how God has been working in China for the last 40 years to grow the church against brutal oppression. Yet here in the West when the church has so much power and resources, we seem to be shrinking. I believe the church must learn to speak truth to power no matter who is living in the White House. One way we know we are doing this enough is when they start beating us down! Acts 5:40 We ought to be making both republicans and democrats mad on a regular basis.

It certainly looks like Obama will win today. While for reasons I mentioned above I am not an Obama supporter (nor McCain!). I do see the historic significance of such a day, and I am proud of America. Not for electing a black person, but for making it even possible. I do not envy him. Because he is the first he carries so much pressure. There is much that can be approved upon from the past 4 administrations. Like every candidate I have seen all the way back to senior class president in High School, I am afraid Obama has made more promises than he can’t keep.

I have not read too much about the irony of the first black president coming from the same state as Lincoln. It is one of the weird quirky ironic things that happens in history.

No matter what happens, tomorrow about 50% of the country will be disappointed with the outcome. I pray our next leader shines. I hope he is everything he said he would be. If he is, he will be as equally hated as he is loved. That is life in America today. Hopefully we in the church can heed the words of Lincoln, and put the divisive nature of politics behind us.

I will end this post with a quote from Abe:

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; each invokes His aid against the other. The prayers of both could not be answered... The Almighty has His own purposes." Knowing this, we treat each other charitably, and look to God for something better: "With malice toward none; with charity for all... to bind up the nation's wounds - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."