Minister's Study

New births

2008-03-26T18:55:00.002-04:00

Hoo, boy. I've been meaning to duck in here and post this for a while. During the revival while my sister was here, we had a number of young people attend services for the first time. The speaker was very good at drawing children and keeping their attention. Many of them made the decision to trust Christ as their Savior. Several of them continue to come out to the church, and we're continuing to do follow-up work, getting ready for baptisms, and talking to parents.

During the week, a young couple in the church also had their first child. (The father is the same young man who has decided he is being led to preach.) We'll be having a dedication for the baby this Sunday. The grandparents are just popping with pride. It's always neat to see new births of both sorts.

Sibling Solidarity

2008-03-07T09:38:00.002-05:00

If solidarity refers to togetherness, we've got an unprecedented level of it here for a bit, I think.

One of my sisters has come down from Virginia to spend the next week with us. Of course, one of my brothers is here already, helping in the church. This means that three children from our family will be in the same place at the same time for more than a week. I can't even remember when the last time was that happened -- it's certainly been years, probably since I was in grad school and some of my siblings were in the undergrad program at the same school. Of course, we've still got a brother in Georgia, a brother in Mississippi, and a sister in Florida, but we'll take what we can get for now!

The occasion for my sister's visit is the combination of my daughter's birthday this weekend (my daughter positively adores both this brother and this sister of mine) and a revival at the church with Barry Webb. Brother Webb is known for his impressive puppetry when he works with the children, and my sister has done enough of the same that she hopes to pick up some ideas from him. Regardless of whether she learns to be a puppet master this week, though, I'm looking forward both to having her around and to the revival itself.

Answering the call

2008-03-04T14:04:00.002-05:00

We're, of course, staying busy down here as the weather warms up. We finished up revival last week, I had a Sunday of my own preaching, and then we head back into revival with the Barry Webb family next week, Sunday through Friday.

On Sunday, though, a young man in the church announced that he was answering God's call to preach. He's got a tough row to hoe for a lot of reasons, but it's really neat to see a really transformed life stepping up to do something for God. Possibly more on him later.

They let me out again. Two of them.

2008-02-23T10:54:00.002-05:00

Certain old friends of mine might say that it's tempting fate for me to be involved in jail or prison ministry. But I did both yesterday, and they both let me out again!

Both sorts of ministry are a surprising blessing, though I'm sure it's helping quite a bit that I'm building on foundations already established with those ministries, with the help and guidance of men who are very experienced in them. I tend to do a lot of discipleship-related work at the jail, answering questions and dealing with concrete issues one-on-one, or in a small group of interested men. It's such a pleasure to deal with people who are listening because they want to, because they've seen the difference Bible truth can make in their life.

At the prison, it's more of a formal preaching service when I go (they have an informal Bible study on Saturday). I've only been out there twice, but it's so much fun going to prison, I wish I could do it more often! The men out there are again in that service, not because their mom expects them to show, or because they won't look good in the community if they're not part of a respected church -- they're present because they want to hear what you have to say. They read and study their Bibles on their own, and they're enthusiastic in the services. They seem genuinely pleased that I'm there, and it's a genuine pleasure to be there. Especially since I can leave when I'm done.

Strangely, I fell a greater freedom in preaching while I'm there than I often do in my own pulpit. It's a narrower audience, most dealing with the same issues in life, rather than the broad range I face on a Sunday morning. Many of these men are also able to receive and benefit from things much meatier and deeper than many who casually attend church on a Sunday morning. Sure, there's the spectators there too, there's the first-time visitors -- but the bulk of the group knows their Bible, knows the hard side of life, and they want something real from the Bible to take back to their lives.

Lots more of the same

2008-02-19T12:44:00.002-05:00

I'm just poking my head in here to call out that we're okay. There's lots going on and little time to talk about it. We're still in the thick of missions month, and things are going pretty well. We've heard exciting reports from some missionaries and about terrific burdens from others. I'm still working on the details of a missions trip to Las Cruces, NM, to help an old friend with a church he's planting. We're seeing far more interest in that trip than even I expected, which is producing those good sorts of logistical challenges that I'm working to address this month while I'm not doing as much sermon preparation.

We had planned a baptismal service for this past Sunday evening -- some seven people had made professions of faith and expressed an interest in baptism. But by the time the service came about, none of them worked out -- one wound up with a longer jail sentence than expected (he was converted from Islam while in jail), a few we decided didn't have a firm enough grasp on what we were doing and why, and the remaining pair's family wasn't all going to be able to make it, so we postponed the baptism. I'm guessing we'll do it piecemeal with the group, as each is able. Of course, hopefully we'll continue to add more to that number.

Tomorrow night, we have an old aquaintance of mine here to speak to us -- missionary David Gates, planning to go to Egypt. Sunday, we'll kick off a 4-day revival with Darrel Hayes to wrap up our missions conference.

So much happening, I don't write anything

2008-02-05T18:47:00.000-05:00

That's the annoying thing about blogging, you know -- when there's things going on, there's no time to write about them! By the time the excitement has died down enough to get a post in edgewise, the news all feels dated, and a new wave of events is bearing down on us.

The last few weeks have certainly been eventful, though not with anything really life-transforming, I suppose. We've had one of our buses break down and get repaired. Two bus workers have been attacked by a dog (same dog, different places -- the animal control folk said they had taken care of the dog, but apparently it had refused to fall for their trap, so they left it to bite again). We have finally purchased a church van (much needed! The old one broke down for good in the last few weeks as well). My NY Giants won the Super Bowl, in an upset that would have been virtually unthinkable just a few weeks ago, and still is incomprehensible to many. I've had lots of neat political thoughts and some spiritual ones as well. We're planning a missions trip to Las Cruces, NM. And I've got no time to write about any of it -- in fact, I've got to go now, too!

We're in

2008-01-20T22:07:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, with the help of a caravan of massive manly pickups manned by manly men from the church, we got moved into the new place. Everything there is functional now, though some of it needs some work. There's lots of boxes to be unpacked, lots of cosmetic work to be done on the place, and loads of projects to be completed. But we're in the first house we've ever owned even a part of.

Sadly, we can't get the cable internet out there that we've had for years. This probably means the loss of the Vonage phone line too. I hate to return to the dark ages of paying for a land-line phone and dial-up internet, but we may have to go that route if I can't get DSL. Another possibility is satellite, but it's still expensive, and it's not as reliable (which can be a problem if we're relying on that for phone service too).

So until I get things squared away there, we're using the church's computer for internet, and wrestling with the unpacking of boxes at home. Fortunately, the new place is much larger than the old, so there's mostly places to put things (though my wife still proclaims the need for more shelving and such, in order to organize all these things). The place daily looks more like a residence and less like a warehouse, though.

'Tis Done!

2008-01-09T18:36:00.000-05:00

We actually did close today, and the sale did actually get recorded with the register of deeds. There was a final monkey wrench or two, but all monkeys were successfully wrenched out of the way by the end of the day. The house is finally ours. (Well, okay, a teensy bit of it is ours, with a big bit belonging to the bank -- but it's more than we've ever owned before.) For the record, any transaction involving two law firms, a huge lending institution, an arm of the United States government, and professionals in two different fields simply cannot go smoothly and according to plan for the poor normal people caught up in it. It is impossible, I believe, the probability of such an event taking place being on a par with purely natural abiogenesis. In other words, somebody said it happened once, but I don't really believe it.

Closing Day

2008-01-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

It looks like it might finally be happening. HUD threw their last monkey wrench or two at the process, and we managed to get past them. The paralegals goofed a time or two, but it's been corrected (we hope!) Virtually everything that can go wrong to delay this process has already gone wrong and been fixed. We're supposed to close on the new house this morning. Well, it'll take probably well into the afternoon before it's all done, because I have this annoying habit of actually reading and trying to understand the things I sign. Drives people nuts -- but if something is legally enforceable on me, or if I sign my name to something giving my word, I at least like to know what it is. But barring any final problems, by the end of the day, we should be partial owners (the bank having the lion's share) of our first home.

Post-holiday debriefing

2008-01-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a turbulent couple of weeks here, and it doesn't look like things are likely to slow down much over the next few. But hey, that's not just life in the ministry these days, I suspect -- that's life in these United States, likely the norm for life in the developed world these days, and quite possibly just plain old life. So here's a quick update.

We took a three-day trip up to my mom's just after Christmas. Though it felt odd to have Christmas there without Dad, it was still nice to have all the siblings together for a little bit. The trip went safely and well, and I think everyone had a good time. When we came back down, all but one of my siblings (and my sister's fiance) came with us for a few days. We'd planned to be in the new house by then, so we ended up having to split people up between our current house and the church.

The visit also went well; we ganged up on the church services on Sunday, with each of us three brothers preaching once, and everyone, including the fiance, pitching in for special music. That gave us some fun variety (various combinations of flute, guitar, piano, and vocals). We then went out to a watch night service at our cousin's church in Holly Ridge, where one brother preached, and the rest of us pitched in with music again.

At this point, all the siblings are gone, and things are back to more-or-less normal. We're still waiting on the mortgage company (apparently they wanted an updated title document from the lawyer -- the one he sent them originally is too old; I can't imagine how it got that way -- it's been sitting on their desks for the last month!) Our real estate agent is hopeful, though, that we'll be able to close the end of this week or early next week. We've heard this before, though.

I went out there today with a fellow from the church to replace the thermostat on the house -- temps here are abominally cold, for North Carolina, and we didn't want to risk having frozen pipes for lack of heat in the house. There's a little trouble getting the unit to cut out properly, but at least everything seems to function okay, which is a big relief.

And now, back to the work I should have been doing while I've been typing this quick update.

Passin' Through

2007-12-26T10:56:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! I was passing through the neighborhood, and I decided to drop in and leave a quick message here. My sincere apologies for the prolongued absence in blogging here. Really, I have all sort of brilliantly scintillating things to say...well, okay, mildly entertaining perhaps, or at least moderately interesting. It's just a matter of getting the time to sit down and write it out in a way that makes sense (which is, of course, far more work than most non-writers know!).

We had a pleasant and relaxed Christmas here, which is sometimes exactly what a fellow needs. We're off tomorrow to go visit my mom for a few days, along with the rest of my siblings -- Christmas is usually the only time all year when we're all in the same place at the same time, since we scattered to the four winds, following the Lord's leading in our individual lives. This year, when we return, most of the siblings will be coming down here to Burgaw with us for a visit. We're really looking forward to having them around. My brothers will do a little teaching/preaching for me (and one is preaching for our cousin's church's watch-night service on Monday), and the sisters will do some musical things for the church, and it will be nice to visit with them some, too.

We had planned to have everyone stay at our new house. But at this point, we're still in mortgage-lending-company limbo. I've become pretty annoyed by the ineptitude of someone -- the problem is, it's just about impossible for me to tell whose. We get lots of excuses about the company being behind, it being the end of the month, and so on -- but this is the end of the SECOND month in what should be about a 48-hour process (and it's not like the real estate market has exactly been booming lately to push them behind). We didn't even get a second batch of stipulations until an entire month after we submitted everything they asked for (and pleaded with them for the entire month to let us know if there were possibly anything else they might conceivably want from them). Anyhow, as it turns out, the lawyer we signed with has been on vacation for the better part of a week, and won't be back until next week, either. So we're stuck filing extensions with HUD and living out of boxes. Ah, well. It's honestly not something I'm stressing over, and my wife is taking it as well as can be expected (given that she's the one who has to spend most of her time in the house with the boxes heaped everywhere). There's no reason why the deal should fall through, it's still an excellent deal, and we can wait for a good thing.

Still house-less

2007-12-15T14:52:00.001-05:00

We're not homeless, exactly -- we still have a place to live, since we've not been kicked out of the house we're renting. But sadly, we haven't been able to close on the house we're trying to buy yet. We've done all we can, and as far as anyone knows, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to close -- it just hasn't happened yet. Right now, we're waiting on the lender. In theory, we should hear something definite from them early next week, and then it should only be a two-day wait on HUD before we can close. We'll see -- there's no realistic reason on our end why this shouldn't have closed three or four weeks ago.

In the meantime, another older lady in our church passed away this week. We had her funeral yesterday afternoon. It seemed to go very well, and although not all the family was terribly thrilled by the gospel emphasis in the service, the family who was closest to her (they attend this church, as did she) was thrilled by it and are emphatic that it is exactly what this lady wanted.

In other news, my wife managed to locate a hole in the back yard with her foot this morning. Unfortunately, her foot apparently decided it wanted to stay with the hole when the rest of her tried to leave, so she's down with a sprained ankle -- we're hoping it's not serious.

In a move suggested by Evangelist Kwame Selver when he was here, we've started a Bible study, run by my brother, in a nearby apartment complex. It seems to be going well -- in its first week, three showed up, and a boy made a profession of faith. This week, in its second week, there were eight, of whom two said they decided to ask Christ to save them. Perhaps I'll post some more about the Bible study and the reasoning behind it down the road, maybe when I come back to comment on pastors and age.

Popping in

2007-12-03T19:49:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update to say we're all still alive here. It's been a crazy week or two; a man in our church's brother passed away last week, former head pastor Gibbs' wife had a series of minor strokes and is in the hospital, and we had a guest speaker, among other things. I'll try to post an observation or anecdote or three one of these days, if things quiet down here a bit.

I guess the big news (and the reason I ain't makin' no promises about when I'll be posting those updates and anecdotes) is that we have a tentative closing date on the house we're looking to purchase. We hope to close this Friday, and if not that day, then early next week. Of course, this means that we've been chasing paperwork around the area, and it means that we've got to pack -- and the new place needs a little work before we can actually move in. Nothing major, just lots of time-consuming details. I'm also working to finish scheduling our missions conference this February, arranging summer camp for the teens, and finishing the detail work for our church's Christmas banquet this Saturday. So, we're alive, but we're living on the run.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T17:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We have so much to be thankful for, don't we? I certainly do. The list is just too long for me to write it out here, so I'll just say, God is good.

Visit from friends

2007-11-20T15:47:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been an incredibly long time since I updated this. My apologies.

For the past few days we had some very good friends from out of state visiting us, some ladies my wife and I met on the Notebored. Their visit was wonderful, a blessing to us, and hopefully to them as well. Of course, trying to work ahead for that visit and then spending practically every possible minute with them means that I haven't had much to do with the blogging lately.

Another factor has been our pursuit of a house. Dealing with HUD, home insurance places, and the lending industry is proving to be an arduous war of attrition. I think we're winning, but that kind of war is all too slow for comfort. We're still hoping to be out of the place we live now by the end of the month, but there's no telling at this point if it'll happen or not. We've done just about everything we can (aside from select a home insurance company, which I'm working on), so it's basically up to the lenders and the lawyers and the government how soon we'll be able to close.

By way of update, my brother has a part-time job at a fast-food place for the time being, though I think he's keeping his eyes open for something a little higher on the pay scale that still gives him some flexibility.

The wrestlers I work with have started their competition schedule, even though they don't have the whole team yet (one of the perils of having a small school and a football team into the third round of the state playoffs). One of them has been to church a time or two with us in the last couple weeks.

Our church took up a collection to help needy families in the area have nice a Thanksgiving meal; we know several through our bus ministry in particular. We hoped to help at least four families (the number we helped last year). As of Sunday, the crews delivered the goods for five meals -- and were given another $180 Sunday. It's terrific being a part of a church where people take outreach and caring for others seriously.

This is a very random, scattered post -- rather deliberate, so I can compress a lot of catch-up into a single post, rather than spending several posts giving old news. I'll try to be back much more quickly for more of your posting pleasure.

Bro is back in Burgaw

2007-11-03T11:43:00.000-04:00

My younger brother (but not smaller -- to call him my "little brother" might be deceptive) has now arrived in the teeming metropolis of Burgaw. He's decided to base out of here as he prepares to launch out into evangelism, getting a job for a while to get the funds for what he needs to hit the road full-time.

In the meantime, he'll be helping in the church (he's already off to a good start -- he and another gentleman in the church had three people make professions of faith on visitation, he's been to the jail with me and Bro. Gibbs, and he's out on bus visitation at the moment) and likely living in one of the spare rooms of the place we're in the process of trying to buy. He'll stay rent-free for a month or two in exchange for a little help with the fixing up. Once he lands a job, that'll shape some of the planning for his involvement, I expect.

I'm looking forward to working with him for as long as he's around -- I can definitely use the help.

What? They don't take the U.N. seriously?

2007-10-29T16:19:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I noticed this article. Basically, it says that Iran, led by Muslim radicals who decisively support terrorism and promote the destruction of U.S. ally Israel and call the U.S. the devil, officially sneers at the U.N. resolutions passed because of Iran's continued work toward becoming a nuclear power. Huh. Didn't see that one coming at all.

Oh, wait. That's exactly what we all knew would happen (well, all of us with a smidgeon of sense, anyhow) when the U.N. allowed Iraq to casually disregard resolutions and act in blatant disregard for the ceasefire that ended the first Iraq war. When, instead of enforcing their own resolutions, key U.N. nations chose to criticize the United States for removing Iraq's ruthless, terrorist-supporting, genocide-enacting, chemical-weapon-using thug of a dictator, the U.N. sacrificed the right to have the world take its punitive resolutions seriously.

Fortunately, when Iraq broke the ceasefire that allowed Hussein to remain in power, obstructed U.N. weapons inspectors, and flaunted U.N. resolutions that promised action, there were still some countries that had the will to do something about it. The United States and its allies chose to put their money, their militaries, and the lives of their soldiers where the U.N. put its mouth. After all, what's the point of resolutions and ceasefires if no one will enforce them?

And that's what Iran has realized. The United States, with its large-spread public rejection of finishing the job in Iraq, has made it clear that many in this country have no more stomach for war. And if our military won't back the resolutions of the U.N., why should anyone take them seriously? Can we really see France or Germany invading Iran to eliminate a regime with nuclear weapons that could destabilize a region or be used to obliterate entire cities in the free world? I'd laugh if it weren't so pathetic and terrible. If the U.N. loses the ability or the will to enforce its resolutions against rogue nations with terrorist regimes, it loses whatever dubious power it had as a stabilizing force for this planet. It looks to me as if Iran figures that's already happened.

And so, I guess congratulations are in order for those who have made so much noise opposing the war in Iraq -- it looks likely to me that they will win at some point in the near future, and the U.S. will withdraw its troops (more on that another time) before they can finish the job we sent them to do. The grand prize for Iraq-war-opponents winning their war against victory? A world in which terrorist regimes can do whatever they want in preparation for the prosecution of the war they have declared on freedom, because they know no one will guard the ceasefires and enforce the resolutions.

Brother coming to town

2007-10-27T10:10:00.000-04:00

As it turns out, my brother did not get the job at the Pender Post. Only time will tell how that decision plays out for both parties. Paul has, however, decided to move down here to Pender County and help out at Bible Baptist Church. It seems that his current long-range goal is to head into evangelism; in the mean time and as he takes the first steps down the road to full-time itinerant work, he'd like to be involved in a good, active, soul-winning church that shares the bulk of his convictions.

Fortunately, the job market here seems to be terrific as we head toward the holidays -- he shouldn't have any trouble at all finding work (and given his past job experiences, I expect that even if a place hires him seasonally, they won't want to let him go at the end of the season if they can help it). With us likely moving soon to a place with considerably more space than our current abode, he may stay with us for a month or two in exchange for helping to fix the place up; that should give him plenty of time to seek affordable housing.

I'm looking forward to his arrival, as are some of the church folk (I even know of one or two who have been praying for months that he would decide to come here); there's always plenty to do for a reliable fellow who knows his Bible, has some music training, and doesn't mind working.

Share-a-thon sarcasm

2007-10-25T18:42:00.000-04:00

I've got to be more careful about what I'm sarcastic regarding. For years, I have mocked radio share-a-thons. Although I suppose I'd rather listen to a radio station that takes regular programming off for a week or two out of the year to get listener funding than one that stops for commercials obnoxiously selling things I don't want roughly every 2.5 seconds, I've long made it a point never to listen to the share-a-thons themselves. I mean, that's like subscribing to a round-the-clock telemarketer channel, or something. Not something your average non-masochist does voluntarily.

See what I mean? I can't even talk about them without being sarcastic. It's not like I've got much by way of better ideas to raise funding for listener-supported radio -- I just can't stand listening to people ask for money for hours on end.

And today, I became one of those people. We're in the middle of the Fundamental Broadcasting Network's fall share-a-thon, and since my church operates an AM FBN station, I was asked to help out. Brother Gibbs has long done so, and it would have been ungracious for me not to participate. So for about four hours, I sat with two other guys in a radio studio, and we asked people for money. I think it went pretty well, and the share-a-thon is probably ahead of schedule.

I didn't blog about this ahead of time, partly because I was mildly ashamed to participate in something I have so scorned, and partly because I know none of you would have listened anyhow -- what sensible person wants to listen to someone they know ask for money for hours on end? And I'm sure all the readers of this blog are eminently sensible people. Ahem. Yes, really, I'm not being sarcastic this time. Really.

Housing hopes

2007-10-23T12:01:00.000-04:00

I've held off on posting about this for a while, partly because of time, and partly because I didn't really have anything definite to report.

Yesterday we got word that our offer was accepted to purchase a place a little ways up the road from us. It's a 1999 double-wide (probably the largest double-wide I've ever seen -- over 2,000 square feet of floor space) on an acre of land that looks like it shouldn't flood under reasonable circumstances (hey, that's all you can ask down here -- it's out of all the flood plains and flood zones, but there's never any telling what the next storm might do.)

Although the place is a little farther from the church than we would have liked, the price is right, and that pretty much makes the place right. Since it's a foreclosure, the interior is beat up a bit. (I'll refrain from a rant about people who tear things up because they can't have them any more -- I'm sure it's frustrating, but when you punch holes in the walls of a place you're losing to foreclosure, you're damaging a stranger's house, and it's not their fault you can't keep it. Deliberately damaging someone else's house is vandalism, and a temper tantrum is no excuse. Sorry, okay, I'll stop ranting now. Really.) The place seems solid, though, in the ways that really matter, and we can fix drywall and replace carpets. In a sense, I suppose it's almost a favor -- there's probably no way in this world we could have afforded the place if it were in perfect condition. We've got a home inspection coming up (one was done several months ago, but not for us, and it didn't check the well and septic, both of which are obviously big issues.)

We're hoping to be able to move in before the end of November, so we don't have pay rent for December; I'd like to be moved before it gets wintery here, anyhow. (Yeah, yeah, I know, the winters here are a joke compared to places my wife and I have lived -- but why move in sleet and slush if you can help it?) It's possible I can post a few pics of the place as time rolls on and we get further into the deal. There's still a lot to be done with mortgage company, lawyers, and whatnot. This will, of course, be the first house my wife or I have owned. We figure at this point on staying there for a few years to build some equity and then selling it to move to a stick-built house, if we can.

Revived again

2007-10-18T13:54:00.000-04:00

Last night we wrapped up a four-day revival that celebrated our homecoming here at Bible Baptist Church. We brought in Dr. Ray Stagno from Staten Island, NY, to preach the revival. The astute reader and rememberer will recall that I worked as assistant pastor for Dr. Stagno for about three and a half years before moving down here.

The services went extremely well. We had more children on the bus Sunday than any week since I've been here, and there were several professions of faith made over the weekend. The Spanish S.S. class had a record nine in attendance. Dr. Stagno's messages (Five Essentials for a Quality Christian Life) were quite well received.

Although I'm not big on being nervous, the services going well allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief. This was the first actual revival I'd scheduled since becoming pastor, and so my choice of speakers and the way the services went were bound to be under a little scrutiny, even if it was unconscious.

It was good to see an old friend and to talk about the people and places we have in common. It was also a bit amusing to see someone born and raised in NYC down here in Burgaw, NC. Although people are basically the same everywhere, in a lot of ways, those are two different worlds. Fortunately, God is the same, no matter what accent you wear on your speech, and His Word hasn't changed, even for those who root for the Yankees instead of the Braves. (As it happens, I pull for neither, but I'm ashamed to admit my team after the close of this year's season! Good thing the Giants are doing well in football -- I was set for all kinds of humiliation if they had kept on the way they started.)

I've got an open invitation to go preach at South Baptist, where it appears Dr. Stagno plans to remain as pastor for a while yet, and we'll have to get back up there sometime to see the rest of our friends and remind our daughter of the place she lived for a time, before she forgets completely.

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou (working)?

2007-10-16T16:00:00.000-04:00

My youngest brother came in for a couple days at the end of last week and stayed with us. He's wrapping up his responsibilities where he's currently at, and looking for the next place to be. Since there's a job opening at the Pender Post, where I used to work (basically my old job), at my recommendation, he came down and interviewed for that. I think he could potentially be a real asset to the paper; although he doesn't have newspaper experience, his grammar skills are good, and he's a responsible, hard worker who can learn what people are willing to teach him -- and those qualities are really more important than any amount of experience. A person doesn't have to be a brilliant writer to work for a newspaper -- they just need to be able to collect information from a variety of sources, condense it intelligently, and communicate it comprehensibly. Creativity and brilliance are a plus, but they're worthless without a work ethic, basic intelligence, and decent character -- and they're next to worthless without good grammar.

But I've got an ulterior motive in hoping my brother ends up here, beyond hoping my old paper is successful -- I'd also love to have him here to work in the church. People with Bible college education, intelligence, diligence, and willingness to work (not to mention musical ability and training) are in all-too-short supply. He could potentially be a real asset to the church for as long as he elects to stay, and the church could possibly be a great place for him to launch off on his next step.

The interview with the paper went okay, from what I gather, and he also collected applications from a variety of other places around town. We'll just have to see what comes of it all. While he was here, we went with the editor of the paper to a fly-in at a local airport -- I'll have to post again later with some of the neatness from that.

That bus looked too new anyhow.

2007-10-13T16:46:00.000-04:00

We ran both of our new buses last Sunday for the first time, and they both ran just fine. Although they're closing on the 20-year-old mark, they both have relatively new engines and key components, and we look to get several years of good use out of them.

Of course, one of the bus-riders apparently decided a new bus looked too new -- she brought along a permanent marker with her and drew on the outside and inside of the bus. Of course, she then lied about it (and it's not like a ridiculous number of people, including an adult, hadn't seen her do it) and, once realizing she was caught, couldn't acknowledge that what she did was wrong. No wonder preachers have high blood pressure sometimes. Oh, well -- if the worst bus problem we have to deal with this week is cleaning some markings off a bus, we're SO blessed compared to the months before.

Sunday morning, a young woman visited with her children and mother-in-law. It turned out that a pair of our men had given her a brochure the preceding week. My wife and I visited her on Thursday night, and she decided to trust Christ to save her. Ironically, her husband is a car salesman I'd spoken to several times while we were shopping for a used van for the church, and he'd said repeatedly that he and his family were coming to church, but hadn't made it yet. The wife says they'll all be here this Sunday. A young man in jail also made a profession of faith with me this week. Both seemed very sincere in their professions.

Speaking of this Sunday, we celebrate homecoming at Bible Baptist Church tomorrow. Dr. Ray Stagno, the pastor I worked for in Staten Island, is preaching for us from Sunday through Wednesday. As it happens, my youngest brother is also in town for a couple days -- he came by to interview for basically my old job at the Pender Post. I'm rather hoping things will work out for him to move down here; he could be a big help in the church, and the church seems like an ideal place for what he is looking to accomplish in his life right now. And although he doesn't have newspaper experience (neither did I when I started with them), he's a diligent researcher, intelligent analyst, and hard worker. There's no telling if this will work out, but I think it could work out well for all concerned.

A nice gesture

2007-10-04T16:17:00.000-04:00

Some time back, one of our bus crews discovered what appeared to be a gemstone in a parking lot while out visiting their riders. After much speculation and analysis, it was determined that it wasn't really a diamond or a white sapphire, but merely cubic zirconium. It is nonetheless a beautiful stone, measuring about 3.5 carats.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Sorry, I looked at my av picture and thought I was in a western. Anyhow, it happens that my wife's wedding bands don't fit her too well during the summer here -- the heat makes her hands swell a bit. So we'd gotten her a plain, inexpensive band until we could afford something better for the summers. When she saw this stone, although she generally doesn't like large rings, she commented off-hand that if it weren't terribly valuable, she'd buy it from the fellow who actually found it (and planned to donate whatever it sold for to the bus ministry). As it turned out, the wholesale value of the stone was about $5. She figured on maybe putting it into an inexpensive setting and combining it with the inexpensive band we'd bought -- it would look very nice that way.

The group got to talking, and decided it wouldn't do to make her pay for it after all the work she puts into the children here (and she's not paid a dime for it, nor am I paid extra because of the activity of my wife -- she does it just like any ordinary church member would). And they didn't want to just give her a rock. So they went out and had it set in a ring, and gave it to her. It's lovely, and a lovely gesture from some men who recognize the work and caring she's put into those children. I love my church.

Buses galore!

2007-10-03T09:13:00.000-04:00

Well, it feels like we've got buses galore, anyhow. After struggling to keep one on the road for months, having three in reasonably working order feels like a surfeit.

We finally got the second bus from the fellow we're buying from, swiftly checked it out, and now have it titled and insured. For the first time since I took over, we should have two pretty good buses on the road Sunday morning. Of course, this past Sunday, we sent out two, but one got a flat, so we had to scramble the van out there to ferry the kids in off the bus. Fortunately, the bus was near the end of its route. Now, with three buses, we have an alternate if something goes wrong with one of the others.

Now we've also got two buses that aren't working right now -- one in the shop having the engine rebuilt, and the other that's been sitting here giving up its parts to keep the others working. We'll have to settle on what to do with those -- three buses is enough, but five truly is too many at the moment.

Not keeping up

2007-09-28T11:46:00.000-04:00

Whew, how the time flies. My apologies for going over a week without a post.

Last Sunday, the services went quite well with Evangelist Kwame Selver from the Bahamas. He also went with me to a preachers' fellowship on Monday. I like Brother Selver, even if he does make me look short. (Okay, that doesn't take much, but he sure doesn't help!)

When I went to drop him off at the airport for a rental car, it turned out that it would have cost him in the vicinity of $300-$400 for a two-day, one-way rental (you know, before any of the gas expense of the drive!). Ridiculous. He ended up flying out the next day, then taking a train -- and probably still spent a fair bit less.

We continue to try to get three reasonably reliable buses in operation -- one was supposed to be dropped off this morning for us to check out, but I haven't seen it yet. The fellow who was to bring it is the same guy we bought the other one from. He still doesn't have his money (and, to be fair, hasn't pressed for it) because the valve he promised to fix is still making noise. If we buy this new one from him as well, that's well over $6,000 of money we're holding for him -- I'd be hurrying a little more!

We have quietly been looking at places to purchase to get out of the rent-trap, in which your money goes entirely to someone else instead of largely to the bank for interest and a little bit to equity. Our best shot looks like it fell through, but that's probably just as well. What's not just as well is that we also got notice that our rent is going up if we sign another year-long contract, and it's going up more if we stay on, but don't sign the contract. We've been thoroughly disgusted with our dealings with Laney Real Estate, so we're probably going to accelerate looking for a place to buy (preferably not from them!), in order to get as far from their generally incompetent influence as possible. And now I must go turn off a radio broadcast -- I'll try to post again soon to continue with the catching up.

Back on the mat

2007-09-18T10:57:00.001-04:00

Well, roughly a zillion shots and blood drawings down (with at least two still to go) in order to prove that I'm not about to drop dead or make someone I breath on drop dead, I'm back to helping out the local high school's wrestling squad. Tougher restrictions on coaches have necessitated physicals, background checks, reference checks, and more in order to help with a high school sports team. I should have just applied to the NSA in order to get access to their workout facilities -- it would have been easier to get approved! This is a lot of hastle to stay in shape and help some kids learn a sport.

But anyhow, the doctor vampires have taken my blood and replaced it with whatever they stick in vaccinations, and practice started up last week. I suspect I'm going to have to keep telling myself for the next many practices what I did last week: "Twenty-nine is not old, no matter how you feel."

Actually, I felt pretty good -- a little soreness in the usual places, things that it's tough to really work out without actually wrestling or having access to a good workout facility of some sort. But I wasn't on the mat all that long, and it wasn't that bad. I've been jogging this summer carrying weights (I'm up to five pounds in each hand now), and although that's murder on the old knees and elbows, I'm probably in better shape than any time since back when I was wrestling steadily in Staten Island against tough guys. Either the scales are being kind (I really do wonder about the accuracy of that cheap set we've got), or all those blazing-hot-afternoon jogs with weights and one-arm pushups worked in have actually knocked off the offending five pounds I've been carrying for the last year.

So now I get to go back in there once a week for the time being and try to stay ahead of those high school kids who are just longing for a chance to take down Coach Dan. One of them managed it once last year. We'll see if he can do it again.

Barely bussing

2007-09-17T09:34:00.000-04:00

There must have been just enough fingers crossed and wood dented on our behalf yesterday. Actually, it's because God is gracious. Although the buses were in working order yesterday (though that valve I thought was fixed actually wasn't), we almost came up one driver short. At the moment, we only have two drivers for two routes. (Yes, we're working on getting more.) One of them came up with a bad back on Saturday. He wasn't able to go out visiting with the crew Saturday, and he wasn't even able to make it back on Sunday night, but the pain was reduced enough that he was able to drive Sunday morning. And at least two new children who rode a bus made professions of faith in the teen class.

Batchelor Blues, or, How Do Single Dads Do It?

2007-09-15T16:05:00.000-04:00

My wife is away for a ladies' fellowship a couple hours from here. I'm happy for her. Really, I am. (No, no resentment at all! Honest!) But man, I'm glad it's only for a day!

We have this wonderful daughter, see, age five. We've looked, but standard equipment on five-year-olds doesn't seem to include a mute button or an off switch. This regrettable oversight in design or manufacture results in a product that can make getting things requiring concentration accomplished even more challenging than usual. Add to that the fact that a National Guard mobilization may be required to handle the cleanup operation every time I attempt anything more complex than frying an egg in a kitchen, and it's not a good thing to leave us alone for all that long. (Yes, I do have a hard time frying eggs -- the accursed things either splatter all over the place when I attempt the cracking, or they don't crack enough to break, resulting in me smashing them into little fragments when I try to open them. I'm not a conspiracy theory kind of person, so I'm refusing to believe that the chickens have it in for me. My repeated devouring of fried chicken, chicken adobo, baked chicken, chicken fingers, and Buffalo wings -- that's pure coincidence.)

On the upside, my daughter tells me that I'm kinda fun. I think she's just trying to console me about the trouble with the eggs, though.

Even a slow week goes by fast

2007-09-15T12:20:00.000-04:00

Somewhere around the middle of this week, I was thinking, "Wow, this week has been so much less eventful and hectic than last week -- I'm only a little behind on the myriad tasks I lined up at the start of the week." Now, looking back from the end of the week (with altogether too much of that list remaining undone), I'm realizing the week hasn't exactly been uneventful. In fact, it's been downright normal (which translates as "Insane!" to most, I suspect). I won't try to pack it all into one post; I like to keep posts to under 400 pages, a trait my seminary professors probably wish I'd developed in time for those gargantuan research papers. Here's a few quick updates on what's going on in the ministry here, though.

I don't believe in jinxes, crossing fingers, knocking on wood, and so on. Um, would someone else mind crossing their fingers, toes, pigtails, and whatever else is handy, oh, and banging on whatever wooden objects come to hand? At the moment, it looks like both of our buses should roll tomorrow -- the scary tires on the old one have been replaced, the gizmo on the filter of the new one has been replaced, and even the brake valve on that one is done. This is a good thing, since tomorrow is "picture day," (maybe more details on that after the event?) and that usually brings a whole slew of children, I'm told.

Last Friday on jail ministry, I gave a man a tract and went through the gospel with him. He seemed receptive, but didn't make a decision at that point. When I came back this week, he was still there, and said he had prayed, asking God to forgive him of his sins. Hallelujah! This week, I went through the gospel with a young man (probably older teen), who also seemed very receptive, even moved. But he decided not to receive it while I was there, in spite of the encouragement of his roommate. Those of you who pray, ask God to bring this work to fruition in his heart. Oh, and we're happy on behalf of one of the men we've been working with for about 10 months -- he was finally released, given probation and a suspended sentence. Over those months, he has been tremendously consistent in everything I can see, a genuine believer who is growing in the Lord. We'll have to see if he makes it stick now that he's out. I don't think that what he had was jailhouse religion -- but a lot of men who mean well when they get out slip away once they're back in their old neighborhood, with the same family and friends, habits and influences that helped bring them down in the first place.

Bus? Bah!

2007-09-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

It was a pretty wild week here at Bible Baptist last week. Along with the two deaths in the church, when Sunday morning rolled around, our new bus still wasn't working. A little plastic lip missing on a piece of a filter housing was allowing air into the fuel and fuel to leak. The men had to run that route using a van and an SUV. I'm beginning to think that bus breakdowns may be a leading cause of pastor breakdowns!

This past Sunday was also my wife's last week teaching the junior church; next week is a transition, and the following week one of our newer families will take over that as my wife moves to a Wednesday night children's class. My wife was praying that she would get to see at least one child saved on her last day. When she finished her lesson, five came forward to be saved. If you believe in spiritual warfare, it shouldn't surprise you that a ministry in which we are seeing such results is having strange mechanical problems. For all the effort and money we've put into getting and keeping the buses running, I don't think we've had a single week since I became head pastor in which two buses worked properly on the same week -- it's always some flukey thing that keeps one of them off the road or makes it break down. But over that time span, I've lost track of how many children who rode in on the bus (or van, or car, or whatever we had to use to bring those who want to come -- we're considering a horse and buggy team at the moment) have trusted Christ and made decisions to live for Him.

Two girls that made professions of faith during the week on visitation also rode a bus to attend Sunday morning, and a couple who came for the first time last week joined the church Sunday morning. They joined the choir Sunday night and said they plan to be here every time the doors are open -- they should be here tonight for soul-winning visitation.

I have preached hard the last two weeks about faith, commitment, and revival. I've been praying for it, and I believe we will see it, and we may already be reaping some of the first fruits.

Funeral franticness

2007-09-07T09:35:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in the last post that the graveside-service-only funeral presented a bit of a challenge for me. It definitely went down as a first for my ministry. Incidentally, I posted a couple of posts ago that Brother Larry was the first death in the congregation since I became head pastor; thinking back, there was another, but she died so shortly after I became pastor that much of the funeral was handled by Bro. Gibbs, since he'd been her pastor for so many years. But now, back to Bro. Larry's burial.

For a graveside service, especially one so little advertized, this one was extremely well-attended. A large number of Wilmington Police and city workers showed up (Bro. Larry had worked with their vehicles for years and apparently developed a strong rapport with them.) Wilmington Christian Academy, where the Vann's daughter goes to school, sent a busload of her classmates and teachers -- a really classy thing to do, I thought, and the only time I've ever seen a yellow school bus at a graveside service. There was also a fair number of family members and friends.

One thing was missing -- Bro. Gibbs, who was to sing a favorite song and bring the message. A couple minutes after the ceremony was supposed to start, I reached him on the phone and found out he had gotten lost. (I can't blame him for that -- I had a terrible time finding the place myself; it's a beautiful cemetary, but it's down a small side road without a sign on the main road.) With no sure idea when he would arrive and an awful lot of people shuffling their feet in the NC heat, and the bagpipes stopping their prelude to look at us expectantly (yes, we had bagpipers -- two of them, and two of the best I've ever heard), we decided to go ahead with the ceremony and hope he showed up before time to speak.

So I opened as planned, read Scripture, and looked up -- and there was still no Bro. Gibbs. So I sang a capella a song the family had mentioned as a second possibility (I didn't know the one Bro. Gibbs was going to sing), and went ahead and brought the message.

As soon as I was done, Bro. Gibbs pulled up. I can only think that it was of the Lord -- that there was something in that song I sang instead, or that I said, that He wanted people to get. It's the first time I've ever done a funeral message completely impromptu, and probably only the second time I've preached impromptu at all -- I REALLY like to be prepared with something worthwhile to say before I stand up in front of people. Nonetheless, I suppose God wanted it this time. Since he got there before the ceremony ended, I had Bro. Gibbs speak as we had planned. He tells me (much embarrassed) that it's the first time in his more than 50 years of ministry that he has ever been late for a funeral. Man, I hope my record is that good when I reach that point!

Rarely a good thing

2007-09-04T17:53:00.000-04:00

Actually, I can't think of any circumstances under which I would be happy to find the police pounding on my door at 4:30 AM. So when that happened this morning, the only good thing I could think of was that it wasn't some local branch of the Klu Klux Klan ready to violently object to my latest Biblically-based diatribe against racism, delivered Sunday night. I suppose another positive was that I knew the officer doing the knocking; he's a good man, and a son of one of our deacons.

As it turned out, to my utter surprise, the wife of one of our other deacons had passed away during the night. The poor man awoke to get ready for work about 4 AM, and when he checked on his wife, found her dead. He had checked on her only a few hours before, and she had said she was fine. Although her health had been poor for quite a while, she had made seemingly great strides of improvement -- this was a complete surprise for all of us. The deacon couldn't remember my phone number (and we got it too recently to be in the phone book), but we only lived a few blocks away -- so the police officers who responded to the emergency call agreed to come and get me.

I spent much of the morning with this deacon and his family; though they are comforted by her faith and by their own (to the differing degrees they possess it), they are all still in shock. Then it was off to do the graveside service of the man who passed away Saturday. I'll have to post later about the funeral fix that left me in.

A death in the family

2007-09-03T21:52:00.000-04:00

No one in my immediate physical family passed away last week. But a man in our church family did. After battling cancer for years, my brother in Christ, Larry Vann, passed away on Saturday. He leaves behind a wife and teenage daughter. Fortunately, he, his wife, and their daughter are all solid Christians.

Brother Larry requested a simple graveside service, with no frills and no great fuss, and that service will be held tomorrow. Since Brother Gibbs led him to the Lord a few years ago, I have asked him to bring a brief salvation address; he will also sing a favorite song. The rest of the Scripture reading and prayer I will take care of.

Brother Larry is a unique man, a standout in his profession, and a good husband and father by all testimonies I have heard and from what I have seen of him since I arrived here. Even in the hospital a few weeks ago, literally on his death bed, he led a young nephew of his wife's to a profession of faith in Christ. Larry would say that the opportunity to do that alone makes his struggle with cancer and passing at this time worthwhile. He will be missed here on earth, but welcomed with rejoicing in heaven. I look forward to seeing him again.

As an aside, this is the first death of a person actually in the church family since I have become the head pastor, and the first time I have prayed with a wife and daughter as they sat beside the cooling body that only minutes before held their husband and father. I cannot express how thankful I am for the peace that Larry displayed in his passing, a peace rooted in his faith in Jesus Christ, and for the peace and strength the Lord has granted his immediate family thus far.

Missionary missing

2007-08-29T13:32:00.000-04:00

We were planning to have missionary David Gates with us tonight in the church service. I knew David from the church we both grew up in. Sadly, he called a few hours ago to let me know that due to some vehicle trouble, he can't make it. We'll try to reschedule him soon. Since the former pastor of the church here, who usually preaches on Wednesday nights, is also out of town tonight, this means I'm scrambling to get a message ready myself. Thanks to the Lord for already-written messages delivered elsewhere that the people here have never heard!

Back to the buses

2007-08-29T13:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, now that I've made a post that didn't have anything to do with buses, we return to our regular programming on the blog of the pastor of Bible Baptist Church -- and that definitely involves buses.

It looks like the fellow we sent the bus to in order to have the engine replaced may come through big for us. They had agreed to at least get the new engine running so we could drive it back here. But when our man went to pick the bus up, it broke down again in the same way. Then the owner came out, the father of my newspaper editor. He talked with our man, and apparently told him that if we would bring the old engine over, he would see that it was rebuilt and installed at no further cost to the church (that's a big job, depending on what level of rebuilding is done.)

The bus we purchased is still running fine, although that valve still needs work. The man we bought it from is supposed to come by and fix that sometime this week; he still hasn't asked us to pay him, since the work isn't all done yet. It's possible we can get another bus from him for the same price.

I still don't know if the white bus in for the engine replacement is ever going to run again. But at least we have one that seems in good shape and the possibility of acquiring another. Then if we can get just one of the three clunkers we own into some kind of rolling condition, we should be set for long enough to replace the van, Lord-willing.

Hey, something other than buses!

2007-08-28T11:43:00.000-04:00

Well, there's more to say about the bus situation here. But if I have one more consecutive bus post, I think I'm going to have rename this the "Bus Blues Blog" or something similarly boring, alliterated, and difficult to repeat rapidly. So I'll leave the bus talk for another post.

Yesterday, I went to a pastor's fellowship (the Eastern North Carolina Fundamental something-or-other, or some such). My brother Paul and sister Laura drove down Sunday afternoon to go along. They did special music for us on Sunday evening. I told the congregation it's always nice when they visit, even if they do show me up whenever they get up to sing or sit down to play the piano.

My wife and daughter also got to go to the fellowship with us. The whole thing was a blessing. They even let me preach (I know -- brave people in that fellowship!) for the first time. You never know until you're there whether you're going to preach or not -- the moderator calls people up as he feels led. And for probably the first time in my life, I left my outline in the front of my Bible and preached something completely different.

Fortunately, the Lord directed me to a subject I've preached on before, but it still felt very strange. Typically, I like to be very prepared, with extremely detailed notes when I speak. I usually don't stand there and read from them the whole time, but I like to think through the whole message on a thought-by-thought, word-by-word basis -- so I might as well write it down as I think through it. Then I've got the notes if I draw a blank or have a particularly careful way I want to word something. If I speak unprepared, I often feel like I'm cheating the listeners.

But this time, the Lord led me pretty clearly to lay aside that very pretty outline on that very practical subject and preach on what I called the forgotten command in Fundamentalism -- "Rejoice in the Lord always." Now, I take seriously that verse in Proverbs that warns, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin," so I didn't preach long ( I hardly ever do.) But the message was well-received.

The rest of the preaching was good. The rest of my sibs' stay was good. God is good. See, I'm rejoicing already!

On the road again

2007-08-21T15:01:00.000-04:00

Two buses, that is. For the first time in a while, we were able to run two buses Sunday morning. It's looking more and more like we'll need to simply purchase another used bus, since the one we've had in to have the engine replaced on is looking like a big-time money drain. We're going to have another place look at it, but the prognosis isn't great. That may leave us with only two decent buses for two routes (I'd rather have three working buses for two routes, especially considering that even our best ones will be nearly 20 years old), but that's two more than we've had in a while.

I've spent a ridiculous portion of today trying to get Wildblue internet here at the church working. Literally hours have been spent on the phone with their tech support trying to figure out why it won't work. [Tech whining follows -- if you're not interested, please skip.] On their end, their equipment told them we had great signal and connectivity and everything should be fine. On mine, I had nothing -- the lights were on, but nobody was home. So their first assumption was that the problem is our router -- they don't support routers, though they don't mind if you use one. I tried explaining I didn't think that was it, and why, but they had me plug directly into a computer to work. Of course, it still didn't work. Next assumption was that it was a problem with this computer. I tried explaining that couldn't be it, because the secretary's computer lost connection when I did. If it wasn't the router and wasn't the individual computer, that left their equipment. Along the way, I'd been on the phone so long with them that the battery died, losing the connection. When I called back, of course I couldn't get the fellow I spoke to originally, so I had to go through much of the same rigamorale with the next person. Unfortunately, this one couldn't grasp my process of elimination, so they decided it must be the security software preventing the thing from working (ironic, since I got the security software from them). They sent me to the security software people, who explained why it couldn't be their stuff keeping it from working. Just to make sure, we turned off their software, and sure enough, Wildblue still wasn't working. In order to run a full-system scan, I had to leave the computer for a while. Naturally, the scan turned up nothing. To prove it wasn't a problem with my computer, I hauled the secretary's computer in the office and connected it -- and it worked fine! Double-checking, I plugged in the router and connected the secretary's computer wirelessly -- it worked fine. Then I connected my computer wirelessly -- it worked fine. Then I plugged directly back into the laptop -- and it's working fine. In other words, nothing changed -- the whole thing has just started working again for no more apparent reason than it quit. Since the router is clearly working perfectly (and nothing has changed with it) and both computers are working fine (and nothing has changed with either of them), the only thing that leaves is a problem with Wildblue. *sighs* Since I never found a real solution, I'm not going to be a bit surprised if this pops up again and I'm on the phone again tomorrow trying to explain to someone else who is quite convinced it just can't be their equipment or service that has a problem. [Okay, I'm done with the tech whining. For now.]

New bus

2007-08-14T10:07:00.000-04:00

Well, the bus troubles aren't exactly over yet. But we do now have a new (to us) bus parked at the church, titled and tagged in our name, and seemingly running fine. The fellow we are purchasing it from has so far been a delight to do business with. He agreed as part of the bargaining to put a set of rear tires on the bus and change a valve; since he was leaving town for several days, and we needed a bus quickly badly, he gave us the title so we can use the bus until he returns -- without taking any of our money until the work is done on the bus. In a move that frees us up to address either the need for another working bus or to move much more quickly to get the van we need, my mother donated the money for the purchase of this vehicle in memory of my father, David Robelen. This should allow us to at least keep bringing the children we have, as we work toward another operational vehicle.

Speaking of vehicles and operating, the bus that broke down after its engine replacement is back at the shop. The owner of the shop (also the father of my old editor at the Pender Post) has agreed to get the bus running without additional expense to us. (A good thing -- the engine replacement had already run $1,700, and the mechanical guys here at the church weren't impressed by the work that had been done for the price.) It sounds like the bus will still need some work, but it's things the men here can handle, from what they're saying. Thus, hopefully within the next week or two, we'll have two working buses. We're waiting to act on purchasing another bus or moving forward on getting a good van until we see how things will play out with this bus.

Bus whoas

2007-08-09T10:07:00.000-04:00

Yes, the title spelling is deliberate. The bus on which we replaced the engine broke down already; it's back in the shop, with us trying to find a way to get it operational that won't cost another fortune, or determine that it will cost a fortune and abandon it to buy another cheap one.

We're still on schedule to purchase the newer one we already had planned, but we're not sure if it's going to be ready for us by Sunday. I'm hoping and praying that one of them will be usable for Sunday morning -- the 40-some-odd kids that we've brought in the last couple of weeks are probably too many to get with the van and individual cars.

An unfortunate side effect of all this expense with the buses we already have is that we may not be able to purchase a new van immediately; we've already had to pass on one good deal because we just didn't have the cash for a decent down payment after what we've committed to pay for buses.

On the upside, we had a missionary here last night, Darwin Tolibas of the Philippines, and he did a terrific job (even without his slides and display -- both destroyed when he was rear-ended a few weeks ago) of both singing (while accompanying himself on guitar) and preaching. He has already planted one church in the Philippines, and he is now raising support to return and plant a second. Again with the money sadness -- I wish we had the money to take on every worthwhile missionary who comes through.

Bringing new life out of dying

2007-08-07T09:52:00.000-04:00

We are excited to see the Lord still at work here at Bible Baptist Church. Sunday morning, a young Mexican man came forward after the service and made a profession of faith -- the second young Spanish-speaker named Fernando to receive Christ here in the last few months. We had enough Spanish-only and bilingual folk to pack out a pew Sunday.

But that's not all from this past weekend. Remember that fellow from the church who was taken into the hospital Saturday non-responsive, due to cancer spreading to his brain? Well, it turns out that after he recovered from his seizure and was able to communicate again, he led his wife's cousin to the Lord at his bedside. If that man's profession of faith was genuine, this cancer, terrible though it is, not only turned one man's life around -- it also enabled him to reach another with the gospel.

Being a shoulder

2007-08-04T18:46:00.000-04:00

I spent a good chunk of today down at the hospital. One of our church members has terminal cancer. He was taken into the emergency room today in a non-responsive seizure. A CT scan revealed the cancer has spread to the brain. Though he recovered consciousness and can now talk adequately now, they have decided to put him into hospice. Fortunately, he's saved (he not too long ago credited the cancer with bringing him to the Lord a few years ago), and confident of his salvation. But that doesn't make this easy on his wife and teenage daughter.

License to spend

2007-08-03T14:59:00.000-04:00

It's not permission to spend at will, but we now have permission from the church to seek out a bus and a van for the ministry. The business meeting Wednesday night went off without a real hitch, with voting going unanimously. Since we have a constitutional requirement that a business meeting cannot be held without two weeks notice, and the deacons and pastor aren't supposed to spend more than $500 without church approval (sensible precautions to prevent the sort of dishonest catastrophes that have befallen some congregations), we asked the congregation to authorize the deacons and pastor to select and purchase both a van and bus for no more than a combined $29,500.

My notion at the moment is to get an inexpensive bus that will get us through another couple years, while buying a late-model, low-mileadge van that should be a long-term solution. The van currently runs every service instead of just on Sunday mornings, so it seems like a priority. Once we finish paying for the van, then we can look at acquiring long-term bus solutions.

Unfortunately, repairs on the bus we were having the engine replaced on ended up running over $1,700. That sets us back a good bit in down-payment terms. Fortunately, the Lord has been good and His people have been faithful, so we seem to be pretty financially stable at the moment, in spite of a slight summer slump (which is normal, as people go on vacations, and teachers don't work).

You know, it's things like this bus situation that can drive a young pastor to distraction. We've been taught and given experience in preaching, teaching, counseling, even baptizing and making statements of faith, and so on. But nobody in Bible college or seminary tells you how to tell which bus to purchase (much less which investment to package to use for a former pastor's retirement funds, to name another time-consuming decision), or even where to go to get the information you need for practical decisions like these.

I wish I could have a word or two with the teacher of my church management and programming class, or maybe the deans of the various decent schools out there. The classes are simply not geared toward situations most young pastors are likely to encounter. Oh, well. I guess that's why we've got deacons, the internet, and most importantly, brains of our own. All I've got to say, though, is that after this crash education in bus mechanics, high speed internet services, website development, wireless networking, and investment strategy -- mine hurts.

Crawling the Web

2007-08-01T10:01:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to report that I am writing this blog entry from a computer at the church. This means that the church now has high-speed satellite internet. Well, mostly. Or at least sort of.

After a marathon install session yesterday that ended up costing us a couple hundred dollars more than a regular install, and took until about 5 p.m. after starting in the morning (no lunch for me, he says sadly), we finally have reasonably high-speed access to the internet on one computer. Not the one we wanted, since Wildblue apparently isn't talking with Windows ME, but this is better than nothing.

Had it not been for the heroic efforts of a church member who came by to help set up a wireless network here at the church (supplying at his own expense all the components so far), we might still have nothing. Our installation person was clearly a professional at getting the equipment set up outside and getting it into the building -- but actually working with the computers was clearly not his forte, and so when we ran into hitches of various sorts, of which there were several, this meant long delays. Our church member ended up coming back over last night while we went out on visitation (on which at least one profession of faith was made, and a couple of very positive visits, as well), and working until about 9 p.m. to get things with the network as far along as they are now.

This all wouldn't have been so obnoxious a system of delays had yesterday not been our wedding anniversary. Between me having to be here for this install and visitation, I scarcely got to see my poor wife yesterday -- we'll have to kind of reschedule for another day.

Of course, we're not done with climbing into the web here at church. It looks like the Windows ME computer will have to be switched to another operating system (along with having Office put on it, so I can actually produce things like sermons on it), and the secretary's computer still needs some work before it'll recognize the wireless network, or some such. But this is progress. At least now I have the computer and internet connection to do some of my work from here at the church while I wait for the rest to come together.

Still rolling

2007-07-30T12:31:00.001-04:00

Well, the van is still rolling anyhow. And one of the buses managed the trip to and from Wallace yesterday. Along with the promotion we ran, that meant we had at least 45 children come via the bus (not counting adults who rode). We really need two reasonably reliable buses, preferably three, along with a good van, if we're going to see the ministry continue to grow.

And then someone points out, if we bring in many more, we'll need to find someplace to put them -- several of the Sunday School classes are practically at capacity, and they had to set up extra chairs for children's church yesterday. But hey, these are good problems, right? Having so many people who want to come you're not sure how to get them all there, and then having so many here, we're trying to find room for them all.

Funny thing is, adult attendance has been down a little the last couple of weeks. The Lord continues giving fruit to our soul-winning efforts, though; we saw six professions of faith this past week.

When will it be me?

2007-07-26T16:54:00.000-04:00

Let me go on the record here as saying that I fully support the war on terror. I also support our troops remaining in Iraq until the democratically-elected government (which has requested we remain) is able to sustain itself in the face of minority insurgents within its country and foreign terrorists oozing through its borders to help them. I'll try to get into the reasons I think it would be monumentally unintelligent to pull immediately out of Iraq some other time.

But there has been a side effect of this war on terror that greatly concerns me. A little tool that has been developed to help fight that war. I've mentioned it before, and I've said I'm not sure what we're doing there is moral. (Any worse than what our enemies have done and are willing to do? Absolutely not! But we don't want to sink to their level, or anywhere close to it -- that's why they're the bad guys and we're the good guys. At least, I hope we are.)

But I have another reason to oppose the long-term incarcerations at Guantanamo Bay. Has anyone caught what is happening there? The government or military can slap a label on a person, then without presenting proof that the person is guilty of any crime, or even guilty of being associated with that label, can lock them up and keep them for as long as they want.

There are two enormous dangers of this, dangers that have manifested themselves throughout history. The first is that the label, or its definition, can change at any time, once the precedent has been set that the government can do whatever it wants with people after it slaps a label on them. Right now, the label is "terrorist." But what happens if the label gets changed to "religious extremist"? Or "Fundamentalist"? Conversely, what happens if the label gets changed to "Anti-Christian extremist"? Or "Anti-American" (the most dangerous of all, I suspect)? And what exactly do any of those things mean? Apparently, whatever the government wants them to mean. Guantanamo Bay was set up to house "terrorists." You would think that means people who have been actively involved in an act of terror, or conspired to commit one. But by the government's own admission, hardly any of the people there (if any) have actually taken any terrorist action of any sort, much less one against our country. Not only that, but they don't necessarily have evidence that the people even belong to a terrorist organization. Some of them, the government knows full-well have no connection to any real terrorist organization. They simply had some reason to slap that label on the person, and they get to pick the label and pick what it means. So if the government doesn't like you, for any reason, they can slap the label "terrorist" on you and lock you away without ever showing evidence for why they did it, without ever allowing you to face your accusers, and without ever letting you speak for yourself. And they can keep you forever.

Once you give the government a power, that power will be exercised by whoever is in office. Powers you give today, trusting they will be used responsibly by people you helped put in office, will be used tomorrow by people you loathe and who may well hate you and what you stand for. Has any protection been put in place that indefinite incarceration without presentation of evidence or opportunity for trial will only be used on those who are labeled "terrorists"? And is there some way to force that label to always mean the same thing? Or do all of us who don't at any given time agree with the majority of voters, or whoever is in office, on some major issue have to live afraid that the powers granted to our government will be used against us?

The second immense danger is that people will use it to hurt personal enemies. This happens eventually in every police state I know of (and no, I don't think we live in one -- those who claim we are should try visiting one sometime, and maybe making publicly there the claims they make here. I'm terribly sad to think they might not survive to make it back here and report on the similarities.) A person will have an enemy or rival and know that if a particular label gets applied to that person, he will be removed, perhaps permanently. And since there's no trial, no standard of proof, not even a presentation of evidence, all a person must do is report his rival with enough information to cast suspicion on him. How much do you trust your neighbors? You know how rumors get around about people. How about your co-workers? Your business rivals? Do you really think they've all got the scruples not to make a quiet phone call to cast a little suspicion on you?

Honestly, I think we're a long way from that. I'm sure that, especially here in the United States, an accusation of terrorism would be researched pretty carefully to see if it's substantiated. A false accuser would probably find himself very unpopular, and possibly in a lot of trouble. But that long way can shrink fast. And if we let our government have the right to lock people up indefinitely on the mere suspicion of their involvement with someone who might have done something -- we're taking a big step in that direction.

I am no prophet in the Biblical sense. But I've read some history. And I know what happens when a government has the power to take action against any group of dissidents, without concern for legal restraints. That power eventually gets used against those who won't conform to the state. And historically, that power has been used against conservative Christians. Since the days of Rome, continuing through the so-called dark ages in Catholic-dominated Europe, in Hitler's Germany, and into modern days with Soviet Russia and communist China, not to mention in every seriously Islamic state in history, those who believe like I do about the Bible, Jesus Christ, and salvation have had the power of the state exercised against us in terrible ways.

I am afraid to give the government a power which will almost certainly be used against me or others like me. And if you don't see eye-to-eye with at least 51% of the American voters on every major issue and have the courage not to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those you can't see eye-to-eye with, you'd better be a little nervous too about letting the government lock up indefinitely whoever it wants without trial and without evidence. How long before it's me? How long before it's you?

Liberty Hall win

2007-07-20T14:37:00.001-04:00

In other, less-significant news, my latest story in the Liberty Hall flash challenges notched a win (my second in a row, though the entries came six weeks apart -- there hasn't been much time for writing lately). Both stories featured members of a fictional, future group of mercenary soldiers called the Escadrille. At some point, I guess I should start editing and sending these stories around.

Missionaries often have cool backstories

2007-07-20T14:21:00.001-04:00

It's an important feature in a major character in fiction -- the story of how they got to be who and where they are now, whether it's all detailed in the book you're reading or not. It's true of real people, too. Just because they just entered our lives yesterday doesn't mean they popped into existence right before that. With fictional characters, the author's flights of fancy can produce dramatic backstories. With real people, the mundane is perhaps more normal. But I'm finding with our missionaries that mundane may not apply.

At least, that's been the case with our last two. Brother Karl Sapp, missionary to North Pole, Alaska, started college to study thermonuclear physics, and was apparently a standout student before changing gears and going into full-time ministry. He can still wax rhapsodic about subnuclear physics, though, and his sheer intellectual prowess shows quickly when he starts slinging around Japanese (which he learned swiftly as a missionary there before going to his current polar position).

This week, we had the Scott Cornoyer family at the church. To our surprise, both he and his wife over-lapped our time at Pensacola Christian College. He was in the community training at the naval air station there in Pensacola, while she was a student and on staff at the college for our first couple years there. He ended up spending some 14 years in the Navy, flying over 400 combat reconaissance missions and garnering some cool stories. After that, he worked for the Secretary of Defense and for a civilian contractor, also in the intel business. Meanwhile, he and his wife have been acruing six children, with the oldest having just turned nine. They are now on their way to start a much-needed church just a few miles from the Washington D.C. beltway. He expects that his high-flying background in the Navy, Department of Defense, and civilian contracting will open doors to him, as he goes to a place characterized by intellect, education, affluence, cynicism, and corruption.

Still kickin'

2007-07-16T18:20:00.000-04:00

Well, actually, it's been considerably too hot lately to do much unnecessary activity. But I could kick if I wanted to. Really, I could.

I am now approved to go to the prison and leave without the assistance of a judge or a very long delay. It strikes me that if you don't want to go to prison, yet they want you there, they make it very, very easy to end up inside. But if you actually want to go into the prison (without involving some sort of legal unpleasantness), it's a ridiculous process. But I now have all the paperwork filed, have been told that it's a very bad idea to rape the inmates or let them rape each other, and been orientated -- so now, I just have to wait until next month for the new list of approved people to come out so I can go assist in the prison ministry.

Busy? Pshaw!

2007-07-12T11:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, remember what I said about being busy as the new head pastor? Ain't changed. I was horrified to stop in here and realize that it's been nearly a week since I last posted anything. This post will be very random, I think.

Let's see. Shortly after that last post, a 95-year-old woman from the church passed away. We had her funeral on Monday. I don't know if I've ever seen so much family at a funeral; apparently her bloodlines are both prolific and long-lived. It was an easy funeral; I think all of the immediate family are professing Christians, and there is no doubt in anyone's mind where that lady is now.

By way of a rant, I'm really getting fed up with trying to get high-speed internet at the church. The dialup we're using right now is utterly inadequate. But Time-Warner wants $1500-2000 just to install their service (apparently they would have to burrow under the parking lot to get to the power box), and then another $80/month (when I wouldn't be using it for anything more than I already do from my home office). The local telephone company (AT&T or Bellsouth, depending on who bought out who this week) says on both websites that DSL service is not available at that location (this in spite of the fact that probably fewer than a half-dozen doors down, the Gibbs have it in their house). Satellite not only costs hundreds to install, but will also want high monthly rates. Argh.

On the upside, we continue to see people making professions of faith at an astonishing rate. We are up close to 50 now in fewer days than that, I believe. There are some young men in the church who have become really enthusiastic about it, and the Lord seems to be working. I just hope that those who have made professions won't fall by the wayside, but will make decisions to live for Christ.

We're also working to procure a decent van for the church. Speaking of which, I need to get some more info (among a small page-long list of other things to do). Back to work!

Boss chairs don't get sat in enough

2007-07-06T15:59:00.000-04:00

Whew!

I've been the head pastor here at Bible Baptist Church for most of a week now, and it feels like a mere decade. It's been good, but man, it's been busy.

We just finished a revival with Ron Williams of the Hephzibah House (a home for troubled girls) in Indiana. He holds some unique viewpoints, even a few I don't think I agree with, at least not completely. But he's remarkably intelligent and is a passionate and gifted speaker. He spoke powerfully in every service, and we saw many decisions made. He spoke on the subject of the family, and some of what he said re-enforced things I've said in my Sunday School series on the same subject, while others paved the way for difficult things I have yet to say.

In other news, fully seven people made professions of faith during visitation last night -- praise the Lord!

I got called to the hospital last night after I got back from visitation; we thought a 95-year-old lady in the church was about to pass away, but she pulled through and seems to be doing better today.

The church van has holes in at least two tires (one being the spare); I was hoping they would hold up until we could buy a new van, but now I'm trying to figure that out. And the bus we had in for brake work turns out to probably have a cracked head gasket. *sighs* I'm off to check into the repair on that.

Not doing too much sitting in the boss's chair twiddling my thumbs, that's for sure!

First wedding

2007-07-04T08:18:00.000-04:00

Saturday, the day before I officially became head pastor of Bible Baptist Church, I got to officiate my first wedding. The couple has been a delight to work with -- he, originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, was saved through the jail ministry, and left behind a life of drugs, drinking, and violence to become one of the most faithful and energetic servants of the Lord in the church. She, raised in a sheltered home here in NC, is the church's pianist.

The wedding was simple and brief, with the longest part being a (still rather short) salvation message for the benefit of his unsaved family (he requested this especially). As weddings go, it ,may have been the easiest I'll ever perform.

There was still some confusion, though -- entirely my fault. See, these little things called marriage licenses are really important, apparently. And, here in NC at least, they give the couple not one, but two. And the pastor and both witnesses have to sign both of them. (Apparently, a photocopy just won't cut it for Vital Records or the Register of Deeds.) Well, with all the picture taking and whatnot, when I had the witnesses sign, I only had them sign the top copy! So that left me Sunday and Monday scrambling to find the witnesses again and have them sign the bottom copy. Fortunately, both of them chose witnesses that live relatively locally -- it could have been a lot worse!

WV follow-up

2007-06-28T14:04:00.000-04:00

Here's a few pictures from the WV missions trip.

The first is the pastor of the church we were helping and missionary Karl Sapp playing some down-home gospel music at a cookout at the pastor's house. Turns out they're both pretty good and the pastor and his wife are both terrific singers.

The second is our raft headed through one of the better rapids on the Lower New River in West Virginia. That's a class four, folk, and it was a blast. You can just see the helmet of the girl in front of me as she's being submerged. That grin on my wife's face (she's right behind me) is one of the biggest on record for her, I believe.

The last is a river we crossed on our way home, early in the morning.

All's Quiet on the Economic Front

2007-06-26T21:21:00.001-04:00

Strangely quiet, in fact. It's another thing I just don't get, I suppose.

A few elections ago, the Democratic Party ran with the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid." Huh. Funny how political talk these days in major news outlets and from Democrats in general is incredibly silent about the economy.

For an issue that was of the utmost importance a few years ago (while stormclouds were gathering unnoticed in preparation for a war against the United States by Islamic radicals), it apparently doesn't figure very high in Bush's approval ratings these days -- the last poll I saw showed an approval rating of a mere 32%.

Yet right now, unemployment is low, stocks are high, wages are up, and consumer spending is up. All that negative talk about how bad or ineffective for the economy Bush's unusual tax rebates would be has been quiet, as Bush's administration smoothly led the country out of a recession handed to him by his predecessor.

And so, as the economy flourishes practically unnoticed in political circles, Bush's approval rating continues to suffer because he is keeping his word to the nation, the world, and the people of Iraq. Strange -- in my book, it's a good thing when someone, especially a politician, has the guts to keep his word, even if it's unpopular. And if he's able to develop economic policies that bring the country out of recession and lead it into some of the strongest positions it's had in decades, all the better. I've said it before, and I'll go into more detail later, but I have grave concerns about some of the decisions made by the Bush administration. But those concerns cannot negate my acknowledgement of the things he's done well.

I don't know how history will judge this President yet, or what God would say if he stood before His throne. I don't know if Bush will go down as the President who opened the door for unprecedented oppression of state-defined enemies of the state or if he'll be known as the man who saved modern Western civilization by being one of the few political leaders willing to take an active, confrontational stand against global terrorism.

I guess the state of the U.S. economy probably will just be a footnote in the history books when they're written. But I tire of the hypocrisy -- "Give us politicians with character, who will stand for what they believe in, even if it's unpopular -- so long as it is popular with us!" And, "It's the economy, stupid -- and we're glad you're stupid enough to notice that it's only the economy when economic issues benefit our party."

Pastor Gibbs' retirement

2007-06-25T14:16:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we celebrated the retirement of one of the most tremendous men of God I have ever known.

After 18 years here in Burgaw, Pastor Carl Gibbs preached his last Sunday morning as pastor of Bible Baptist. He plans to remain in the area, working in the church when he's not speaking elsewhere. I have been blessed and privileged to work under him for the last year, and I can't think of anyone else I would rather have worked under for that time. I mean that.

The services went well. We had a large turnout, both of our people and friends and family of Pastor Gibbs from all over the Southeast. We heard testimonies, and the captain of the jail came out to give Pastor Gibbs a trophy of sorts for his years of work in the jail. At least two or three of the men in the service came because of the jail outreach. Though we had to improvise a bit from time to time, all went well. It was a fitting tribute to the faithfulness of a servant of the Lord, and a greater tribute to the faithfulness of his God, Who has sustained him.

Soaking wet, freezing cold, bone-weary -- man, that was fun!

2007-06-23T20:21:00.000-04:00

We're back now from our brief mission trip to West Virginia. As it turns out, West Virginia at night (or on an overcast day while soaking wet) is considerably cooler than Burgaw, North Carolina, this time of year. Strangely, that fact scarcely occured to my wife or me while we were packing.

But that's okay. We had a safe trip going and coming, saw one girl make a profession of faith and hundreds of tracts distributed. We had a good time of fellowship with the people of the church we visited in West Virginia.

On Friday, we went whitewater rafting on the lower New River -- what a blast! We went through class four rapids, and we had a great time. Even my wife, who was threatening to kill me for bringing her, assuming she survived the trip, came out of there with one of the biggest grins I've ever seen on her and called her parents to tell them that they have GOT to try doing that with us.

I may post a couple of pics in the next few days if I get them and get the chance. Tomorrow is Pastor Carl Gibbs' last Sunday as pastor of Bible Baptist Church, so we're having a fellowship and special services in his honor. It's a rotten day for me to be so worn out that I can hardly see or walk straight, so I've got to get some rest for tonight along with finishing up preparations for the morning.

Caution: God at work

2007-06-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

I left off on the church reports with last Wednesday, I believe. Well, my wife taught the children's class last Wednesday with the regular teacher absent, and she was privileged to lead another girl to the Lord.

Thursday, a young lady whose life just came crashing in came to the church in need of help with her rent; the church helped her a bit. Thursday night, I went by her house with one of our young men, and she accepted Christ as her Savior.

Saturday evening, we held our men's fellowship at the church. About 25 men and boys showed up, and we had a great time. Missionary Karl Sapp (of North Pole, Alaska, by the way) brought a challenge. One of the men in attendance was my good friend and ex-boss, the Pender Post's brilliant young editor Mike Todd. After the event, he went up to interview Brother Sapp, and wound up being led to the Lord! Mike was in church Sunday night, and we're really hoping he sticks with it.

Sunday morning, a Mexican man joined the church (he's been attending for quite a while now), and he brought a friend who chose to receive Christ. My wife also got to lead another child to Christ after my brother taught the children's church.

This week, we're off to West Virginia with folk from our church and two others on Wednesday to do some tract distribution on Thursday, try whitewater rafting on Friday, then return on Saturday (prior to Pastor Gibbs' retirement ceremony on Sunday).

Father's Day visit

2007-06-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

I've not posted on this as much over the last several days as I had been. My apologies, but things haven't actually slowed down all THAT much since I left the newspaper.

My mother and one brother and sister came to visit us over the Father's Day weekend (with Dad no longer with us, they decided to come down here rather than spending the weekend alone up in VA). We had a delightful, though too-short, visit; I couldn't leave all the church responsibilities behind just because they were here.

I'm afraid we rather put my brother to work while he was here; he wound up hanging some airplanes my dad had made from our ceilings and playing general handyman around the house, even fixing my wife's nice mixer (now she can go back to making deserts!)

We also had him play the piano and teach children's church and had my sister sing for the morning service.

My wife and I are going on a church missions trip to West Virginia this week, so when my family headed out, they took our daughter and collie dog with them. We'll re-acquire the two of them when we come back at the end of this week.

This will be the longest time we've been away from our daughter in the five years since she was born. My wife is having a strangely hard time with that.

They keep rolling in

2007-06-13T07:55:00.000-04:00

We continue to see people making professions of faith here, as we continue to witness. Last Friday in the jail, Pastor Gibbs had three make professions of faith. (The rascal gave me the wrong guy in the nine-man cell -- he got the one that needed to be saved, and I got the one who needed to deal with assurance and security! *grins*)

Then on Sunday, after a new church member taught children's church as a guest speaker (his family joined the church a few weeks ago, and he'd like to work with the children's ministry), my wife got to lead two girls to the Lord. One was a church girl, and the other was a bus kid. I'm thankful for my wife's discernment; two others had said they wanted to make the same decision, but talking with them, she realized that they simply didn't understand yet.

We're not interested in notching belts here. There have been a number of folk that we could have led or pushed into a quick prayer, but that would have been irresponsible and pointless, if the people didn't understand. We're interested in life-changing decisions, and that only happens when a person understands and consciously decides to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Speaking of life-changing decisions, we're hoping to see more fruit from those who have made professions of faith in the last couple of weeks. We're not seeing much yet. Until you see people start to make decisions that reflect a walk with Jesus Christ, it's a lot harder to tell if they really meant that profession.

Sometimes my allies scare me

2007-06-08T20:09:00.000-04:00

The other day I got one of those pass-along emails from a good friend. The email purported to be (and may well have been) a letter from an angry woman about those who protest some of what has been done in the name of the war on terror.

In the letter, the woman makes the excellent point that we are supposedly at war with terrorism, on a global scale. She points out, quite accurately, that it was Islamic militants who slaughtered literally thousands of innocents on 9/11, who deride and physically assault practically any religion but their own, who deliberately attack and endanger innocent women and children both on their own side and the side of their enemies. They have used torture and indiscriminate slaughter to attempt to force their will upon the unwilling, and have the avowed goal of bringing down the United States and our allies -- and they are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal.

She then objects to our soft-pedaling around that fact. She rails against complaints against the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, saying that we are at war, and it is legitimate to use humiliation, both personal and religious, and even some forms of torture, to get information from our enemies in order to save American lives. To her, the facts of sexual humiliation, denigration of religious items, even the possibility of brutal torture of those being held are no big deal -- because we are at war, and those sworn to destroy us would have no qualms about using those same tactics against us.

There's a problem with that. The very reason we are at war is because we are different than they are. We don't believe that it's okay to deliberately slaughter the innocent. We don't think that just anything goes in order to get our way, or even to protect ourselves. There are moral limits to what the good guys can do before they become the bad guys.

Our goal is not to take over some big part of the world (their long-range goal is actually to take over the world for Islam; the people we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan today have dreams no smaller than Hitler's, and every bit as bloody. I think it's a good thing we're fighting them there rather than waiting for them to come here again.) Our goal is rather to turn the majority of the people inhabiting those areas to our side in opposing terrorism. It's been working -- we get a tremendous amount of our most valuable intelligence from people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are sickened by the oppression and brutality of our enemies. But you rarely make people love you and want to genuinely side with you through torture and humiliation -- you make them fear you, and what people fear, they eventually hate (which is why so many in those countries have turned to us instead of the terrorists or the old regimes). Every story of brutality that goes out to the world does our enemies more good than any car bomb they can set off.

Besides, I'm not sure there's much evidence that it actually works to torture people for information (from what I'm told -- no personal experience here, I assure you). A person who is being tortured doesn't tell the truth -- he says whatever he thinks will make the pain go away. Sure, at some point, he may tell you the truth. But you don't know which time that will be (even if you do actually manage to get it out of him, and there's plenty of people who have died before giving up information).

But even if we assumed that it worked, that we could capture known terrorists and torture them for useful information (and it was morally okay to do that), that makes another assumption -- that the people being held, humiliated, and abused are actually known terrorists with useful information. Now, I have little doubt that the media has successfully blown all out of proportion the misdeeds done to U.S. prisoners, and underestimates the intelligence and ability of U.S. troops -- it's a pattern in the mainstream media these days. I'm well aware that there's no evidence our troops are using blowtorches, acid, and swords on people, and that keeping someone up late or kicking the Koran (however silly that may be) isn't quite the same thing. But some of what I have seen definitely goes beyond any reasonable line of moral treatment. And the information I've seen suggests that the majority of the people being treated in these ways actually were not caught in any terrorist act, have no demonstrable ties to terrorist organizations, and in fact are not actually known to have any really useful information. Maybe they do, and maybe they don't.

I understand the need for protecting our sources of information -- if we had an Al Qaeda informant who was clueing us in on people to grab, and we gave that person's name in a trial as evidence for why we picked someone up, that informant would be most assuredly killed, and probably with far more suffering and brutality than the U.S. has inflicted on any prisoner. But we need some way to identify who we are holding as legitimate prisoners with potentially useful information or demonstrable ties to terrorist groups or activities. And we need to think very carefully before we decide that since we are at war, anything goes -- even the possible humiliation, torture, and killing of the innocents.

How much of that does it take before the good guys become bad guys too?

More of the same (Hallelujah and yikes!)

2007-06-07T13:28:00.000-04:00

Bible Baptist Church continues to see people making professions of faith, though some folk cut things a little too close for comfort. A lady in our church had a sister who was dying of cancer (not that old, either). With her sister on her deathbed, the lady from our church was able to lead her to the Lord Sunday night. The sister died Monday morning. Just before she died, our church member and an unbelieving brother heard her saying, "I see Jesus."

On Tuesday night, we went out on visitation, and I didn't expect much from it. I was praying that we'd see someone saved, but we usually don't have many men out on Tuesday, it had just been thunderstorming (which cuts down on our turnout usually), pastor was out of town, and we had enough follow-up work to do to tie up a couple of teams.

To my surprise, we had a good turnout, enough for three teams. I went with David to visit the folk he had led to the Lord last week (some of that follow-up work). Strangely, although he had just bought a fairly new used car, his car was dripping some oil. It didn't look major, so we headed out, and he figured he'd get it checked the next day.

We had a good visit with the first new convert and headed over to the next. There, to our surprise, we found two new young black men hanging out. My throat was really scratchy, so David was doing most of the talking. He launched into the plan of salvation, and by the end of the evening, both of them decided to pray with him. (Incidentally, in case anyone out there in the ether is wondering, we make it a point to leave the decision in people's own hands -- we tell them the truth as best we can without being ugly or unnecessarily confrontational, then let them make a decision.)

Time for, um, coincidence to strike again. David, who has been at the heart of our little revival here, had his car's water pump go out on him. Just for added good measure, when he opened his glove compartment (likely to pull out the manual), the whole glove compartment fell out! (Keep in mind that this is practically a brand new car.)

Well, David drove his loaner vehicle in Wednesday night, and led a teenage girl to the Lord in his Wednesday night class.

We're just really hoping that the decisions these people have made will begin to transform lives. If you're the praying sort, pray to that end with us, please.

A Liberty Hall win

2007-06-07T10:10:00.000-04:00

Well, this is nice. Last week, I participated in the Liberty Hall flash challenge again, and my story wound up in a tough, tough group. Although I thought the story was pretty decent, it wound up not winning in the voting for anything. That's a bit of a letdown, of course, given my hyper-competitive nature.

This week, I competed again, writing a science fiction story that is a bit of a homage to an old favorite novel of mine, Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Complete turnaround in the voting. The story won the week's contest, along with almost all of the individual categories. Woo-hoo! (Sorry, it's that hyper-competitive nature coming through again.)

Kooky crooks and coincidence

2007-06-03T22:05:00.000-04:00

Things must have been going too well.

Yesterday morning, when the bus crews went to head out on visitation, they found that someone had broken into a church outbuilding and stolen a case of motor oil (10 quarts).

When one of the crews went to take the church van out on their route, they found that someone had all but destroyed the ignition, apparently trying to jumpstart the van.

Stealing in general is bad enough -- but stealing from a church? That's pretty low. And apparently not the work of a terribly smart person, either. First off, the van is one of the most recognizable, worthless things on four wheels in the county. It's a two-tone -- blue and rust, and it's nearly 20 years old. Not only that, but it has the church name emblazoned across the sides -- you can't NOT recognize that van anywhere. (There was a church member's pickup truck, tool box and all, parked behind the church, visible from the van. That wasn't touched. Neither was the brand-new, really nice air compressor in the same room as the case of oil.)

And the real beauty of it is, that when said supervillain bent down to pick up the case of oil, he apparently dropped his wallet. We found it on the floor of the outbuilding. We don't think there was any ID or any credit cards in it -- but a dope-smoking pipe was in there, as were receipts with signatures on them.

Fortunately, when he broke into the outbuilding, he only went into the first room -- the next room held the equipment for the radio station (some of which isn't portable at all, and some of which might have really zapped him had he tried to take it, but some of which could have taken us off the air and cost a fair chunk of money to replace). Also fortunately, although repairs to the van's steering wheel column and ignition would probably cost more than the van is worth, it can still be started -- if we couldn't run it, we couldn't run one of our bus routes.

So if this isn't coincidence that we had this break-in right after the week of salvations that we've seen (and a new family joining the church), I'm thinking it might not be coincidence either that the church's actual ministries were left completely operational.

I will find this truly ironic, though, if he should be caught for that break-in, and then Pastor Gibbs and I get to go witness to him in jail because of it.

Another delivered from prison

2007-06-02T09:23:00.000-04:00

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1)

Yesterday afternoon we went back to the jail. (And yes, it was voluntary, and yes, they let us out when we asked, so get that smirk off your face!)

Missionary Jim Wilhelm went with us, since he's still in town (he'll be preaching tomorrow at the church.)

Last Saturday, by the time I got around to the last one-man cell, I was in a hurry -- time was running short, since we'd spent a long time at some of the other cells. There was a young hispanic man there, whom I asked if he read English. Since he did, I left him some literature and told him if he had any questions, to ask us when we came back through.

Well, this week with Brother Wilhelm, we were able to split up and get more done quickly. Pastor Gibbs led one man to the Lord in the 14-man cell while Wilhelm and I went through the 40-man cell and two-man cells. When we got to Adrian, I asked him if he had any questions from what he'd read. He said, "I read it, and I got to the end, and it say, 'What do you want for your life?' I want my life to change. Can I do this now?"

Fruit doesn't come much riper. I walked him through the plan of salvation again to make sure he understood, then led him in the sinner's prayer. He lives right near the church, so we're hoping that when he gets out of jail, he'll get into church, and he really will have a changed life.

This has been a great week or so for professions of faith. Adrian and the other man made professions in the jail on Friday. Brother Wilhelm led two to the Lord on visitation Thursday, and another pair of men from the church reached a young woman who had just started to descend into Mormonism. (I'm going back to visit her with them today.) This same pair led a boy to the Lord on Tuesday night visitation (one of this pair is actually a young man for whom these were his first two nights on visitation -- he's really fired up now!). I had another profession of faith in the jail last Friday (Robert, who also lives locally, and he and his cell-mate were showing some very good signs this week), and the older man in that pair from our church had another profession of faith last Thursday (mother of the boy they talked to on Tuesday).

Of course, things rarely go this well for long without a little hitch, whether that's just averages playing out, or whether there's something more to the problems. I'll talk about that hitch a little later.

Preachers' fellowship

2007-05-31T07:58:00.000-04:00

On Monday, the South-Eastern North Carolina Baptist Fellowship had its meeting at Bible Baptist Church.

Now, for those who don't know many preachers, or who have never seen preachers get together for fellowship, this might be imagined as a reserved, restrained gathering, with all fun being checked at the door. Or depending upon your preaching acquaintance, and since a good bit of the time was spent preaching to each other, perhaps the time would have seemed angry -- lots of furious shouting about hellfire and how bad some group or another is.

Those are all so far from the truth it's hard to describe the distance.

Preachers have fun. Probably sometimes too much fun. Counting church members and family, but mostly consisting of preachers, we had a solid 80 people in the church. And the auditorium rang with laughter when it wasn't echoing with amens. Get a few preachers together of like faith and practice, and you've got a recipe for a riot -- the fun sort. Maybe it's because we're forced into such restraint before our congregations normally (and rightfully so -- a preacher must be blameless, always striving not to give offense with word or deed, unless it be from the truth which he speaks, and even then, the offense had better be unavoidable). Maybe we're this much fun all the time, and no one notices. But some of the craziest groups I've ever seen in action were made up of preachers.

Not to say that we were out of control; there was a sense of dignity to all the proceedings. But that didn't stop the joy and enjoyment at all.

The other thing I think is neat about preachers' gatherings like this is the astonishing array of backgrounds men enter the ministry from. You meet some amazing people. One man was a WWII veteran, who spent three and a half years in Europe, notably fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. He still had all of his faculties, as best as I could tell. We heard from a missionary to Romania (for those of you who are Dracula fans, he lived on Strada Transylvania), who used to be concert musician, I think. Now he lives close to the border, ministering to Hungarians, Romanians, and Gypsies. One preacher called himself a walking miracle -- after his body was literally shattered in a wreck, the best doctors in the state told him he'd never walk again, or really have good use of any of his body, I think. But he walked, and now he's going back to the hospital where he was treated to play the piano (he's also a composer) and preach -- at their invitation, I believe. Our last preacher was an ex-biker drug addict, now transformed and preaching the gospel that changed him. With LOTS of enthusiasm. When he got up, I marvelled at how athletic he looked -- he had the kind of build that usually comes from running a few miles every day, and spending hours in a weight room every week. Then I saw him preach, and realized that was quite likely all the exercise he needed!

Just like everybody, we've got our weaknesses over which to weap, our in-jokes over which to laugh. But most of all, we've got our Lord. And that's reason enough for joy.

Some days, you catch the up swing

2007-05-27T22:24:00.000-04:00

Well, after last Sunday's struggles with the buses and the children's programs, I didn't know what to expect coming into this week. I'd been out to visit the driver who missed, and our songleader who's been absent, but didn't know what would come of both visits.

Attendance in my adult S.S. class was low last week, too, and so was Sunday night attendance.

This week, we had a guest piano player here for both services, an old friend of the pastor's. She has been blind from birth, but is a truly remarkable pianist. We were also scheduled to have a missionary with us tonight. With guest music and guest speakers, you never know what to expect from the services. My choir was going to be very shorthanded, but two people I thought weren't going to be able to sing (my best tenor and his wife, my best alto) did manage.

Well, this morning, there was a solid turnout for the adult S.S., even with some regulars still missing. The buses came in, and the children's classes were jammed. The music mostly went well, and the service went superbly, with a good response to both message and music. The bus driver showed up, and the songleader even came to the morning service.

Tonight, we showed up for music practices, and all went pretty well -- with this guest piano player, we managed a pretty good variety of music tonight. But as the evening service approached, the missionary hadn't shown up, even 15 minutes before the service. At about three minutes before the service, the pastor came up to me and let me know that he'd caught the missionary on the phone, and found out that due to a scheduling mixup, he wasn't coming, and I was preaching.

Fortunately, I've been keeping a sermon in my Bible. With pastor's health difficulties, I never know when he might start a service, but not be able to preach.

Considering the circumstances, the service went well, and a family who has been attending for a while came forward to join the church. He would love to work with the children's ministry, and she wants to sing in the choir! Woohoo!

Now, tomorrow, there's a preacher's fellowship at the church, and apparently at this get-together, the moderator can call on any preacher in the audience to give a short sermon. Guess I'd better have something ready, even though I'd just as soon not give another impromptu message.

Hallelujah!

2007-05-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday started pretty well. The bus crews look like they're back on track, for the time being, at least.

I got music squared away at the church while they visited, and got some prep work done for my premarital counseling session in the afternoon.

Then Pastor Gibbs and I headed over to the Pender County Jail (due to a funeral Friday afternoon, he and I weren't able to go at our regular time). There the Lord allowed me to lead a 17-year-old young man named Robert to the Lord! It seemed genuine, that he was really ready for a change in his life. Of course, the real test will come when he gets out.

But the day only got better, monumentally better, even. After the counseling session, I was working on my Sunday School lesson when my daughter came in to talk with me.

She had questions about her heart being black and when Jesus was going to come into her heart. I talked with her for a good little bit; we've had lots of opportunities to pray with her about getting saved, but I haven't been convinced that she understands. We didn't just want her parroting some words -- we wanted her to understand that she is a sinner, that Jesus is God's Son, that He died for her sins, and that all she has to do to have a relationship with God and go to heaven is trust in Jesus. After talking with her for a while yesterday, I was convinced that she understood. I led her in a prayer, and she trusted Christ!

Her face was simply radiant. She had a huge smile that lasted all night (and is still flashing from time to time this morning). She called her grandmas to tell them, and wants to tell all her friends that she got saved. Praise the Lord!

Pinning Down Autism

2007-05-24T13:30:00.000-04:00

My good friend from Staten Island, Jason Bross, and his wife Barbara decided to try to do a fundraiser for autism research a while back. (Their son is autistic.) With Jay's background in wrestling, he organized a takedown tournament.

Thing is, interest blossomed. The event actually grew into a foundation. They've got a neat website up, with the help of a top-notch U.S. wrestler, and it looks like things are really rolling along.

A friend from our church in Staten Island also sent me the clipping of a neat article in the Staten Island Advance about them.

Here's the website for the foundation:
Pinning Down Autism

Flashing again

2007-05-22T20:50:00.000-04:00

Woowee! Do to the hecticness of my schedule, it has literally been months since I wrote something a) I wasn't being paid to write and b) fictional and fun.

This weekend, I finally got back into a Liberty Hall flash challenge. The story was terrible; I wasn't even close to finishing it when time ran out, so I just had to slap something on and submit it right under the wire. Nonetheless, it appears to be doing okay in the category voting (things like best hook, dialogue, setting, and whatnot), while being deservedly spanked in the overall voting by a story that actually makes sense as a whole.

I'm rusty, but it sure was nice to be writing again. My wife tells me I'm supposed to be taking a little time each week to write and to practice piano. Both are in pretty bad shape these days. We'll see -- I'd like to think that with the degree of control I have over my schedule that it won't be impossible to at least stop losing ground in both areas.

In any case, it sure was fun to write again.

My kingdom for a CDL!

2007-05-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

Well, okay, so my kingdom probably ain't worth a CDL. But I'd give a couple of church pews -- how's that?

Sunday morning, I got to church about 7 a.m. to see one of our bus crews off. These guys have a load of dedication -- out every Saturday visiting their route, then at the church at 7 on Sunday morning to run it. (Shucks, you can't get most people out of bed in time for a 9:45 S.S. or 11 a.m. morning service!) Unfortunately, one person on the crew didn't show up. The driver. We had no notice until I called his house and found that he wasn't just running late -- he wasn't coming.

We had a plan B. The church songleader is a professional truck driver, and he's ridden the route before. But he's been MIA for a few months now.

Down to plan C (see, we're not totally haphazard here.) Plan C is the regular driver for the other route (which uses a van). We could have him drive the bus, and send someone else with the van on that route. Unfortunately, he has bronchitis. Since we were desperate, I called him anyhow. And caught him on the way to work -- he was on call this weekend, and they called him in too, in spite of the bronchitis.

So we were only able to send out the van on one of the routes. Very frustrating. We've got a couple of possible solutions circulating, but all of them will take months to implement in full. Time to do some praying, I suppose.

What I don't get about the push to withdraw from Iraq

2007-05-21T14:53:00.000-04:00

Okay, I can see some of the arguments for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. I don't know that I particularly agree with many of them, but I'm pretty good at grasping what the other guy is getting at. As it happens, some actions of the Bush administration concern me enormously, particularly when you look at their potential long-range ramifications.

But here's what I don't understand.

Remember back in the justification-for-the-attack stage? How weapons of mass destruction actually weren't the only reason for going to war? I know, as a member of the media not too long ago, it's easier, and often necessary, to boil a person's arguments down to their strongest points, and keep those in prominence in the articles. But a key reason for going to war in Iraq was because it was merely one front in the campaign against terrorism -- Bush's crew claimed first that Sadaam had ties to Al Qaeda, then backed off to the safer claim that he and his administration had definite ties to terrorist organizations.

And, since the United States was (and supposedly still is) at war with global terror, if the Commander and Chief figures that the next best place to launch an attack on global terrorism is Iraq, I can definitely see the point in going to war there, especially if a government with known terrorist proclivities and animosity toward the U.S. might possess or develop WMDs.

As it turns out, WMDs never did turn up in quantity. But terrorist connections -- oh, my. The initial evidence that Hussein and his administration had ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations has never been refuted, to my knowledge, and has only been added to. And now, our trops are dealing with Al Qaeda and other terrorists practically on a daily basis.

So, let me get this straight. We, the United States, are at war against global terror, with a special bone to pick with Al Qaeda. We know exactly where Al Qaeda is operating in force -- in fact, our troops are constantly in contact with our sworn enemy, and frankly beating the pants off of them at every turn, because our boys are the best.

And now, with the enemy in sight and taking losses far heavier than our own, we want to retreat, effectively handing an entire country of potential allies over to our enemies to destroy and subvert. Why would we do that to our military? "You're winning, guys, in conflict with the mortal enemies of our country. Now come home quick!"

Our military exists to go out, find, and combat the enemies of our country. They have gone, they have found, and they are combatting. Yes, it's complicated. Yes, there have been losses. I have a brother in the National Guard, and I have friends who have been in Iraq and are on their way there, and I'd hate to lose any of them. But they're doing the job they signed up for -- fighting the enemies of our country. In the process, whether by coincidence, some other factor, or because of intel gained by our military while keeping the enemy engaged in his own territory, neither Al Qaeda nor any other terrorist organization has succeeded in any terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11.

Why in the world would we run away from Al Qaeda? That's what we would be doing by pulling out of Iraq. I do not understand why so many in the United States would want us to retreat from the very terrorist organization that attacked our country.

Christians and Politics

2007-05-17T13:14:00.000-04:00

The death of Jerry Falwell has brought some attention to the role of the religious right and the Moral Majority. As a pastor, a person who takes the Bible seriously and believes it means what it says, I guess I'm expected to say that what Falwell did was great. I've got friends who are pretty politically involved, and people bringing petitions to Bible Baptist here in Burgaw to get involved in pushing for Bible classes to stay in the schools (more on that later, maybe). So how politically involved will I and my church be? Should we jump on board with the Moral Majority, possibly the single most powerful political group in the last 50 years?

I think abortion is murder. I believe marriage should be between a man and woman (and just one of each!) and that homosexuality is wrong (I don't see how anyone can read the Bible, take it seriously, and not come away with that understanding). I'm opposed to adultery and pre-marital sex, I think drunkenness is wrong, and I'd be pleased as punch if nothing opened on Sunday until 1 p.m. at the earliest, and just fine if most never opened at all on Sunday. I've read my Bible, and I see that it says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord," and, "Righteousness exalteth a nation." (As it happens, I think that a lot of things that don't get talked about so much on a national stage are sinful too, just as much sin as homosexuality or adultery -- things like pride, arrogance, and backbiting.)

But there are some things I don't see in the Bible. Though I see Him telling people how they ought to live, I don't see Jesus telling the Romans what laws to make. Although it was a government that was corrupt in many ways and would eventually kill him, I don't see the Apostle Paul trying to change the Roman government, not through political means, anyhow.

And there's the key. Today, in spite of the remarkable number of people who would tell pollsters that they are "Christian" or have been "born again," it's pretty apparent that in America today, God is not the Lord. And we won't change that just by making laws. The fact is that you most definitely CAN legislate some aspects of morality. Much of morality is made up of how we treat each other, and by enacting laws and penalties, we can affect how people treat each other quite a bit. But you most definitely cannot legislate spirituality -- that is entirely between a person and God.

I'd love it if abortion were abolished in my country, if homosexuality were unheard of, if adultery and fornication were once again socially unacceptable. But I don't think I, or my church, can do the most to accomplish those things by marching on Washington, D.C., or on Raleigh, or even on our county commissioners. I think we are most likely to effect outward change through inward transformation.

Since the Moral Majority began its work, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of both people and dollars, countless man-hours, and tremendous energy toward making America a more Godly nation, has the situation gotten that much better? I don't think it has. Of course, one could say that it might be far, far worse had they not gotten involved, doing the things they are, but there's no way to say what might have been.

Suppose instead that those thousands of people with all their man-hours and money had set out with that kind of single-minded purpose to win people to Jesus Christ. I think we'd be a lot better off, as churches and as a country. And that's where the focus of my ministry and my church will be. I think God is far more concerned with our eternal destiny, and how we live on our way to it, than He is with what laws we get passed. I think He would rather see me win a soul to the Lord, helping that soul to walk in righteousness through the power of Jesus Christ, than have me get a law passed that makes the person do something right against his will.

We could abolish homosexuality, pass laws against the occult, legislate away abortion, place draconion penalties on drug sales and use -- but not one of those things would save a single soul. People don't go to hell because they use drugs, or engage in sodomy, or dabble in witchcraft, or perform an abortion. They go to hell because they don't believe in Jesus Christ. ("He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.")

I figure it's more important for me to reach out with the gospel. Once they're saved, then God can start working on them from the inside, instead of me trying to force a change on their outside.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Christians shouldn't vote their conscience. I'm going to vote for the candidate who most closely reflects the direction I'd like this country, this state, this county, to go in. I'm not saying I'll never say anything about politics -- I'm still a citizen of this country, and if I was called on to do so, I think I would die for it, so I figure I've got as much right to free speech about political things as anyone. Where legislative and political issues come into contact with the Bible, I don't see any reason why I can't address them from the pulpit. That just isn't going to be my focus from the pulpit.

I'm thankful for every real Christian who is involved in politics (who isn't just trying to use his "religion" for political gain -- God can tell the difference even when we can't). I figure we'd have a lot less corruption in politics if we had more politicians who actually took things like "Lie not one to another, brethren," seriously -- people who might have actually tried to read the Bible and apply it to their job.

God doesn't lead all Christians to be pastors. That's a good thing. His body has a lot of different kinds of members, and I'm sure He leads some of those members to be involved in politics, and I'm thankful for their effect upon my nation. But the purpose of the Body of Jesus Christ is not to fix a government -- it is to call attention to the glory of His grace, walking in good works ourselves and reaching out to others with His gospel.

Daughter's first fish

2007-05-16T08:13:00.000-04:00

One of the beauties of the combination of pastoring and homeschooling is that there is a measure of flexibility to a schedule. In theory, Monday is my day off. But my wife was babysitting, so I spent a goodly portion of late Monday working ahead on my S.S. lesson, then took some time yesterday afternoon, with my wife not working, to go fishing with my wife and daughter.

I don't know if I mentioned or not, but we'd come across this lovely little path beside the Lower NE Cape Fear River (some men in my church showed it to me) in the Holly Shelter game lands. There's a cypress along the path that is hollow on the inside, and so big a large grown man could stand inside it without even coming close to bumping his head.

There's also loads of birds, frogs, and whatnot along the way; there's a low swamp on the other side of the path from the river. It's a great place for a nature hike.

Well, we went out there with some worms, with the intention of just hanging out for a couple of hours. The river has all manner of fish in it, from two-inch bluegill to forty-pound catfish, and some really strange fish I'd never seen before moving down here.

We tossed my daughter's line in the water for her, gave her the pole, and next thing you know, there went the bobber. She managed to reel in the fish (one of those small bluegill), and she had caught her very first fish on her own. (In the past, we've let her pull in ones that we hooked, or reeled in ones that she hooked, but she'd never both hooked and retrieved one.)

Now, if we can just teach her to bait her own hook and remove the fish herself...Oh, and develop more than 10 seconds worth of patience. It wasn't long before she had pulled all the worms out of the container and was playing with them instead of fishing, deciding that the longest one was her pet.

Mother's Day gifting and celebration

2007-05-14T14:15:00.000-04:00

The story of how I actually gave a good gift (I think), and was almost late to a wedding because of it.

Last week, I figured I'd try to get my wife something nice for Mother's Day this year. As it happens, I'm usually a terrible gift-giver. I attribute this to an empathy deficiency, and even more to a terrible memory. Besides, the kind of thing I love for a gift is completely different than what my wife (or any other reasonably normal person) would like. (I was so proud of the gifts I got her one year -- I would have loved to have the more-masculine equivalents of the whole lot. Then she pointed out, "But, Sweety, you did all your shopping at the campus bookstore." It didn't even occur to me that this was a bad thing -- I would have loved it if someone had done all their shopping for me at a bookstore.)

Well, this year, she'd mentioned a few weeks ago that she was experiencing an earring shortage. I think there was also some necklace trouble, with one or two having broken.

So I went down to a local jeweler's, where they do a lot of custom work. They'd done some work on a group gift to someone else for me, and always been pleasant. This time, I picked out necklace and earring set and picked the color crystal I wanted in there. Daughter and I went to pick it up on Friday, then stashed it in the house, to await Sunday morning.

But as we were trying to get ready to leave for the wedding Saturday morning, my wife realized that with the last necklace that had broken (this is the problem with putting cheap jewelry on active people), she didn't have any that went with the dress she was wearing. So we changed the plans quickly, and when she asked for pliers to fix her necklace, instead I gave her the new set.

She seemed delighted by the set, and immediately put on the earrings and necklace. But the earrings were of the sort that don't come with any kind of catch on the back -- they just have a long, thin, kind of hooky piece of metal to go through the ear. And whenever my wife would push her hair back, the earring on that side ran the risk of being knocked out of her ear.

Or so we discovered after we left the restaurant we ate lunch at on the way to the wedding, and my wife realized in the car that she didn't have the earrings. Back we went, where we found one outside the restaurant and the other beneath the car seat. Whew. And we weren't quite late for the wedding, in spite of the detour.

Instead of eating out on Sunday afternoon (or, heaven forbid, me cooking -- Mother's Day is supposed to be good for the mother!), we ate at a steakhouse at South of the Border on I-95. In spite of all the trips up and down that interstate, neither of us had ever stopped there before. The meal at the steakhouse was very impressive (good salad, good bread, awesome sweet tea, so-so fish, great steak), and we figure we'll have to run back down there again sometime when it's not late and raining to look over the rest of the place.

Mother's Day itself was kind of low-key for us, since the biggest gift had been given, the meal had been eaten, and I work like a dog for most of a Sunday. I did wash some dishes, though, which is pretty momentous (I know, it shouldn't be all that strange, but this is a blog, where we're supposed to be honest, so there it is.)

What a Mother's Day gift

2007-05-13T15:58:00.000-04:00

Apparently Mother's Day weekend is a pretty popular time to get married. There was a power outage here in Burgaw the other night, and when we walked out to see what had happened, we found a local florist who had seen the accident which caused it. She explained that this was a terrible time for a power outage -- she had three weddings this weekend to supply flowers for, along with the usual Mother's Day rush.

Well, my oldest niece, down in GA, apparently had the same notion as those three young ladies. So we dashed down to Augusta yesterday for the wedding, then back up here afterward (about 11 hours total drive).

The trip went pretty smoothly, the wedding was lovely (I gave the opening prayer, somewhat spontaneously, since I didn't find out until we pulled up that I'd be doing it), the bride was radiant -- the usual for a Christian wedding. Her new husband is, as I understand it, headed for TX for Air Force flight school. Our best wishes go with them.

Maybe if I get to check in later, I'll talk about our Mother's Day.

Fulfer family

2007-05-11T20:57:00.000-04:00

It's a small world.

Back when my wife and I were in Pensacola, with me in seminary, her working for the school, and us poor as dirt, our car broke down. It needed a medium-level repair -- a couple hundred dollars, probably, at a normal shop. But a half-Philippino young man who worked for the school's bus garage fixed it for us for the cost of the part and a few bucks on the side, so we were able to keep on carrying scads of kids to church in our station wagon.

I'd pretty much forgotten about the fellow, Alan Fulfer, and his brother Alex, with whom I played basketball occasionally, I think.

Then Wednesday night, we had a missionary come to the church -- and it turned out to be their dad. He's still a missionary in Subic Bay in the Philippines, running a children's home for the thousands of orphans and street children there. Quite a work he's already done, and continues to do. It looks like our church is going to at least contribute to the construction of a dormitory (most of their buildings were destroyed by storms, and prior to that, by a volcano erruption, as I understand it), and we may take them on for support.

Day off

2007-05-08T14:42:00.000-04:00

I had actually forgotten what a day off felt like. My wife mentioned to me today that yesterday was the first day in...neither one of us could remember how long it has been since I had a day with absolutely no demands from a job, or something. But now that I'm no longer trying to work for both the newspaper and the church, I should be able to pretty much take Mondays off, like normal people do with Saturdays, or something.

So we went strawberry picking, went to the mall and got new cell phones (I have to turn back in the work phone at some point; the paper has been gracious to let me keep it this long.)

Just normal stuff -- going someplace for a little bit with my family, watching an episode of an old TV show on DVD, picking up some dress shirts and cell phones from the mall. And it was really nice -- we haven't been able to really spend a whole day as a family for entirely too long.

When we walked by the bookstore at the mall, we saw that they were having a going-out-of-business sale, with everything 40% off. The books were clearly desperate. They dragged us right in there. We fought hard, and managed to escape with only a half-dozen or so books clinging to us.

Whew. I have got to find a songleader.

2007-05-07T18:18:00.000-04:00

Well, my first Sunday of doing it all myself is now over. And it took a long time to be over.

Pastor Gibbs was out of town, preaching a homecoming for an old friend, so that gave me a taste of what the ministry here at Bible Baptist of Burgaw can entail on a Sunday.

I met the bus crews to see them off about 7 a.m. Went back home to gather my things for the services and help my wife and daughter get ready. Then the marathon truly began.

I led the singing (our songleader is MIA), made the announcements, taught the adult Sunday School lesson, got the choir ready, led the singing, directed the choir, made the announcements, sang both with a trio and did a solo, preached the morning sermon, and gave the invitation (I barely escaped playing the piano during the offering). Then we went out to eat with some folk from the church and some of their family. Then it was back home to finish up Sunday night's message. And on back to the church to set up for choir, practice with the trio, lead choir practice, lead the men's prayer time. Then the service started, and I again led the singing, gave the announcements, directed the choir, sang with the trio, preached the message, and gave the invitation. Then we went out to Hardee's afterward, as is our custom, to fellowship with some church folk and be available in a casual environment for folk to talk to me and ask questions. We probably left about 9:30 p.m. or so. I can scarcely express how tired my voice and mind were.

By the way, I don't do those things because I love being the center of attention. Actually, I still get stage fright pretty often, and I hate putting myself forward. I sure don't like a service that looks like (cue music!) "The Dan Robelen Variety Hour." But when there are things to be done, people just naturally look for the guy who has the squishy chair in the office.

At least now I can sleep in a bit Monday and take care of family things instead of going in for a 16-hour day at the newspaper.

Okay, to be honest, I do already miss the paper a bit. But man, I don't miss going into a Monday and Tuesday at the paper after even a part of the load from yesterday's church services.

One follow-up

2007-05-04T07:52:00.000-04:00

I didn't figure I'd write much more about Pender County issues and whatnot after I left the paper, but I've been meaning to mention this for a while and just haven't gotten around to posting it.

The issue about Bible classes in the schools has continued to heat up around here. The ministerial association has headed up a petition drive that has collected apparently thousands of signatures from people who want the Bible classes to remain (still taught as non-sectarian history courses, naturally).

The superintendent and school board insist that they don't have any choice but to change the classes, and if they can't get them changed in time, they have to cancel them, because they simply cannot legally keep doing them the way they are doing them.

The thing is, the school board is probably right. Currently, the classes are held in the public school buildings as electives, with the school giving credit for them.

But they are funded by the ministerial association, which selects the curriculum (fortunately, the curriculum they are using is probably one of only two major and generally accepted curriculums that pass constitutional muster) and hires the teachers (both of whom are uncertified local pastors, though they both have at least a four-year college degree). This approach to offering the classes could definitely be challenged in court, and would very likely lose a court case based on church-state separation. If the schools offer the classes, hold them in their buildings, and give credit for them, the schools have to approve the content of the course and provide certified teachers.

But it looks to me like the school board went about it all wrong. They have known for nearly two years, best I can tell, that they needed to change this. But they didn't want to deal with this last year, so they kept the advice of their attorney secret and said nothing to no one until this year was nearly over. Then they abruptly announced the cancellation of the classes.

When I talked to the ministerial association and the teachers of the courses, all seemed a little bewildered. The ministerial association says they would be perfectly willing to work with the board to find some kind of compromise, or a system that would work. One of the men teaching these courses says he would be glad to become certified and work through the school, and that he had even started the process of finding what he needed to get certified (the other teacher said he had no interest in certification). He said that given two years, he could have almost certainly gotten certified, and given one he likely could have -- but it's impossible between March and August.

Right now, the school board is scrambling to get a similar course offered through the local community college, or find someone already in its hire who is qualified and willing to teach. People in the ministerial association are scrambling to push off-site classes that they can still control. And the whole scrambled mess could likely have been avoided, if the school board had quietly sat down with the ministerial association, explained the legalities carefully, and worked out a solution when they first learned about the problem about two years ago. There wouldn't be any need for petition drives and constitution-thumping on both sides.

But the school board, in a move all too common in Pender County politics, decided that papa knows best, and it might cause trouble if they told anyone else what needed to be done or what they were considering doing. So now, they have a problem instead of a solution. Their secrecy and uni-lateral action turned a constitutional concern into a county-wide mess.

A one-job man

2007-05-02T12:31:00.000-04:00

As of yesterday, I am a full-time pastor, the assistant pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Burgaw until July, when, Lord-willing, I'll take the reigns. It's been a long time coming. I spent 5 years as an intern at Tanton Memorial Baptist in Pensacola, while also going to school and working for the school. After graduating with my Master of Divinity, it was off to South Baptist Church of Staten Island, where I worked as assistant pastor for the next three and a half years, while working part-time, first in appliance repair and then in a bookstore. Here in Burgaw, I have been the assistant pastor for almost a year, working for the Pender Post on the side.

But at last, I can now focus on just one job and my family. It has been so nice the last couple of days not to have to divide my attention between the newspaper and the church, making sure that there aren't scheduling conflicts, not having to rush from covering an event to get to visitation, and so on.

It has also been great being able to spend some time with Pastor Carl Gibbs, a tremendous man of God. He's been in the ministry for over 50 years, 18 of them here. In my previous churches, because of having so many family and work responsibilities outside the church, I haven't really been able to just spend time with the pastor, watching how he does things from day to day, listening to him explaining on a case-by-case basis, learning the things that are so hard to teach in Bible college. The next two months should be most instructive.

Although everyone at the paper actually looked kind of sad to see me go (they threw a very nice farewell party Monday), and I really will miss some of it, I love the ability to focus on my calling in life, the thing for which I have spent more than a decade preparing to do.

I think my family will be happier with this too, since I should finally be able to get into some kind of reasonable schedule that includes time for things like regular exercise, lawn-mowing, and time spent doing things with them.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

2007-05-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

That's what our car is doing, quite reliably now.

And no, it's not the same car we've been driving for a while. With our old car on the very verge of collapse, its transmission needing rebuilding, an inner CV axle needing to be replaced, the air-conditioning not working right, it occasionally being grumpy about starting, and a plethora of other minor problems, we were just trying to limp our way along until I would receive a regular full-size paycheck from the church.

Going full-time with the church on May 1, we went car-shopping last week. Ordinarily, I would have liked a lot more time to make a big-money decision like this, but with the car we were driving making people shake their heads at the miracle that it kept rolling this long with its problems, time was really of the essence, so I prayed and went shopping. Now, I've been researching for a while, trying to find which car would give us the most value for the dollar, something that should give us years of reliability, meet our needs adequately, and still be reasonably affordable.

We settled on the Hyundai Sonata. It's a mid-size, really, though the interior is big for a mid-size. If you go much smaller, it gets cramped if you try to put an extra person or two in it for a ride to church, or if you have to travel a long ways. And with just one child right now and gas prices being what they are, we don't need anything bigger.

The beauty of the Sonata is that it is basically equivalent to the ever-popular Accord and Camry -- but it costs thousands of dollars less, comes with a better warranty, and appears to be engineered well enough to last just as long.

Ours is a 2006 (the 2007s are several thousand dollars more expensive, for basically the same car, and the company re-engineered in 2006, producing a much better car than the 2005 and prior) V6 with about 30,000 miles on it. It used to be a rental car. It's dark blue, with leather interior and most of the gizmos and gadgets. Since we were buying used from a large car lot, the salesman and floor manager didn't seem really aware of the differences (and price difference) between the GLS and the LX (particularly since the company dropped that naming style last year; those two were trying to figure out if this is an SE or LE, the naming style Hyundai went to this year), and we basically got the LX with all the features at the GLS 6-cylinder price. We wouldn't have paid extra for the leather interior, heated seats, auto-dimming rearview mirror, and whatnot, but when it comes at basically the same price as the 6-cylinder across the lot that didn't have those features, we'll take them.

There's a lot of little things about the car that I really like, like the immense trunk and glove compartment. If I get the chance, I'll post a pic or two; I think my wife already has on her blog.

There is, incidentally, a certain thrill in going toe-to-toe with a classic used car salesman. And it's way more fun when you've done your homework, and know more about the car, its value, its history, and what his company paid for it than he does. (My wife, incidentally, vehemently disagrees -- she figures used car shopping should be like shopping at Walmart: each car has a sticker that is the actual price, and if you don't like it, you go someplace else, do without it, or bite the bullet and buy it anyhow. But where's the time-wasting adrenaline rush in that?)

So far, we're very happy with it, outside and in, design, construction, engineering, and handling. It's still under the 60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. Ask me again in 150,000 miles, but at the moment, I think what we've got is pretty good.

The Valley of the Shadow

2007-04-29T16:04:00.000-04:00

We all walk through death's shadow from time to time in our lives. Not death itself -- for most, that comes but once. But each of us brushes against death when it comes to others, just bumping shoulders with the end of this life, time and again, until it is our turn to walk not merely the valley, but step into the cavern, or stride up the mountain of death.

This past week has held more shadows for me than most. I found out at work on Friday that a coworker had just lost not only her step-grandmother (to whom she was remarkably close), but also, in a completely separate incident, her husband's brother. The grandmother was almost expected to pass from this earth. The brother-in-law was not.

Then I found out (also on Friday) that a young lady in our church lost her grandmother, to whom she was also close. The viewing was to be Friday night, so we had to hustle through the car dealership as quickly as we could (which isn't very, but the car thing is less important, and therefore will be the subject of another post) to get there. The funeral and burial was to be held Saturday at 11 a.m.

Pastor Gibbs was headed out of town on Saturday, so I figured on heading up bus visitation, then heading home to work on my lesson and message for today. When I heard about the funeral, I figured I'd send the crews out on visitation and go to the funeral, probably.

Then came another phone call early Saturday morning. A man who attended our church (he has been in the process of moving to the next county, but he still drops in from time to time) was in the hospital, having had some serious emotinal problems, Pastor told me, and the man had even threatened to commit suicide the night before. There's a lot of family difficulty history here that I won't get into.

So I went to bus visitation, sent the crews out, and headed down to the hospital, not really knowing what was going on there.

When I got there, this man was in the emergency room, and they wouldn't let me in immediately. His friend, a man who he led to the Lord a while back, was in the waiting room as well, and he began to fill me in as best as he could.

Apparently, this man had pulled a gun at a family member's house quite early in the morning and threatened to commit suicide. This initiated a four-hour stand-off with the police, including the SWAT team. The poor friend was in the house, while his former mentor waved a gun and ordered him around.

It ended when the SWAT team burst in (here I get conflicting details, but what follows is agreed upon by all) and tasered the man into submission, handcuffed him, and hauled him off to the hospital for involuntary commitment.

His friend, who was there for all of this, was really shook up. He had just been through a scene from a movie, and real people don't belong in movie scenes. Some things, some situations, they just don't prepare you for in high school. For that matter, dealing with the aftermath of a situation like this got left out of the curriculum in Bible college too.

What do you say to a man, with armed special police hovering over your shoulder or just outside the room, who just came out of a four-hour armed standoff, who faces the problems he faces, who is angry at the way he has been treated (and there is some lasting bitterness over some real wrongs -- confirmed by the courts -- done to him and his family by Social Services people already)?

What do you say to his friend, who went through this ordeal? All I could do was reassure him that he did the right things. His actions may well have saved his friend's life, and perhaps even the lives of others.

And then comes the sobering realization that it could easily have been me in that house with a drunk man from my church waving a pistol and threatening to shoot me, himself, his family members, with the SWAT team poised outside. When life and death can hang balanced on whether a word spoken is the right one or not, it is then that I realize my insufficiency, the fact that in that shadowy valley, it's hard to see where to put my feet. The thing I see clearest is the oft-forgotten reality that I really need the Spirit to show me where to place my feet as I walk through that dim Valley of the Shadow of Death.

A bit in my blood

2007-04-27T08:08:00.000-04:00

A little bit of the newspaper mindset must have snuck into my blood in the past months. Or maybe it's just my ultra-competitive nature manifesting itself again here.

I find myself taking perhaps overmuch delight whenever we break a story before the other news outlets. I find myself searching the other newspapers, and even checking online with the TV stations, to make sure we beat them to the punch with important stories.

Many people proclaim that they play various sports, enter various competitions, for "love of the game." Some of these profess that they just play for fun -- it doesn't even matter if they win or lose, so long as they get to play.

But I've got to say that for me, playing is much more fun if I win. It makes the 18-hour Mondays and bleary-eyed Tuesdays seem more worthwhile if I can look at our competitors on Wednesday and Thursday and see filler or old news where I wrote a story about something new and relevant. It's even more fun when I read their next week's paper and see them trying to play catch-up, running basically the same article we ran a week before.

We've been getting a fair amount of that lately, which makes this all a bit more fun. A few weeks ago, my editor wrote a piece on a new development -- a 3,000 house development -- that had been rumored for ages, but no one had anything concrete about. Until we did. Several weeks back, we were the first to find evidence that one of our commissioners was moving (again, rumors had flown for ages, but no one had proof). I picked another story out of a letter to the editor of another paper, and it turned out to be a pretty big deal. This past week, all the other papers, even the nearby daily, were scrambling to cover it. In this week's paper, I wrote a piece on Rep. Thomas Wright being called up for public investigative hearings by the State Board of Elections. The weekly would almost certainly have beaten us on that one, but their Raleigh desk chief (who has covered this issue very, very well for the most part -- best work I've seen from that paper) was on vacation, and none of the other local three were clued in. That was fun. We've been beaten a couple of times too, but lately, I'm pretty sure we're winning a good deal more often than we're losing. And whether its ink in my blood or something much older than that, I like it.

In the church world, there really aren't any scoops. If I come up with a new doctrine, that's likely a problem, not a good thing. That sense of competitiveness can't control church ministry -- I'm not trying to compete with other pastors. Guess I'll have to get back to wrestling or chess or something.

Ambassador Baptist Bible College ensemble visit

2007-04-24T19:58:00.000-04:00

Boy, it's so easy to fall behind on one of these. I'll think of things I ought to mention in the blog, but by the time I actually get to sit down for a few minutes, there's such a heap that I've forgotten half of them. Of course, the forgetting thing comes pretty naturally, however small a heap of whatever I'm trying to remember there is.

This past Sunday, a men's quartet from Ambassador Baptist Bible College came to sing for the church. That works out in a lot of ways; they took my Sunday School class, which meant I only had to prepare for one message on Saturday and Sunday (it's a bear getting ready for two full-length messages/lessons while working as much as I do). They're also not bad as a singing/preaching group. Not only that, but I had a lot of friends who went there a few years ago, and there is just enough overlap that some of these guys knew some of them.

But the kicker is that one of them turns out to be from the exact same tiny little Minnesota town as my wife! They never lived there at the same time, I think, but they knew so many of the same people and places. And they ran into each other in a tiny little SE North Carolina town, of all places.

Talking to a talent

2007-04-20T22:01:00.000-04:00

Wednesday afternoon my wife and I got to talk to a voice from across the sea. Our online acquaintance, known to us as Liloo, let us give her a call. Liloo is an immensely talented young writer who lives in Paris (though she has connections with an astonishing number of places around the world).

Liloo's real name is Aliette de Bodard, and when she's not working for a company that programs guidance codes for missiles, she's writing top-notch fiction. Aliette is a Writers of the Future winner, and has now been published multiple times, with several of her stories being right up there in my all-time-favorites list. My wife has been working on an interview with her for a young new magazine started by the Notebored and Liberty Hall.

Aliette is very good, and it was a pleasure and an honor to chat with her for a bit.

Strawberry pickin'

2007-04-19T14:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the closest thing to a day off I take these days, we got up in the morning and decided to go strawberry picking. There were lots of other things we probably needed to be doing, but sometimes, you just have to take a break.

The farmers markets have started carrying strawberries, so I figured it wouldn't be any trouble to find a you-pick place. There was an ad in our paper for a strawberry farm, so we drove down there, and sure enough, the plants were loaded with enormous, succulent berries.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us pick them. They'd sell us boxes that they had picked (and they looked good), but that's just not the same to a five-year-old (or to this 28-year-old, either). Might nice folk they were, and told us about the only you-pick farm in the area, which turned out to be down in Wilmington.

So we went, and got lots of berries, the gigantic, juicy, perfectly ripe sort. Yum, yum. We love it down here.

Here we go again

2007-04-18T21:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm in my last two weeks with the newspaper. Especially in the aftermath of the passing of my father (which, though it does not cripple me with grief -- Christian, remember -- does affect me, more now than I think I realized at first), it would be easy to be coasting by now, taking soft stories, working steady hours to keep the paycheck coming in for the last couple of weeks before I go full-time with the church, but not doing anything heroic or controversial.

And then there was Monday. The hours were the least of it (I was working from 9 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., except for a bit less than an hour off for supper, and then back in the office at 9:15 a.m. to write one last story.) It's not the paper's fault that my dad died -- it's no one's fault, but it left the paper without a writer they expected to have last week. So the long hours were partly just due to me doing my best to get the job they pay me for done in the time I was there.

But see, something controversial came up. Now, considering I may already rank in the top 5 most hated people on this side of the county right now, at least by people involved in local politics (these things happen when you try to tell the truth without soft-pedaling around people because of their "importance" or affiliation), I really didn't need another controversial story. Shucks, Monday, a lady came in to meet me face to face (we had talked on the phone in an interview or two), and best I can tell, she mostly just wanted to know who to despise, what face to put with those articles she hated so much (for what it's worth, she thought I quoted her fairly). It's a pity -- I think she's a sweet lady, and I like her.

But hey, I wouldn't be me if I ran away from something controversial. Nice thing is, when I told this lady about this other story, I think she left so mad at someone else she might have forgotten to be mad at me (not that I did it for that reason -- I told her about it because it's an issue I knew she'd want to know about and be involved in).

Turns out the Pender County Ministerial Association has been basically teaching Bible classes in two local high schools. Now, the school board (led by their lawyer and superintendent, if what I'm hearing is right) has decided that they need to change how all this is done -- so they've cancelled the classes for next year.

The Bible classes have been entirely funded by donations from the community, textbooks and all. They are electives -- no one has to take them. In fact, the popularity has been such that they have had to add classes, and the ones they have are basically full. The curriculum was chosen because it is a "historical" text, not a "faith-based" text. It has apparently been tested in court for constitutionality and passed. The ministerial association chooses the teachers, and they are well-enough regarded that they have apparently been asked by the schools to help with coaching, counseling, etc.

The school board, saying they are worried about lawsuits, wants to bring the entire program under their control. It's fine with them if the churches and community want to keep giving money, but they have to give it to the school system with no strings attached other than that it go to Bible classes. They want to choose the curriculum (why they'd want to change at this point, I'm not sure, considering the one in use has withstood court challenge successfully), and they want to hire the teachers the same way they'd hire any other teacher, with no input from outside. And they have cancelled the classes for next year, apparently on the assumption that they can't get these things done in time.

Now, best as I can tell, there has not been one complaint within the county about these classes. (There was one complaint -- not a lawsuit, just a threat of one from the ACLU -- in an urban neighboring county, which apparently brought this about.) The schools tell me that these are rules they have to obey -- the teachers have to be certified, and so on. But no one has shown me where these rules come from. And if what they're doing now is against the rules, federal or state, why did they break the rules since 1983 (or whenever these rules went into effect)?

The school board and superintendent say they have nothing against Bible classes, and the ones that exist have been handled wonderfully with nothing but positive comment. They say they don't want to change a thing, but they have to. The Ministerial Association says the changes are arbitrary and unnecessary, probably just a power play to bring one more thing under school board and superintendent's office control. The Ministerial Association says it is willing to work on a compromise, but hasn't received any indication the superintendent is willing to even dialogue with them as equals, much less compromise.

There are some ironies here. I'm not a member of the ministerial association. Lots of great guys in there, but many of us are just so many leagues apart in what we believe that my presence would probably either be contentious or wasted, and I see no point in either outcome. I am EXTREMELY leary of the Bible being taught in public schools, particularly from a perspective I think is foreign to it and by teachers I expect don't even look at it close to the same way I do. There are other reasons, but even as a pastor, I'm not a huge fan of bringing religion into the school systems. There's another pastor who does part-time work for us, largely as a photographer (he's really, really good -- his sports photography belongs in the national magazines sometimes, not just a local paper), but also as a writer. And he and I are both pretty ambivilant about the Bible being taught in a public school classroom.

Funny thing is, our editor, using basically the same logic as a Time Magazine article earlier this month (which he hadn't even read) editorialized that these classes ought to remain -- the Bible is a huge part of our culture, and when taught as a historical and literary work, is something any educated United States citizen should be aware of, whether they disagree with it or not. This goes double when you've got people willing to do it at no cost to the school system, while the schools scream about lack of funds.

So he wrote the editorial (I did proof and contribute, even though I'm not sure I'm 100% behind it, so any problems with it are still partly mine), and I wrote the article. Schools versus the churches. And we thought Democrats versus Republicans could be contentious. Here we go again.

My dad

2007-04-16T07:55:00.000-04:00

It's always tough to sum up a person's life in a few words, or even a few pages. People try at funerals, glossing over the rough spots, hitting the high points. Full-scale biographies seem to come a little closer, but I'm not even sure most of them are adequate.

How would I describe my father, David B. Robelen? I wish I had the time and space at the moment. My wife suggests, after hearing some of what she heard as his friends and acquaintances quietly spoke, that I try to write a biography. Maybe someday; he was a remarkable, brilliant, innovative man, who never put himself forward, and so often never really received his due. Even for me, who knew him for 28 years, about 24 of which I can remember, there are big shadowy places in his 67 years, entire decades of which I know little but a few cute stories and a snapshot or two.

At the moment, though, here is an autobiography he wrote about four years ago. It includes some of his accomplishments in the model aircraft world and several pages of pictures at the end.

The thing with that is that first, it just focuses on his model aircraft accomplishments -- it barely mentions his 37 years at NASA (he was there from the start, hired the day it became NASA instead of the NACA). Much of what he did there was classified, but there is a lot to tell, even from what isn't. Then, remember that he never puts himself forward. He would rather focus on the airplane, the equipment, than on the innovativeness that produced it, or the world record it set and holds. And finally, with the pictures, there just wasn't anyone taking photos at all the best times.

Maybe when I get a little more time, I'll post some of the pictures I've got, or some more links. My wife wrote a blog entry about him, which includes more links, too.

For now, I've got to head off to start my grueling Monday.

Back again

2007-04-14T11:04:00.000-04:00

I'll have to post more about my dad and our trip later, but for now, we're back.

We got there and back safely (with one little hitch when we were pulled over -- because the rental's license plate wasn't done properly.)

Now, it's back to trying to get ready for tomorrow.

Sunday and Monday down, Tuesday and following to go

2007-04-09T23:46:00.000-04:00

Church went well yesterday for Easter. We had a solid crowd, although due to some folk out for medical and travel reasons, we actually had more last Sunday, which I think is a bit funny. Sunday is always grueling, and although it is a joy, it's definitely hard work.

Today was a Monday. That meant a 13+ hour day at the paper (rather short for a Monday, really), in this case, playing catchup from being gone on vacation all last week, as well as trying to get ahead. I think we may have gotten a scoop or two with some help from our new advertising guy. I ended up writing four short articles today, along with doing the (brief) crime reports. (Apparently, many criminals take Easter week off too -- crime was unusually low last week.)

It looks like my job is pretty desirable, and not just to me. I think at last count, the editor had 14 or 15 applications for my position.

Anyhow, tomorrow, I'm off to pick up a rental with a gentleman from our church (which has been tremendously gracious in all of this). Then it's up to VA for a viewing tomorrow evening and a funeral on Wednesday morning. Then we'll play it by ear for our return.

Dad's in heaven

2007-04-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

I just got word from my mom a little while ago that my father passed away this afternoon. She insists there is nothing we can do there right now, so I should do my preaching tomorrow, write for the paper Monday, and head up to VA on Tuesday.

Those of the praying persuasion, if you could keep our family, particularly my siblings, in your prayers, I'd appreciate it.

I'm not sure exactly when I'll be back. Probably Friday or Saturday. I feel a little bad about the strain this puts on the pastor here and the newspaper (I've never been this unreliable in my life!) But sometimes, family has to come before any other group of people.

Fortunately, all six of his children had the opportunity to see him in the week or two before he died, and we know he is a believer and therefore in heaven.

Back from vacation

2007-04-06T20:37:00.000-04:00

In the whirligig that is my life, I guess I forgot to mention here that we were going on vacation. Maybe that's because we took off immediately after I finished working a 9-9 at the paper to try to get a few articles in prior to leaving.

We drove down to North Myrtle Beach to meet my wife's parents. We spent a little time there, saw some of Charlestown, camped out on Hunting Island for two nights, passed around a flu bug (I'm still recovering), slept nowhere near enough, and had a generally good time. Pretty normal for a vacation, I guess. I'll see if I can get a bit more up about it when I get the chance.

And politicians wonder why we don't trust them

2007-04-06T16:49:00.000-04:00

One of our Pender County commissioners sold his house and farm a little while back.

Now, it's not normally a big deal when your average Joe sells his place -- hardly the concern of the public, unless we're dealing with an unusual or historically significant property, a newsworthy buyer, or a lot of land/money. And in this case, you've kind of got all three. But it's important for a much bigger reason in this case.

You're not supposed to be a Pender County commissioner unless you live in Pender County, specifically in your district. Now, rumors have been flying since even before the last election that this commissioner wasn't going to finish out his term, but that's all they were -- rumors. So naturally, we didn't print them in a newspaper. It's part of our job to sort out facts from rumors (something I think a lot of national news outlets have forgotten).

But when he sold his property -- that was a fact. So I called him up to ask him about it. He rhetorically asked what business it was of the newspapers, and hung up on me.

Well, it's the business of the newspapers because it's the business of the people if they're about to have a change of representation (and, of course, there are those other three reasons above why it was newsworthy).

This commissioner has family ties to the newspaper, and the paper and he were always very friendly, up until the change in ownership, and he still has friends in the office. Unfortunately, before he and the new owners and editor had a chance to develop a good working relationship, he was involved in leading the Democratic Party's attempt to redistrict the county, and he did it in a way that seriously called into question his openess and honesty.

Now, following that fiasco, myself and the editor actually drove out to his farm and let him tell his side of the story, complete with attacks on a couple of his former allies who kind of changed sides. I wrote the story, and while it was a scoop for us (no other paper really had his side), it was also a real benefit to him to be able to give his side without us challenging his account or allowing his opponents to do so.

Well, fast forward to two papers ago, and he wouldn't speak to me at all about the sale of his property (maybe he forgot how far beyond any reasonable standard of fairness we went for him just a few weeks before). I would have been delighted to run an article with him explaining what was going on and his plans, either to stay there (a possibility, depending on the contract he has with the new owners), live elsewhere in his district (again, permitted -- you don't have to own land in your district to be a representative, just live there), or talk about who he would like to see take over his seat. But he wouldn't speak, which left me with public record facts, like who he sold it to, how much he got, what portion was cash, when the contract was signed, and so on, and then anything I could get from other people.

Now, I could have done a hatchet job on this commissioner, and I suspect papers do this. Since he wouldn't talk to me, I could have assumed that he was up to something under-handed and gone straight to his political enemies for quotes. And boy, would some of them have given them to me.

But I didn't do that. Instead, I called up a lawyer and asked about the legalities of a change of commissioners, and then I called this man's political allies and friends. And I quoted them saying that they expected him to finish his term, think he's a wonderful commissioner and doing a great job.

When we ran the article, I did quote his rhetorical question and say that he hung up on me -- that's all he gave me, and I did use the factual material about the sale of the property, because the story wouldn't have had much meat without it.

While writing that story, some things seemed odd, so I kept looking into the sale of the property, and I heard more rumors, so I kept looking. Turns out the new owners (kind of -- they'd created a whole new company just to buy this place) of the property just finished a hush-hush settlement of a class-action lawsuit for mistreating migrant laborers. And in spite of those reassurances from this commissioner's allies, the new owners said he only had the right to stay in the house until January -- still a year before the end of his term.

Meanwhile, this commissioner called in and cancelled his subscriptions to our paper.

Well, it wouldn't be right to write an article about his plans (or this company he sold his farm to) without asking him -- that's just ethical journalism. So I called him. And basically as soon as we started talking, he started cussing. He accused me of doing a smear job on him (not even close to true), and of letting the cat out of the barn (of course, if everything is aboveboard, why should he care where the cat goes?). He insulted me in the most vulgar and profane of terms, insulted my mother, insulted me some more, and then hung up.

A couple minutes later, a co-worker told me I had a call. I picked it up, and it was the commissioner. He cussed me out some more and invited me out to his farm so he could try to beat me up. Then hung up again. Turning the other cheek was beginning to strain my neck, so maybe it's just as well he didn't have more along those lines to say at that moment.

Then he called back and wanted to speak to the editor. They went at it for a while, with him throwing accusations, apparently most upset that we had published his personal business. (Of course, everything we printed, except the lawyer's explanation and the quotes from his own friends, was all public record, available to anyone who wanted to go to the tax assessor's office and ask.)

And then it turned out that he hadn't even read the article. He had cancelled his subscription, cussed me out, basically threatened me both to me and to my editor, and thrown all manner of accusations at us -- without even reading the whole article that made him so mad or giving me a moment to explain that. I guess he never even knew that I played nice in that article, getting my information from his friends instead of his enemies.

Also in the course of that conversation, the editor tried to find out from him what his plans were as a commissioner. He explained that you don't have to own a place in a district to represent it (true, and I think I made that point in my first article), that his voter registration and taxes were handled here (good point, and something that would almost certainly be looked at in a court case), and then he went into explaining that he had been elected for a four-year term. The editor kept pressing, and he answered, on the record, that he was here "till death do us part."

Well, I wrote the next article, describing the new company (and the guy I talked to seemed pretty decent) and mentioning that although the new owners said he was only contractually allowed to stay in the property until January, he had said that he was there for the duration. Again, I would have loved to have more input from him (and it would have looked very good for him if he had made an on-the-record statement that he knew nothing about the new company's legal difficulties), but all I really had was what he told my editor on the record.

I took off on vacation (another story in itself), leaving the article behind. Then, after we went to press with that (remember, he said "till death do us part" and made a big deal of how he was elected for a four-year term), we found out he resigned. I guess he redid the math on that four-year term.

So where did all this cynicism about politicians come from anyhow? I just can't figure it out.

Coming to a quick halt

2007-03-24T19:57:00.000-04:00

Nothing brings a car to a quick halt quite like having three big bumblebees hit the driver in the throat.

We were out on bus visitation this morning, driving our clunker with the windows open (beautiful day, and besides, the A/C doesn't work well). And three big bumblebees whipped in through the window, smacking into my throat (just about the only time I've ever been really glad for a necktie). Let me tell you, I stopped that car quick to let them out of there.

No one got stung, and the rest of visitation went on without a hitch (aside from my developing allergy problems -- here comes hay fever.)

Back from VA

2007-03-23T18:17:00.000-04:00

I made it a quick trip. Drove up yesterday morning and spent some time with Dad in the afternoon. I spent the night at the ranch (well, it really is kinda like a ranch now), helped out with the critters in the morning, had another brief visit with Dad, then headed home so I can get the rental back tonight.

Dad's not looking too good. He's still mostly able to carry a reasonably coherent conversation (if you listen closely -- he can't really use his tongue to shape sounds), but he's lost a lot of weight and is very weak. The feeding tube has not been working, so he effectively hasn't eaten in about a month. If they can figure out a way to get nutrients into him, they may be able to deal with the breathing troubles and everything else. If not, it's just a matter of time. Keep him and my mom in your prayers, if you will.

Headed to Virginia again

2007-03-21T22:15:00.000-04:00

My dad's condition is seesawing; my mom called, pretty concerned, tonight before church.

I'm picking up a car from Wilmington in the morning and heading up there for a day or two, on the chance that this is the last chance (not the first time I've done this, and it likely won't be the last).

Depending on circumstances, I'll be coming back either Friday or Saturday. Wife and daughter are staying this time.

Some days it just doesn't pay...

2007-03-21T16:59:00.000-04:00

Well, okay, since I'm paid by the hour, I guess it technically pays to be in the newspaper business, no matter how far behind schedule we are. But still.

I finished my writing unusually early Monday (just before midnight -- I'd forgotten to write a brief update on all the ridiculousness surrounding Rep. Thomas Wright, but I didn't realize that then, and neither did the editor).

So I went home and got an unprecedented six or seven hours of sleep, I think, and went into Tuesday feeling unusually good, in spite of some holdover from the flu.

I came in early on Tuesday to help with the proof-reading, and when I got there, I was alone (usually I find my editor still squinting bleary-eyed at his computer). I turned on my editor's computer, and decided that him not being there wasn't a terribly good thing.

Almost none of the first five pages were laid out. His stories weren't on the page. Of course, then I remembered that my last one wasn't written yet, so I dashed it off (not much to write -- the board of elections isn't saying much about their investigation, and neither Wright nor his lawyer returned my calls).

The editor and rest of the crew still weren't there (like I said, I got there pretty early and finished that article quickly). I don't know how to do layout. So I just started proofing the back pages of the paper someone else laid out, and fixing the mistakes I knew how to fix.

Eventually, people started coming in. It turned out the editor had finally gone home to get some sleep (poor bloke hasn't been getting enough of that lately, and it's got to be draining to hardly sleep at all every single Monday night). He still probably only got three or four hours of sleep.

He came back in, and I figured we were going to be okay, because we had all the stories already and all the art (great photos, this week, by the way), and some layout was already done. Others trickled in to help proof the pages.

Then Senator Soles called. He had introduced a change to a bill that had the whole east side of the county up in arms, and it had to be handled by the editor (he wrote the story on the subject -- it would have taken him as long to catch one of us up on it as to do it himself). It had to be done yesterday, or we'd be scooped by the other papers, one of which goes to press between 12 and 24 hours after we do.

And we kept running into hitch after hitch. The paper wouldn't print from editor's computer for a while. There was only one other computer that could access the pages, so only one other person could be laying out or correcting problems at a time -- and the owner, the only other person who really knew how to lay out pages, didn't get there until pretty late.

A sweet old lady who writes feature pieces for us told one of her friends that she could stop by and talk to the editor that morning, and he couldn't get rid of her (he's too nice, sometimes, but hey, that's a nice switch from the steriotypical newspaper editor).

We finally had the pages almost done (quite a bit past deadline, of course), with just one jump (you know, the "continued on page 8") onto a sports page to finish. And when the editor put in the jump and went to put the page on the proper computer, it disappeared. Completely disappeared. Not in his trash can, not on his desktop or the destination desktop. Couldn't be found by a file search on either computer. Completely disappeared. We still have no idea what happened to it, even after a desperation call to the tech person at the owner's other newspaper.

The page had to be rebuilt by hand. And the person who had laid it out initially wasn't there (after her marathon workday on Monday, she's not scheduled for Tuesday morning).

Deadline is supposed to be about 12:30 p.m. We got that last page in about 4:30 p.m., I think.

The upside to the long delay on that page is that I managed to get a good bit of my work area at the office cleaned up. It turns out that the existence of a desk in that corner is more than a generally-agreed-upon hypothesis -- there really is one.

I'd hope this week will be much better, but unless someone does something crazy, there's nothing happening here newswise for the rest of the week, as best as I can tell. Ironically, that often means more work, rather than less, as we scramble around looking for something newsworthy to report.

*some edits made Monday, March 26 for clarification, context, and professionalism. Anyone who follows this blog knows I enjoy my second job -- where else do you get paid to go to a concert of the NC Symphony or blow up things? The people I work with are great, and we have a blast (not generally the blowing-things-up sort, though) a lot of the time. The fact that we aren't perfect doesn't mean we can't have fun most times, and the fact that days like this happen doesn't take away from all the great ones.*

Dad in ICU

2007-03-21T13:48:00.000-04:00

Although there is still reason to believe that everything will be stabilized, there are apparently enough things going wrong that Dad was moved into ICU the other day.

Must be a software glitch

2007-03-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what's up with the paragraph breaks in posts that include pictures (such as my previous post). For some reason, whenever I include a picture, there is at least one pair of paragraphs that simply will not allow a hard return between them. I'm not sure how to contact a tech person about it, either. I say this just so you readers know, I'm well aware that those paragraphs aren't separated -- I just haven't been able to figure out how to fix it.

*edit* Now it is letting me fix the breaks in the previous post. I'm still not sure what's going on with those posts, though, so please bear with any that have too much space or not enough space between paragraphs.

My wife ain't a sissy

2007-03-16T20:56:00.000-04:00

There's always a story behind a picture like this...

So the dog was going nuts in the backyard this afternoon, and our daughter comes trotting in to tell us, "Duchess found something!"

Here in rural southeast North Carolina, that could be anything from a baby possum to a funny-looking bush blowing in the wind to an alligator, bobcat, or water moccasin.

My wife and I dashed outside to see what was going on, and there was the dog, harassing a young snapping turtle.

The turtle was so covered in clumps of mud (it's been raining all day) that we could hardly tell what it was, though. I scooped it up in the sandbox lid, and then my wife grabbed a bucket and chivvied the turtle in with a stick.

She then carried it into the bathroom, where, placing the turtle in the bathtub, she scrubbed it off with the toilet brush. It may be the only time in history that confluence of objects has taken place.

The dog continued to carry on from the kitchen, quite concerned that we had gone into a room alone with that dangerous creature from the nether worlds.

Our daughter thought it was the greatest thing (she decided it was her "princess turtle") -- we had to emphasize very clearly to her that if she ever sees a turtle with that shaped shell and long tail, she must never try to touch it.

My wife's approach to dealing with the reptilian is so far removed from my mother's (sometime, I'll have to tell you about my captive crawfish in the kitchen), and most women's, for that matter, that I can only chuckle. My wife has even caught a small snake or two, after I taught her which ones were safe. I'm very proud. Now, if she can only learn how to deal with spiders...