Goodness, it's been awhile. Last week was some what odd and exceedingly busy so I just never posted anything. This week is somewhat busy and a little odd because we leave for 3 months on Monday and there are an insane amount of things to do.
I got to preach on Sunday at our home church and that was a lot of fun. Some of you said that you wanted to see it and Jenny recorded a short video so, here it is.
This morning I woke up. Normal day. Went into the oldest boy's room. He was the reason I awoke. I noticed it was 6:30 and I wondered why we forgot to set the alarm. It was late. And then it hit me: It's Saturday. Woohoo!
I have only lived in two cultures and both of them set Saturday aside as a special day. Even the word - Saturday - looks fun. Here Saturday is often a half work day but by noon everyone's off and they go to the market or to a hot spring or a bath house to soak and warm up. They eat out or shop and have birthday parties. It's a good day for laundry or cleaning or taking a day trip. It's Saturday and we like it.
I'm sure there are roots to it, Saturday being the Sabbath, but for me it all starts with cartoons.
When I was a kid, Saturday was the one day of the week where I was allowed to wake up and just watch TV for a few hours. By about 10 the cartoons had thinned out and it was time to go do something else, but those were good days for cartoons.
See, we didn't have cable and there was no cartoon network. We had CBS, NBC and ABC and if you wanted cartoons, that's where you got 'em. Well, PBS was in the ring and they competed heavily with Marty Stouffers Wild America (still a favorite) but mostly it was cartoons.
And they were 80's Cartoons - with a few late 70's thrown in.
He-Man
Smurfs
Snorks (strange)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
G.I. Joe
Scoobie Doo
Thundercats
Schoolhouse Rock
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Teddy Ruxpin (a brief foray)
Dangermouse
Underdog
Starblazers (my brother just loved this...mainly because it's awesome)
Dungeons and Dragons (and no, I'm not an evil warlock)
The Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters (never discerned the difference)
The Jetsons
The Incredible Hulk
M.A.S.K. (short lived, but VERY cool toys)
Transformers
Voltron (never owned any toys from that - too much like Transformers I guess)
The Super Friends Hour
Of course, separate from all those and standing as a legitimate art form and cultural influence is Looney Tunes. Fritz Freeling and Tex Avery are pure genius. The Rabbit of Seville, Duck Amuck. Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Carl Stalling - Leon Schlesinger knew what he was doing. There was no competitor to those guys. Just look at this and tell me what you hear, think, feel, remember:
I mean, you can HEAR the music! It was genius. Cartoon genius. And somewhere my brother has a set of 12 VHS tapes of this. Wow.
So...enjoy your Saturday. If you can catch a cartoon or two (especially from the above list) go for it. A bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs would accompany nicely.
Those who know me understand that my God given gifts do not include organization. I'm not disorganized in the classical sense; I don't wear shirts backwards or have messy hair. But I am forgetful and I get distracted easily. I just do. I'd rather sit and talk with someone about life and God than plan out how to make that meeting more efficient. My brain is not that linear - that's why I named this blog Ramble Zone - because that's what I do. Anything coherent and sensible is typically the product of re-writing more than writing.
Well, we leave for the Greatest State on Earth (that would be T E X A S ) in about 2.5 weeks. And while that makes our kid's Grammy and Mimi hum with happiness, it's enough to make me start drinking. That's a joke by the way. I already drink. I'd just drink more. More water. More milk. More juice. You mix disorganization with dehydration and we're talking trouble.
Anyway, we have a lot to do. So I made a list several weeks ago. Yesterday I looked at that list and then re-made another list adding all the other things I thought of that need doing and then combined the two lists and then freaked out a little and called in reinforcements in the form of my beautiful and talented bride.
About 10 years ago, God looked at me and said, "It is not good for Brandon to be alone" and he sent me my Jenny. While in the throws of romantic rapture I knew only that I loved her and that I wanted to spend my life pursuing her and loving her more. And honestly, that's about as far as I went. All my energy was turned to romance - and that's good.
Yesterday, however, I didn't need a hallmark card. I needed help. And the Lord has given me a helper who is, without argument, par excellence. She sat me down and helped me turn my list which contains enough work for 2 months into something that I could flesh out and finish in 2 weeks. 2 weeks of non-stop insanity, but 2 weeks. And for that, Baby, I love you. I need you. And I thank the Lord for you.
And now I need to get to work.
Friday I went to visit our friends the Ekstroms to get more of their story. I got their timeline filled in from '51 to '80 or so. When you've walked on earth for that long you have a lot of stories. Most of theirs are just too interesting to pass up.
I had a really hard time leaving on Friday morning. Late night. A sleepy, disorganized morning, couldn't find the key to open my gas tank - I was frustrated. But Jenny convinced me to go and I went. I only got about 2 hours talking with them becasue a Brazilian missionary came for an un-expected visit to meet Helen, whose brother teaches at a seminary in Brazil. But while I was chatting with Helen in the kitchen she started talking about college students and how difficult a time they are having here in Guatemala. No one is preparing them for walking with the Lord in college. They have never been taught about the many world views or humanism and how those things are contrary to what they have grown up believing and many, many of them are falling away.
Xela has more than a dozen colleges and a few larger universities. Don't think University like in the US. Think more the size of a community college - well, smaller - but still a university. Anyway, we live here. And there are lots of college students. And we have a lot of experience with college students and pastors here are often scared to talk to college kids because there is a huge education gap and they feel they don't know enough. And Helen put those things together while we stood in her kitchen.
So now we are looking at how we can serve all those college kids and help the pastors learn how to prepare their kids for the philosophical battle they will face in college; how they can help them remain faithful in a place where their faith will indeed be tested and ridiculed.
I thought I was just getting a story on Friday but the Lord is always working, even when we're grumpy. Meeting with two people who love Jesus as much as the Ekstroms and talking about how God has used them and brought them through almost 6 decades of ministry tends to stir things up a little. This time it gave us a new vision for minsitry. Which is pretty cool when you consider I almost didn't go.
Man, I need to go on furlough so I can have more time to blog.
Ha. While we will have more 'time' I am going to spend it mostly talking with people but maybe I can squeeze in a few more blogs.
Today I get to drive to a town called Huehuetenango and visit with the Ekstroms, the missionary couple in their 80's. I'll be talking with them about their story and trying to fill in details of 160+ years of combined life. I am planning to write their story and I admit that I am terrified to begin in earnest. I honestly have no idea what I am doing. That's not a reason to avoid doing something, of course, but it makes it scarier.
I hope to be able to begin writing when we are in Texas so maybe more blogs are out of the picture. See, the thing with writing a blog for me is that if I don't get it done in the morning before the kids get up it just won't get done. I feel weird blogging when I have work to do and after the kids get down Jenny and I are often in zombie mode and go to bed at 9:30. But I am trying to at least get more than one a week done. We'll see. The fact that 'blog' is not in the blogger auto-dictionary is just silly.
Last night we had a Canadian couple and their 3 kids over for dinner. It was just a ton of fun. We really, really enjoy just sitting and talking with them. The got here at 6 and left at 10:30 and the time flew by. Their kids are a little older and played with our kids for hours. And to date I have never met a mean Canadian. I'm sure they exist, I just haven't met one I didn't like.
And with that, I need to get ready to leave. It's always fun hanging out with the Ekstroms - they are truly an amazing duo.
Well I've been trying to write this blog on being a dad and it's just not really very good. So instead of not posting or posting something that needs to stew, I'll just come on here and ramble.
Today we're going to a town about an hour from here so Jenny can teach at the anniversary of a church's women's ministry. She has been working like a madwoman this whole week because she also will teach on Sunday and life here goes on. She is my proverbs 31 wife and while many daughters are noble, I sure think that she exceeds them all. I've been trying to take up the slack during off work hours so that she can prepare. It's been fun to serve her like she serves me all the time. Not that I don't ever do anything around the house, I'm just doing a little more than usual.
We met some new friends here yesterday. Jenny and I took a date to the grocery store (as busy as we have been, we take what we can get - kid free time is a date!) and met this nice fella from Canada. He and his wife (they are a little bit older than us) came over last night for what was supposed to be 5 minutes and turned into 2 1/2 hours. They just moved here a few days ago and are in that entry phase of utter chaos and had a lot of questions. It was really fun to be able to be helpful to someone and to hopefully make their transition a little less stressful. The Body of Christ is simply amazing.
When I finish here I am going to go make biscuits, a recipe I have finally mastered. The secret to incredible biscuits? Butter and sour cream. And you gotta treat 'em easy. Biscuits are fickle. But man o man, in a country where biscuits simply don't exist, it has been worth the effort. I'm not going to say they are Crackle Barrel yet (they put cocaine in theirs I am certain) but they are good enough to make a southern boy happy, which is about all we need around here.
You know, the Christian walk is anything but static. Anything but boring. God is simply not boring and when He says, "Follow Me" and you actually follow Him, your life will be interesting - no matter what country you life in. If you get arrogant, He will humble you. If you get stagnant, temptation comes to test you. If you are tired, He lets you rest in Him. If you are bored, there is so much to do that every fiber of your being (physical, emotional, spiritual) can be worked to exhaustion. The Word of God is living and active because GOD is living and active and following Him is just that- living and active. It's fantastic! And I'm not even very good at it. I'm inconsistent and selfish and immature and it drives me crazy some days. But the Lord is not surprised by me. He's not freaking out of saying, "What am I going to do with you!" like some exasperated parent of a fit throwing toddler. For crying out loud, He's the God of all creation. All Authority is His. All Power. All Knowledge. All Glory. All everything. And He, at least in part because He loves us, has given us this great adventure of a life lived by faith here on planet earth before we enter eternity where faith and hope will pass away and only love will remain.
So, I'm off to make biscuits. And drive and take care of our kids so my amazing wife can teach some women how to walk with God a little better. And I'm looking forward to spending today with the God who is with me - even to the end of the age. Which certainly includes today.
Man, I really need to blog more than weekly. I have no imperative for doing so other than once a week seems too far between posts.
Anyway, the week in review. Weeks go really fast, don't they? Some faster than others, some a weird mix. I was supposed to teach a group of pastors this week at a prayer meeting. The pastors here meet in varying locals to pray for and encourage one another. Normally it goes something like this:
9:00 - sing hymns and songs and pray
10:30 - drink some kind of atol (a hot drink normally made from rice or corn) and eat some kind of bread
11:00 - pray more
11:30 - Someone preaches
12:30 - sing more songs
1:00 - eat lunch
2:00 - drive home
So, when I go out, that's what I normally do. It's usually somewhere within 2 hours of the house so I leave at 7 and get back around 4. Not too bad.
This last Tuesday I went out to a great little place of which I forgot to take a picture (again) and met with the pastors. I was excited because I finally brought the camera and remembered to ask one of the pastors to take a picture of me preaching so all you folks will actually believe I do it. But when it came time to go up front, another guy was teaching! Basilo, a good friend of mine, said, "Oh, you had something ready?!" and I told him not to worry about it. So I spent about 8 hours getting something ready that I didn't' use...but I have a great little sermon with cool handouts ready for next time! All printed up and ready to roll.
I also went to a breakfast meeting yesterday at 8:00 (for which the guy did not show) and wasted an hour after that standing in line at the bank.
I was very busy accomplishing nothing. Sigh. That's life sometimes. I did get a good deal of time in preparing a sermon over Matt 28:16-20 which has been a ridiculous amount of fun.
So, add in normal filling out of forms and errands and planning and whatnot and you have a week done and gone.
I want to talk about being a dad and the shoeshine boys and how someone stole our neighbor's dog. Man. It's a bad world out there.
I must admit that part of my job is to study the Bible. That may be part of the reason I do what I do. I am no Bible Scholar. Not that Bible Scholars are bad, they are actually very helpful, I am just not one of them as anyone who knows me and also knows a Bible Scholar can clearly see. I'm not actually certain what is required to have the title, "Brandon Scott, Bible Scholar", but I am certain I do not meet the requirement.
Anyway, so I've been looking at Proverbs 9 where Wisdom and the Woman of Folly or Foolishness are personified and contrasted. I really recommend you take just 5 minutes and read it. It's only 18 verses. And it's really fascinating because, well, we all hear both voices in our life. One calling us to wisdom and a life lived in awe of God, the other to a life of foolishness and perceived pleasure. One leads to a life of, well, life and meaning. Tho other leads to death.
What's fascinating is that both sound the same at the outset. Both say, "Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on? Come with me." So how are we supposed to know which one to follow? Verse 10 says this:
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Ah! Even the structure of the proverb points to this verse as the center, the key. Fearing God is not like fearing an angry bear. It is a reverent awe, not so much an acute terror. Now, people faced with God's wrath, they ought to be afraid, ought to feel abject terror. But we are called to be awed into silence, to kneel and understand that God is the Lord of all and we, we are not. He is utterly other than we. He is not like us. We make a grievous error when we believe God is like us. When we make the Creator like the created. He made us in His image - not like Him. Not anymore than a picture of a tree is a tree. And yet...we can know Him. "Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding", says the proverb. Jesus says, in praying to the Father, "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." That we can know God, being utterly unworthy of such knowledge just blows me away. That we can live a life of wisdom and understanding by having an attitude of humility and awe and by knowing God is just so amazing to me.
The call of God is an invitation to life. It always is. A life of understanding, of wisdom, of peace and hope and joy. A life lived not by sight but by faith. A life lived by the power of another world. A life...lived.
A life really lived.
We had a meeting yesterday with about 15 pastors where we discussed the role of women in ministry or the role of women in the church. In a machismo culture it was a truly great discussion where we talked about what the Bible says and where we are at fault and how the culture tries to press us into its mold. I was really proud of the pastors for accepting the responsibility of being men who place themselves beneath the authority of the Bible and then try to figure out how to do minsitry within that reality. It's not an easy thing to do when there are a lot of voices (very loud, sometimes passionate voices) telling you a variety of things, most of which are contrary to what you believe.
It was a good time. It's amazing how much you can have in common with people who believe in the same Lord.
Saturday mornings are a time when we allow our children to rot their brains by watching cartoons and eating cereal so unnaturally colored and devoid of nutrition and that the cereal people are forced to add in vitamins just to avoid prosecution. But they like it. Of course it tastes good and is crunchy. I just ate a little blue ring that tasted like stale blueberry syrup. My daughter is giving them to me one by one. Surely nothing given to me by so beautiful a courier could be bad? The chewing surfaces of my teeth are now smooth, filled to the brim with a rainbow of fruit flavored pseudo grain. A swig of room temperature coffee and all is well.
Our tiny backyard has been overrun by black woolly bear caterpillars. They are an appropriately named creature. Our son enjoys collecting them and storing them in a liter yogurt container with holes punched in the lid. It's a sub-standard prison, but the alternative is death by garden shears or being flung over the razor wire wall into the neighboring corn field so all together it's not a bad deal. He plays with them in the sand box: gritty, fuzzy pre-metamorphosed worms spilling from his hands. He piles them in his dump truck and buries them in the sand and shrieks with delight when they wriggle to freedom, tiny Shai-Hulud ruled by their blue eyed master in a green plastic turtle. It's fun. And boys who can play with dirt and bugs make better men. Of this I am certain.
And so our Saturday is. It will change. As our children grow and sleep until 11, these mornings will pass away and I will have to rouse them from sleep to go and do whatever teenagers will do in a dozen years from now on a Saturday morning in a place I do not yet know. So I will enjoy it now. While it remains. For I am sure I will miss it when it's gone.
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