Blogging on Phrogging

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to the concept of phrogging.  According to Urban Dictionary, phrogging is the act of secretly living in another person's home.  This concept has been brought to the limelight by a documentary called Living With Strangers. and ABC's i-Caught.  Supposedly most phrogs are young adults who don't want to work a 9-5 job, but want the "pad" of a working professional, so they hop from place to place enjoying the amenities without having to pay the rent.

I watched a couple of the short videos on the Living With Strangers website.  A part of me was (and still is) very skeptical that people really do this (and skeptical that the documentary was true).  Another part of me was creeped out by the idea.

But then I had another thought.  I realized many people have been phrogging churches for a long time.  They attend worship services every week, but never make their presence known.  They consume from the church, but never contribute.  They want the conveniences of the church, but never join the family.  Then the jump to another church for whatever reason they decide.  In short, they miss out on the things that really matter and bring the greatest joy.

Maybe we should create a new entry on Urban Dictionary for "Church Phrogs..."

My 200th Post - MyPhone

Recently I was researching for a message I'll be giving in a month, and as I did so I read a guy's blog where he started it off by saying "The iPhone is now MyPhone". Well, those words are now MyWords.

To celebrate my 200th blog post, I'm going to admit to the world that I now own an iPhone. One of my friends who shall remain nameless (but his initials are Mike Goril) said "Erin, I'm a single guy who gets paid very well, and even I can't justify buying an iPhone.  How does a guy like you afford to get one?"

Well, Mr. Anonymous Mike and all those with similar thoughts, let me tell you a story that will hopefully glorify God in the purchase of a little gadget...

My church has asked that each of the Equipping Staff have a cell phone.  I was the last one to not have one.  I knew that I would function best with a smartphone - to have my PDA and cell phone combined.  I've used Palm OS systems for years, so I figured I would get a Treo 680, the least expensive Palm on the market.  But a "free" Treo 680 actually ended up costing $40 more after a 2-year contract than an iPhone did after its 2-year contract.

So I was surprised I was even considering an iPhone.  I mean it was too expensive, right?  But then Apple started selling "refurbished" units (which I now believe was actually a clearance of brand new units given their recent decisions concerning the iPhone) for $100 less.  So now I needed to come up with $400.

I happened to be on the Tapland forums (which I hadn't visited for probably a year), and someone in Uganda was wanting to buy a Zodiac 2, which was the PDA I was using daily.  So I offered to sell it for $100 and my new Ugandian friend agreed to it and paid the shipping.

So then I needed to come up with $300.  As I pondered this, I realized I am planning to close my web design business this fall, and in doing so, that frees up the almost $200 in that account.  So now I need to come up with $100.

Because I sold my Zodiac, I needed to go ahead and purchase the iPhone.  But I kept praying that God would somehow provide the last $100.  So when Apple announced on Wednesday they were dropping the price of the 8 Gb phone $200 and getting rid of the 4 Gb altogether, I was confused why God didn't lead me to wait until the price drop.  But then I "just happened" to see on a website that Apple has a 10-day price guarantee.  I quickly looked at a calendar, and lo-and-behold, I had purchased my phone exactly 10 days before.  I immediately called Apple, sat on hold for an hour and a half, and finally heard the good news that not only would I be refunded $100, but I would actually be refunded $150 because I had purchased a refurbished unit.

So my "$500" iPhone actually ended up costing $250, and I won't have to spend a penny out of pocket.  While I've struggled to understand why God answered these prayers for me and hasn't answered others (lots of messy ministry situations right now that I am aware of, plus many messy situations around the world), all I know is that God clearly worked in this situation and I am SOOOO grateful.

Hopefully this was a worthy enough story for my 200th post...

The perfect church service...

“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God.” (C.S. Lewis)

Back to the Blog

Long time, no blog.

The excuse? Busyness. Pure, unadulterated busyness. I've been so busy I haven't even READ blogs, let alone have time to write on my own. In fact, I started this blog 2 weeks ago on Aug. 24, and yet here I am two weeks later finally finishing the post.

But I hope to resume as I am sure all three of you out there are dying to know what's happened in my life and that the blogosphere has deeply missed my voice among the millions and billions of blogs floating around in cyberspace.

Rather than unleash all my thoughts at once, I will try to share some of the blog ideas I've had over the past several weeks over the next few days. We'll see how it goes...

Entering a Cult

Yes, it is true. This summer I joined a cult. I had heard of this cult for quite a while, and naturally I doubted this cult held the truth. But its adherents (some of which were other pastors on staff at New Covenant who evangelized me upon my return from the Czech Republic) seemed convinced of the veracity of their "theology", and I was desperate for help, so I drank the Kool-Aid. I read their "bible". I began to implement the principles. I'm an early convert and not quite ready to make disciples, but I'm giving this a true college try.

In case you are afraid for me, I want to assure you I'm used to these cult things - I am a Mac user, own a Tapwave Zodiac (at least DID own one until last week - more on that in another blog), have been a Nebraska Cornhusker football fan my whole life, and have been drinking Mt. Dew since childhood. So I am used to these sort of things.

So what is this cult? Why, it is the Getting Things Done cult, of course. The "messiah" of this cult is David Allen, author of the bestselling book by the same name. I am still only 75% of the way through implementing the GTD system (busyness has kept me from getting "Getting Things Done" done), but I can tell already it is going to help me in the long run.

It took a lot of time to begin the process of converting the whole organization of my office, task handling, schedule, and life, but I'm glad I'm giving it a try. Administrative stuff has always been a weakness of mine and I needed help. But it appears GTD has come to the rescue. Hopefully it will help me put in enough margin in my life to get back to blogging!

A Big Week of "Ds" at the Birdnest

A couple of important milestones are happening with the girls of the Birdnest, and as a proud dad, I thought I'd share them here.

A Double-Digits Daughter
It does not seem possible, but I am now the father of a 10-year-old daughter. My eldest, K, turned the big One-Oh yesterday. When asked by her Grandpa Bird on the phone last night if she felt different, she said "yeah, a little!" :o)

But she wasn't as excited about turning 10 as we thought she would - she told LeAnn last week that the bad thing about becoming double digits is that most people die in their double digits. Thankfully she isn't a pessimist most days...

I thanked God last night before our family celebration for choosing to place K in our family. Her laugh lights up our rooms, her creative mind is a blessing (most days!) to those around her, and her hunger for God is inspiring. She is a great big sister, a wonderful helper, a motivated learner, and an amazing daughter. K's name comes from the Greek word meaning "grace", and it truly was God's grace that has blessed us with K's presence. We love our little "venezolana" (who isn't so little anymore), and are thrilled she is part of the Birdnest. Happy Birthday, K!

A Duly-Dunked Daughter
While I was gone in the Czech Republic, my children watched video devotionals I made for the them. In one of the videos I made for M, I went out to Palo Lake to talk about fish (from Matthew 13:47-50). To help M know where I was, I mentioned I was at the spot where our church has held summer baptisms the past few years.

When the video was done, M turned to LeAnn and said "so when can I get baptized"? This led to a great conversation about the meaning of baptism, who gets baptized, and more. The conversation continued once I got back home from my trip, and much to my surprise, my shy little 7-year-old truly was ready to make her public stand of her faith in Christ.

So tomorrow night I get the honor of baptizing my second daughter at 7:00 pm out at the Pleasant Creek State Park. All on her own M decided that this was the right thing for her as a Christ-follower to do. And I couldn't be more proud (in the righteous sense of the word!).

I have a new hero...

I have linked to Eric Goodell's blog before, but I can't help but do it again. He has a superb (but mammoth) post about some of the things he has learned and experienced recently in Central America. His journal entry from June 21 is so good, that I'm posting much of it here for those of you without the time to read the entire online novel.

Pastor Bernabé is my new hero-on-earth. Thank You to Eric for sharing this:

I have learned a lot on this trip so far, but I can honestly say that the times that my eyes have been opened more than any have been with my conversations I have had with Pastor Bernabé [Ramirez] (pictured). Though much of my time has been spent here on the island has been spent in conversation with Bernabé, I think that more than anything, I have learned by watching this man’s life.

I mean, just two years ago Bernabé was a Doctor of chemistry making $204,000 dollars a year, had 14 employees, 3 chemistry businesses, a personal chauffeur, nice house and great recognition in the Latin American chemistry world. And simply because he wholeheartedly believed God called him back to his ancestors to preach the gospel, he abandoned it all and came.

He converted to Christianity 10 years back, literally saw a vision of him preaching the gospel to the Kuna people on these San Blas islands, and then fought it for 8 years before actually coming. Think about it, 40 years old, well established in his life, and yet he knew that he had to go. He said that it was like a feeling of anxiousness, a tingling in his feet such that he simply couldn’t resist it any longer. He just had to go. He forsook it all, packed his backpack, and came to the island not knowing anyone, nor having any training as a Pastor. He didn’t have a place to live or much of an income since leaving his profession. He has been supported by a church in Panama City but very little comes from there. And so there he was, one day a rich leader in the chemistry field, the next day on an island with an indigenous primitive tribe where the average salary is less than $5 a day.

Little by little, he took over an assembly of God church that had already been established on the island and gave it the name “Casa de Oracion Cristeana de Playón Chico” With the little he had, he began to fix up the broken down building, building benches and painting where it was needed. To this day, he is working day in and out to see the church raised up and the gospel message spread to the people of Playón Chico.

If the 180 degree turn in lifestyle weren’t enough of a challenge, the tests he faces daily are enough to make one throw in the towel. During the services, few adults come and when they do, it’s very inconsistent, and the children are running around making a huge scene throughout the whole service. It’s almost impossible to maintain a topic of doctrine two services in a row because the inconsistency in the attendance is so terrible.

He’s all alone and basically does everything by himself and gives his whole life daily for these people. He has to work hard in the hot sun and humidity in the fields trying to raise a little money to live on, to help feed his relatives on the island, the church, or works out on a canoe fishing for not only income but also to be able to understand what the people in the community experience on a daily basis. Imagine a Doctor, a prestigious, well known, educated Doctor of Chemistry out in the field covered in mud and sweat, sleeping in a hammock under a roof of palm branches, all to serve a people who don’t even seem to care? And it’s not just for a weekend or even a month long mission trip, but rather he is committed to doing this for the rest of his life if that’s what it takes to reach these people. Working, sweating, sacrificing, for what seems to be futile, and a waste of time, Bernabé is truly giving his life daily to serve God and these people.

When he came here, he had 15 acres of land passed onto him by his grandparents and had the option to sell them. But instead, he decided to become just like the people and farm the land himself. He spent an entire year alone in the jungle clearing land with his machete every day for 4 hours a day. He did this for two reasons: First, he didn’t want to have to be supported by the church. He wanted to work for his living and have food for his relatives on the island. Second, he wanted to experience what the Kuna people experience on a daily basis. He wanted to be able to talk to them about the things that interest them. Bernabé had an extremely formal and sophisticated education and could easily engage in a conversation of profound depth and philosophical topics with the brightest and wisest, yet with these simple Kuna people, he knew that he needed to master the topics that engaged these people’s daily lives; farming and fishing. He arrived to an island of people who had little if any education, with little understanding of the outside world, and a primitive lifestyle of farming and fishing. He wanted to better understand them, being able to sympathize with them, and build relationships with them even to his own pain and discomfort. Working out there for one day was hard enough for me, but it’s hard to imagine doing it day after day after day in the hot sun for weeks, months, even years in order to relate better to the people. It’s hard to comprehend that kind of sacrifice. But the amazing thing is that he doesn’t do it with an ounce of unwillingness or a feeling of superiority or obligation.

But the reason that I go into such detail about the life he has given up and the life he now lives is to give reason for my amazement when I see that this incredible man does it all with pure joy, and willingness, more than grateful to serve the Lord in even worse circumstances were they to come. Despite the apparent failures that daily plague his work, he never gives up hope, and keeps incredible faith that God is going to bring about the change in the hearts of these people and that God will finish the work He started on this island. Never have I seen such humility, such perseverance, and such faith in all my life and I can say that my life has been changed by the honor of spending 6 days with a person of such priceless and rare character. To sit there on a log in the middle of the hot, humid jungle with such an admirable man and to look into the eyes of someone whose love for God and for people drove him to such sacrifice was a real honor and privilege for me that day.

Sermonizing

I'm speaking at Encounter Christian Church this Sunday on 1 Samuel 14. I suppose I should get started with only 3 days to go...

If you don't have a church home, consider coming to Encounter this Sunday. Caleb, the pastor, is a really cool guy (who plans his sermons more than 3 days out) and they, as a new church, would love to have you part of their church family. Plus, they have church in a theater - how cool is that?!?! (My own church family is getting ready to do church-in-a-theater as well as we are starting a second location this September).

Leaving Teeth Marks in the Czech Republic

Long time no blog...

I've been itching to put some of my thoughts into this form of communication to help myself process all that took place during my time in the Czech Republic, and as a way to share what happened at the English Camp with some of you I might not get to talk with otherwise. So to begin, let me start in an unconventional way by talking about the book I took with me.

I knew we had some long stretches of travel, both by plane and train, to reach Hotel Malenovice, the location of the English/Business Camp. Being a bookworm who doesn't get to read as much as he wants, I wanted to take along a good book as a travel companion. I perused the stacks of unread volumes in my office. I knew I needed to pack light, so one book would have to do, but I needed something with some girth to last me the whole trip. I also decided I didn't want something too mentally challenging for travel, not knowing what state I would be in towards the end of the trip (I planned to get very little to no sleep to adjust faster to a different time zone), so something on the lighter side seemed more appropriate for my backpack. Then I saw it - after sitting on my desk for over two years (or was it three?), it was finally time to crack open flashBang by Mark Steele.

I have read articles by Mark before, and I find him to be absolutely hilarious. So I truly looked forward to reading a whole entire tome penned by him. And I was not disappointed. The book had me laughing to the point of tears at places (my teammates had almost as much fun laughing at my laughing...), which opened me up to the deeper points Mark was making. The subtitle of the book is "how i got over myself" and I enjoyed reading Mark's journey from showman for God to child of God. I would find much pleasure in handing this book out to many of the young adults I get to work with because I know they would enjoy the book and learn through it as I did.

But one of the chapter titles did not sit well with me. Each chapter title was intentionally a bit of a paradox, much like the book title itself. Chapter titles such as "slapHAPPY" or "dumbSHOW" didn't make sense until you read the chapter. But even after reading Chapter 2, I didn't like the title "teethMARKS".

Mark talked about how many of us think that love kisses. But Mark argued that true love leaves teethmarks. A kiss only flatters, but doesn't last. Teethmarks, on the other hand, leave an impression that stays with the person. Having a teething 10 month old son, I would argue from personal experience that teethmarks just hurt. :o)

So we arrived in the Czech Republic, enjoyed a day in Prague taking in the amazing sites, travelled by train out east the next day, and made it to the hotel. After a day of preparing for the arrival of the students, camp got started on a Sunday with English testing and getting to know names. I was so amazed how on Sunday these people were just faces with a name, but by Friday these people were friends we hugged goodbye. Here are some of the highlights of the week for me:

• My English class (pictured at the right). We laughed SOOO hard all week long. Man, did we have fun! They were such a great group to work with. I wrote in my journal to LeAnn that this group could take the worst of lesson plans and make the teacher seem like a genius. They had such a desire to learn, they had the most amazing attitudes, and they loved every moment we had together. It was such an honor to me that God would place me with that group. So Lumir, Tadek, Monika, Simona, Basia, Petr, Adam, and Roman - if any of you are reading this: thank you for letting me be your teacher for the week. You helped dispel every fear I had of teaching such high level English students and made it the most fun I've had in a while. And a special thank you to Adam for letting me be his English apprentice (sorry, inside joke there...)
• The change in my English Reading/Conversation Group. While I had fairly fluent English speakers in my 9:00-11:30 am English Grammar class, I had a new-to-English conversation group. It was fun watching and hearing their English improve all week long. But the bigger highlight to me was watching a group of mostly athiests or agnostics have little interest in our reading time on Monday (we would read a section of the Gospels in English each Reading time and answer questions about it to work on reading skills, comprehension, and conversation in English) have tons of interest and honest questions on Thursday and Friday.

There are of course many other highlights, stories, and pictures to share. But let me skip to our debriefing on the Saturday after camp.

After a good breakfast and a few last goodbyes, our team gathered for a time of worship, prayer, reflection, and debriefing about the camp. As our team talked together and shared our experiences, I realized that through our love of our students, time with the campers, and just being ourselves, we had made an impact on the campers and they on us. It wasn't just a kiss that was nice in the moment and faded after the camp ended. We truly had left an impression on the campers - or to use Mark Steele's phrase, teethmarks. Guess I like Mark's chapter title after all...

Visual Consumption

What looks like pretty desktop patterns/pictures but is actually a visual representation of the amount of material consumption in America? Chris Jordan's latest series of art work.

(This one depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours. Go to the website to see the close-up view, along with many others).

Lucky Number 13

Yesterday was my 13th anniversary being wed to the most wonderful woman God could have paired me with. To celebrate, we left the kids at Grandma and Grandpa Bird's house in Pella while we escaped for a night to the Stone Mansion in Oskaloosa. We enjoyed shopping together, eating together, walking together, and just being together.

It was so needed for LeAnn and me to get "us" time in the middle of all this busy-ness and impending separation due to my Czech trip. It was also wonderful to get 9 hours of sleep after many nights of 4-6! Yesterday was simply a great day.

I am so thankful for my wife and for my marriage. After Christ, LeAnn is the best thing to ever happen to me. Being married to her makes me feel like the luckiest man in the world!