Habitat News

Well, after over a year of waiting, it looks like we are finally going to get started on our Habitat for Humanity build. We are going to partner with the Blue Ridge Mountains Rotary Club for a July build. The dates aren't firmly set yet, but it should be sometime in mid-July. So that's very exciting. Broadus intends to do a three-year mission rotation. One year is international; one year is regional; and one year is local. So, in 2004 we took a group to work with missionaries in Macedonia for a week. In 2005 we took a group to Owsley County, Kentucky. We were supposed to do the habitat build in 2006, but things are just now beginning to move. So it's our 2007 project. It's too early yet to think about what 2008 might hold, but maybe an international trip. Adam Peters and Ashley Roberts are the volunteer coordinators for Broadus, so they will be the ones to line us up to work. So get out your gloves and hammers. We are going to help get two families into neighboring houses in Charlottesville!

We are all Hokies Today

God bless the students, faculty, and family of Virginia Tech as they deal with the aftermath of the terrible tragedy. I was about three years out of Texas A&M when the bonfire fell and killed 12 students. That was a terrible accident, nothing on the order of what happened in Blackburg, but it changed the campus life from that day on. Va Tech will never be the same after this.

I pray for the campus ministers and the Christian students on the campus that can find in their faith something to offfer their friends about hope and peace and the presence of God in the dark valleys of life.

Some in our church know Leslie Mimms. She says she is fine and just asks for our continued prayers for her friends and the campus.

Let us pray that nothing like this ever happens again.

Covenant Group

Tomorrow I leave with our whole family for Montreat, NC for our annual Covenant Group Retreat.  In my last semester of seminary, we entered into a covenant with about a dozen other Duke Divinity students.  This covenant is geared to helping us keep focused on doing the kind of ministry we felt passionate about upon leaving seminary.  It's about maintaining vocational holiness, working toward interracial justice and deepening those relationships, and about faithful stewardship of our resources.  It's also about the relationships between us.  We have a good time together, but it's also an encouraging time to be with other people who share the same kinds of vision for ministry and the kingdom of God.  As our kids get older, I don't know what the future holds for our annual gatherings, but while they are lasting, it's something we look forward to. 

33

I'm writing on Easter afternoon (He is risen!) but my thoughts are drifting back through this whole weekeng of worship services.  It's been quite a whirlwind.  We had a Maundy Thursday meal and service on Thursday, Tenebrae on Friday, and Easter services today.  Together these make up the "Amen corner" of the liturgical year (with apologies to everyone else watching the Master's this afternoon.)  It's exhausting as a pastor to lead these three heavyweight services in one weekend.  But that's what it's all about.  No complaints, just thinking back and relaxing this afternoon.

 

At the Tenebrae service on Friday, the service decended into darkness as our thoughts focused on the horrible crucifixion Christ endured.  In the pitch darkness at the end, a bell was rung 33 times signifying the 33 years of Jesus life when he was crucified.  I'm 33 this year.  It's odd to the be the age of Jesus.  I guess I always picture him looking older, wiser, more experienced.  He was all these things of course--but older.  It's odd to hear the bell rung 33 times and think of my own life and what I've done (or, more to the point, haven't done) in life compared to Jesus. 

 

I'm well aware that we all fall short of him and that there's little point comparing.  It's not a comparison I really want to make or intended to make.  But there was the bell ringing 30 . . .31 . . .32. . . 33 times and it wasn't just his age that I was remembering, it was my life that was being judged--if not by God, then by myself at the least.

 

From now on I will be older than Jesus ever was.  Kind of strange to think about.  I wonder what he would have been like if he had kept living to his 40th birthday or 50th.  How would he have changed?  Is it right to wonder how Jesus would mature through the ages?  I don't know.  I similarly wonder what I will be like in those years and how I will change. 

I did it! We did it!

Back at a Christmas party in December (obviously, duh), I walked up on a conversation in which the Charlottesville annual 10 miler was invoked. I got to talking with my good buddy Lee Perry and popped off, "I'll do it with you!" Little did I know what I was getting myself into. Lee has run, like, 10 marathons or something. But we became training partners--if by "partner" you mean "master and slave". Dude just whipped me in to shape.

But. . . the fateful day arrived on Saturday and, what do you know? After 87 minutes and 45 seconds, I dragged my tired bones across the 10 mile mark finish line, well behind Lee and well well behind the freaks who actually won the race in like 53 minutes or something. But alas, I beat my 90 minute goal. And it felt . . .lightheaded! I thought I would pass out.

It feels really good to set a goal and accomplish it. It's funny, even something like running, which seems like the ultimate individual sport, is really a community event. My wife, Jenny, had to sacrifice to let me train while she took extra care of the kids. They all came out to cheer me on. Lee was a great encouragement. 400 volunteers staffed the event. Even something that seems like it's a solo effort, isn't. I can even look back in time to my dad running 10k's in Ft. Worth, TX as the one who laid the foundation for me to run races like these. So, thanks to everyone for their help and encouragement.

And, next year. . .80 minutes, baby!

(pictured is me, Marshall, and Lee--we all celebrated with big fat hamburgers and onion rings Sunday evening! Except for Marshall, who celebrated with a chicken wrap and a salad--what a jerk! kidding, Marshall; you are an inspiration)