Bedroom painting

I am very pleased to say that we are painting our bedroom today. To this point we actually have been sleeping in the spare bedroom of our condo. The pressure on us is two-fold: 1) We are hosting someone for work during the International Conference in September, and 2) The temperature drops at least 10 degrees when you leave the spare room. For these and other reasons, we very much want to move into our bedroom and leave the spare bedroom days behind.

 

At this point the room is basically painted. We just need to come back and care for some details and it will be done. Once we put up window treatments we will be able to move in. We are very much looking forward to that!

 

Hope you have a great weekend!

More Thailand thoughts

This picture is a collage of the Sunday Morning Christian celebration service and a couple other winners.

Much of the last day in Thailand was spent briefing the Vision Team Members how to answer the question, "So, how was your trip to Thailand?" Dave warned the kids that folks back in the States would have absolutely nothing to relate to when attempting to understand what the team had experienced. Dave prepared the kids to expect very short attention spans on the part of those listening to Vision Team adventures. There is just no way for folks to imagine what is being conveyed.

As a team leader the best way to sum up the entire Thailand experience was verbalized in a testimony given by Clark Perry at the Karen jungle village Christian church service. In paraphrase Clark expressed; "I didn't know what I expected when I came [to your village]. But what I found were 'on fire' Christians who knew more scripture than us, understood the meaning of the scripture better and understand what freedom in Christ is better than us. It puts us to shame." When the service concluded the village pastor did not pray for his poor small church, but he prayed that the Vision Team would gain in understanding and grace in their life in Christ. In salutation he looked forward to heaven where we would all have
no language barriers, just sweet fellowship.

Dave explained that the prison of animal sacrifice, spirit worship, and Buddhism gives the Thais a formula to follow to get to heaven or at least to an elevated level of reincarnation. If a white person offers the plan of Christian salvation to a Thai they will quickly accept it then ask for the new formula of works to follow to heaven. That is why missionaries spend 3 years laying out the gospel chronologically so that the Thais understand unequivocally that Christianity is a relationship, not merely a lifestyle. When a Thai grasps the gravity of the message, the freedom from works to get to heaven, they cannot clean up their homes quick enough, they cannot memorize scripture fast enough, they cannot walk 12 miles through the jungle to the the next village with the Good News soon enough. They cannot contain themselves with their new found freedom in Christ.

What so gripped the Vision Team was the fact that since the Thais from the Karen village had never been to "Church" they were totally and absolutely unencumbered by having to conform to a "Christian Lifestyle" immediately following a verbal decision for Christ. Bottom line, all the Vision Team saw was the freedom of Christ living through the Karen village people. There were no human rules or traditions tacked on, just a fresh, exciting new life in Christ.

Even though the teens had heard this 'sermon' dozens of times it came to life when they saw and experienced it through the lives of those in the village. "I get it. I finally get it."

This understanding of who we are in Christ may have been made possible for some of the team ONLY by being placed in this environment after such a great investment of money, time, effort and prayer.

Thank you to all who supported this effort that so revolutionized the lives and understanding of all fifteen Vision Team members.

Long time, no posting

Sorry for the silence on here. It has been a good week at work and we are headed to Cleveland for the weekend. My friend is getting married in September. Since I can't go to his wedding, I am going to his shower with Becca on Sunday. Actually Becca will be going to the shower. Mark and I will hang out while the ladies exchange gifts. Looking forward to a good time with my family and will be singing at my parent's church on Sunday.

 

Let me leave you with one thought from today's Our Daily Bread that challenged me. The Scripture reading for today was Matthew 6:25-34.

 

Look at it this way: Whether or not you live only for money, you'll ultimately leave it or it will leave you. But if you focus your life on God and doing His will, all these other things will be provided.

 

Does your concern for making money and keeping it overshadow your concern for doing God's will? If so, stop and look at the birds.

Counterfeits

The curriculum the Vision Team experienced in Thailand is a modification of the Summit Program. A portion of that program involves cultural studies. Without understanding the culture it is impossible to relate to the people. Buddhism is the driving force in Thailand so David spent much time in preparation of materials in the study of that cult. Dave was amazed at the parallels between Buddhist practices and Old Testament Jewish traditions.

At the top of the mountain, overlooking Chiang Mai, at the premiere Buddhist temple, Dave asked the team, "Why was Satan banished from Heaven? Because he wanted to be equal with God." Instead Satan created a counterfeit cult setting himself up as the head. No place is there a better counterfeit to the Israelites temple than the Buddhist temple, with its encompassing wall, overlays of gold, the holy of holies, the offering of three incense sticks, the list goes on and on.

Below is a picture of the 300 steps leading up to the temple and the gold steeple at its peak, center between the walls.

Thailand - A Land Of Contrasts

Thailand was a land of many contrasts. The picture below parallels the open sewers of Bangkok with a Karen mountainside tribal garden.

In Bangkok some of the team were nauseated by the smells and even some of the sights. Teeming populations live along these sewers, drying their laundry in the methane filled air. Children swim with crocodiles in the same streams and rivers underneath their homes. In the Karen mountain village hard work and simple living accompany the tranquil setting on the attached photo.

Even though each of these sets of folks live in very different environments they are still bound to the same prison of animal sacrifice, spirit worship and Buddhism. Some work the entire year to pay for the animals required in fear, with no assurance that their efforts are recognized.

The vision team was able to see these prisons, but they could also clearly see the the sanitary, almost invisible prison that we as Americans have allowed ourselves to construct. As the teens lived in the homes of Karen village Christians they could see that what is important is their life in Christ and teaching others how to be free from their prisons. Material things of life have no value.

A completely different set of priorities.

Even two weeks later the teens are still making sense of it all. Somehow Nintendo is less important now.

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We're home

Sorry for the delay in this posting. We arrived back in Grand Rapids last Thursday afternoon around 4pm. There were no problems on any of the flights coming back from Thailand. The trip was a wonderful experience and I look forward to sharing more about it on here in the days and weeks to come. Thank you again for all your prayers and encouragement.

Back in Bangkok

We are back in Bangkok awaiting our flight out 1am local time on Thursday morning. Our thanks to everyone who has prayed for us during our time here. God has worked in hearts and lives and I don't think we'll be the same for having been here. We took an overnight train last night from Chiangmai to Bangkok. No problems on the train and I think everyone slept well.

 

We arrive back in Grand Rapids late in the afternoon on the 23rd. Please pray for us as we travel home, particularly the long plane ride from Seoul to Chicago.

Thailand Trip Update

Things continue to go well here in Thailand. We just returned from being in the village for the weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and returned this afternoon (Sunday). Tonight we are headed out to dinner and tomorrow we do the Buddhism package. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us that we would be open to everything God has to teach us while we're here.

We're in Chiang Mai

We arrived early this afternoon in Chiang Mai. We took the overnight train from Bangkok and let's just say that was an adventure. Tonight we went to a traditional Thai dinner. Tomorrow we head to a village for the weekend.

 

Things continue to go well for us. Please pray for us as we adjust to the heat and that we would have teachable spirits.

We're in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok earlier this morning around 1am local time. We spent the night at a guesthouse and plan to see the sights in Bangkok today. Thanks for your prayers for our team. All is going well.

We're in Korea

We have arrived in Seoul, South Korea. The flight from Chicago was certainly long but uneventful. We are here for about 3 hours and then we fly to Bangkok. Thank you for your prayers. Please keep praying for us.

Off to Thailand

Well today is the day we leave for Thailand. The trip that has been a year in the making is now hear. Our ride to the airport should be here shortly. Please pray for us as we go. My prayer is that nothing would distract us from what God wants to teach while we're there. I hope to post some updates on either this blog or the trip blog while we're there so keep checking both of them.

 

Talk to you all later.

 

Robertson out

Personality Assessments

Today Pfitz put a link in his blog entry to an online, free personality assessment. It is not the Myers-Briggs test but it is close and quite accurate. I am an ISTJ meaning I am systematic, thoroguh, cautious, serious, applying past experience, logical, analytical and skeptical of new ideas that don't seem to have immediate and practical application. Pretty accurate test for only taking 5 minutes.

Hotel Rwanda

Last night Becca and I rented Hotel Rwanda. Needless to say this is a very well done movie and I encourage all of you to view it. The movie recounts a modern genocide that has taken place in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The following is a portion of the story from the movie's website.

 

Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda.  The streets of the capital city of Kigali ran red with rivers of blood, but no one came to help.  There was no international intervention in Rwanda, no expeditionary forces, no coalition of the willing.  There was no international aid for Rwanda.  Rwanda's Hutu extremists slaughtered their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus who stood in their way, and the world left them to it. "Ten years on, politicians from around the world have made the pilgrimage to Rwanda to ask for forgiveness from the survivors, and once more the same politicians promise `never again,'" says director Terry George.  "But it's happening yet again in Sudan, or the Congo, or some Godforsaken place where life is worth less than dirt.  Places where men and women like Paul and Tatiana shame us all by their decency and bravery."

 

This is indeed a very powerful movie and I hope it receives the recognition it deserves. Check it out!

 

What God Has Joined Together

A professor of Hope College has recently written a book called What God Has Joined Together. This book unfortunately makes a case that Scripture supports homosexual marriage. I have not yet read the book and am not sure if I want to purchase it. Part of me wants to read it so I can learn more about the author's argument. However, another part of me does not want to support the author financially by purchasing this book. We'll have to see.

 

Here is an excerpt from an editorial review on this book from an amazon.com:

Coauthors Myers (who serves on the board of the National Marriage Project) and Scanzoni (of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus) "take marriage... [and] our Christian faith seriously." Bringing together those two commitments to build a Christian case for gay marriage, they begin by arguing that marriage is good for society: marriage correlates to longevity; boys raised by married parents are less likely to commit crimes; married moms are less prone to depression than single moms and so forth. Why, the authors ask, should these good things be reserved for heterosexuals? They then consider what Scripture has to say about sexual orientation, rehearsing the by now familiar arguments that Jesus has nothing to say about homosexuality, and though the Bible does talk occasionally about homosexual sex, it does not deal with "loving committed homosexual relationships." Myers and Scanzoni's tone is calm, respectful and balanced. For example, though they present some of the latest scientific evidence about the causes of sexual orientation (including a chart of "mental rotation scores by sexual orientation"!), they also freely admit that scientific studies on this issue are still in the early stages, and that even conclusive scientific information "cannot... resolve values questions." With its traditional defense of marriage and its progressive embrace of same-sex relationships, this book cannot be pigeonholed, and that in itself is refreshing.

 

I think we need to be worried as a society with books like this coming out, especially if they receive a lot of popularity. As Christians we know what the Scripture says and at the same time we must respond to books like this, as well as those who struggle with homosexuality, with the same love that God has shown to us.

 

Hit Me Baby 1 More Time

Well we finally went shopping last night. The disadvantage to moving is that you don't want to have too many groceries in the house because that means you will have to move more. At this point we are moved, however we are leaving for Thailand on the 13th so we don't want to have too much at this point either.

 

Last night Becca and I watched an interesting show on TV. The show is called H1t me baby one more time. The show is kind of like American Idol though different. Participants on the show are artists and groups who were big back in the 80's. They are invited on to sing one of their songs that made it big and then their version of a popular song right now. One of the groups last night was called A Flock of Seagulls and let me just say it was incredibly wrong when they sang Enrique Iglesias "Hero." I think Becca and I are still in recovery over that one. For all you American Idol fans, this show may tie you over until the next season. It is on at 9pm on NBC on Thursdays.

 

Robertson out

 

Ace is the place...

This is the first time I am posting to my blog by email so we'll have to see how this turns out. Last night my in-laws came over along with my sister in law and a friend of theirs. The purposes of the evening were to 1) Install the gas dryer and 2) Plant some flowers and other plants. My mother-in-law is definitely the one with the green thumb in the family so when it comes to flowers and plants, she is in charge. Dad and I took to the task of getting the gas dryer working. The copper pipe was already there so we needed to connect it to the dryer and we're done. Simple, right!

 

This is where Ace comes into the picture. I made 4 trips to Ace last night. First trip to get cabling and plug adapters. Second trip to get an adapter for the dryer cable. Third trip to get a different adapter. Fourth trip to get the correct adapter and a major appliance extension cord. Let's just say the people at Ace know me well and are very helpful for those of us who are not home improvement experts.

 

Robertson out

Fun weekend

Hope you had a fun Memorial Day weekend! We went to Cleveland to see my parents. On Saturday we went to Put-In-Bay. Saturday was the first day people came over for the summer and I was amazed how many drunk people were on the island. Sunday we went to my parent's church. The church is sending some of their youth on a mission trip to Florida in June and they had a fundraiser lunch after church. It was nice to attend a fundraising event without having to work at it; simply come and enjoy! That night we saw my Mark and his fiancé Marjie. We can't go to their wedding in September so it was nice to spend time with them for a bit. We came back to Grand Rapids last night. Fun times!

We are getting more and more settled in the condo. The washer and dryer were delivered today. Since was purchased a gas dryer, the company has to come back on Thursday to install it as the people who deliver can't install gas dryers.

That's about all for now. How are you doing?

We have moved...

Well the big move day has come and gone. Becca and I are now living in the condo. As I have said before, the process of moving makes me not want to move. Hopefully, the lesson learned during this weekend will stick and thus prevent us from moving again soon. We'll see how this works out...

I would say about 90% of our things are moved into the condo. At this point, we have to go back to the apartment to clean and paint some of the walls back. Our lease ends on May 31st so we have some time before everything has to be done. Fortunately, Becca already started painting so we don't have too much of that left to do.

Even though moving is a lot of work, as is owning your own home, I think I am going to enjoy life as a home owner. It was exciting to be able to put some things into the storage area in the basement so they are out of the way. It is also nice to have a separate living and family room. We decided to put the TV downstairs. I am glad we made this decision so we don't watch so much TV (though since we won't have cable here at the condo, the TV viewing will decrease anyway).

It has been nice to meet a couple of our neighbors since we moved in yesterday. I am hoping we will be able to meet many more in the days and weeks to come. The condo association appears to be a great neighborhood with many nice families. I am not 100% sure why God has lead us here (though I really like our condo) so it will be interesting to see how God uses us in our neighborhood.

On another front, 22 days from today Becca and I will be leaving for Thailand with the Vision Trip team from our church. We had a good weekend last weekend in Newberry, Michigan getting to know the team members better and seeing the team member interact with each other. We remain excited to see how God will use this trip in the lives of the teens, as well as ourselves. As I have said from the very beginning, I cannot help but be excited about what will happen when 12 teens and 3 leaders go to Thailand, learn about missions and cultures. When they return, I can't help but think they are going to want to do something. I have no idea what that will be, but I can't help but be excited about it.

Well, that's about all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!