Sabbatical

As you may (or may not) have noticed, this blog has been severely ignored for the past 10 months. For lack of a better term or excuse, we're calling it our sabbatical.

Lots of things happened in those 10 months. We said goodbye to all of our friends, colleagues, and Tanzanian friends in our little town of Musoma, Tanzania. We packed up all of our earthly belongings (again...) and put them into storage. We traveled to the UK for a holiday in Groomsport, Northern Ireland with our friend Katie over Easter, then on to Horsley's Green, England for a three-week academic writing course for Tim. Then it was back to the US. We arrived in St Louis on May 8 and spent the next 3.5 months traveling, speaking, and sharing with our team. Then it was packing (again...) everything we owned into the back of our little CR-V and trucking it West across the US. We are now in Langley, BC, just North of the US-Canada border on the Pacific coast.

It's beautiful here. I was thinking about the beauty of fall today while we were on our family bike ride (you just can't waste a sunny Saturday around here!) along Fraser River... oh, how I had missed autumn! The colors, the chill in the air, the crunch of leaves underfoot... this is a good place to be.

There will be more to come-- I hope!-- but for now just a note to stay tuned. :)

-JLR

Nativity Play

On Dec 20 we hosted our first annual (hopefully!) "Cookies and Carols" Christmas party. Amy (one of the moms) organized a special nativity play for the kiddos... they're all pretty young, so there weren't many lines! It was ADORABLE and the kids all did a great job. Micaiah got to be a shepherd along with her friend Brie.
This is the rest of the cast, or most of it anyway. We had angels, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wisemen, inn keeper, stable animals and an excellent performance by the donkey (not pictured-- it was one of the Dads!).
It was lots of fun and we're hoping to get the video soon!

-JLR

Pictures

I've been contemplating what I wanted to write here for... well, it's been months now, I think! To be honest, both Tim and I have been using Facebook much more and Blogger much less. Not that it will necessarily stay that way, but for now that's how it's going. Anyway, I thought the easiest way to catch everyone back up would be with some current pictures. Enjoy!

This is our old house-- #23-- which we moved out of on Dec 8. Our landlord needs to use this house for 2 nuns beginning in January. We only moved across the driveway into our friends' house, so while it was hard to say goodbye to #23, it could have been worse!


Micaiah's been learning how to pitch, catch, and hit a baseball. She's got a good teacher even if he doesn't remember to keep her hair out of her face. :)


Playing the Viking Game at our monthly missionary fellowship... so much fun!


-JLR

Critters

These are a few of the animals we have around our home here in Musoma, Tanzania. There are others, to be sure, but I managed to get pics of these in the past few weeks, so they are the lucky 3 to appear on the blog.

1. Mongooses. Yes, it is actually monGOOSES not monGEESE, contrary to popular belief. And they travel in a group that is called a troop (not a gaggle) of 15-20. These little guys make a giggling sort of sound and sort of migrate through our yard from time to time. I don't mind them a bit as they are scared of people and eat snakes and lizards! Karibu kwetu!
2. Geckos. If you only knew how many of these we see on a daily basis... inside, outside, everywhere! They eat spiders and other small bugs, so I don't mind them too much. The only downside is the droppings they leave. FYI, we don't usually see them when they're shedding their skin.
3. Lake Flies. Ok, I realize that you can't actually see the flies in this first picture. But if you look at the tree in the middle, remember that its not Christmas and those spots aren't lights-- they're a swarm of tiny flies! Closest I've ever come to understanding a plague of flies, that's for sure! They come up from the lake when it rains and are attracted to lights. The second picture is all the dead lake flies below our outside light. They don't live very long and the sheer volume makes a huge mess!
So there you go. A glimpse into some of the strange creatures we see from time to time around here.

JLR

Velvet Elvis Discussion

Now, I’ve got a discussion question. I recently read Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell. I’ve started reading some books by some emergent (emerging?) authors, because I want to understand what’s going on with this movement and try to understand the issues. I had a good friend recommend several of these books to me. I’ve heard criticism of these authors (Bell and McLaren) and the movement itself, and have looked into critiques of this particular book online. To be honest, I’ve not been satisified with the critiques that have been offered. Having actually read the book, what I have seen is people quoting out of context and then attacking those portions without giving attention to that wider context of what he is saying. Bell seems to write in a way that leaves him open to this sort of attack. So, my question: If you have read the book, and disagree with Bell, could you please comment on your main issues of disagreement?

Having read the book, I have to say that I agree with a lot of what he’s saying. The book made me think. I’m still thinking about it. I think sometimes we’re too afraid to think about ideas that we may or may not agree with. Let’s not be afraid to think.
Just to summarize some of my musings about the book:

(1)If my behavior does not match up with my doctrine, what good is my doctrine? I could have perfect, doctrinal precision and still be a royal jerk. So, if my behavior is not matching up with my doctrine, I need to be evaluating myself, instead of thinking that I’ve got things together because my doctrinal statement is in order. What is the goal of sound doctrine? In looking at 1 and 2 Timothy in particular in thinking about this, sound doctrine is linked with the godly behavior that flows from it. “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart…” (1 Tim 1:5) Sometimes I get fooled into thinking that the sound doctrine is the end in itself.

(2)I have to wrestle with the fact that God seems to be accomplishing his kingdom purposes through churches/Christians who do not adhere to Reformed theology. I happen to think that this theological framework most closely resembles what the Bible says. So even if I’m wrong and some other sort of theological framework is better, the point is that God is using Christians from all sorts of backgrounds, churches, etc. (who don’t necessarily have all their theological ducks in a row) to accomplish his global redemptive purposes. This is something I knew before coming to the mission field, but have definitely seen in action. My conception of the Anglican and Mennonite churches, for instance, has definitely changed. Also, God is just hammering home that He is using imperfect sinners who don’t have it all together, and I am one of them.

(3)Jesus was a Jew who lived 2,000 years ago. I need to stop making him into a 21st century Westerner when I read the Bible.

(4)Jesus associated with lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, poor fishermen, etc. What does this tell me about what our churches should look like? Who should we be interacting with? How does this affect my actions?

(5)I need to be open to questions and doubts.

(6)God is not distant.

(7)Joy. “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”-Piper (Bell does say in his footnotes to read everything Piper has ever written.)

(8)What’s wrong with “repainting the Christian faith”? All this means is translating. The Gospel needs to be communicated in the terms of the proper time and culture. The problem is if you have a poor translation that either (1) distorts the original or (2) doesn’t communicate into the receptor language effectively. What Bell seems to be saying is that this postmodern culture is not getting the 1940’s way of communicating the Gospel (2). What I hear critics of Bell saying is that he is distorting the original (1). So, what’s true? I think it’s quite possible that both are true. That the Gospel needs to be communicated in a new way to this postmodern generation, and that Bell’s “translation” needs some work to maintain fidelity to the original. However, I think it’s equally possible that people don’t like Bell’s “translation” simply because it’s “new” and different from how things have been thought about and done recently. People tend to not like change. Thoughts?

-T.M.