Entries by James

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 07-25-2006

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Greetings once again! Much has transpired since the last update. Last Wednesday, a "super cell", meaning, a powerful, fast-moving pocket of thunderstorms, tore through St. Louis, plunging half the city, over 500,000 people, into darkness. We were getting ready to go to church, and I was outside grilling up some steaks, when I spotted the storms coming, pretty fast. I called to Anna to get the kids outside to put their toys away, and within five minutes of their completing that task, the deluge struck. We found out later that the winds were equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane. Suffice to say, it was quite interesting. Our only tree was whipping back and forth like crazy (the kids were quite concerned, so we had prayer for the tree, which was spared incidentally), and I was amazed it was still standing under the pressure. I knew the rain would come any minute, so I drug the grill under the shelter of the garage roof to finish cooking dinner. About the time I decided it was too dangerous to be outside, and that medium would have to be good enough for Anna's steak, the power went out. We finished our dinner in the dark (thankfully, it was complete. Cooking would prove to be a challenge in the near future). About the time we needed to be heading to church, the tornado sirens went off, so instead of going to church, we went down to the basement to wait it out. Everything was fine, but the area was decimated. Trees were down everywhere, and power lines with them, and in the middle of a heat wave (100+ degree weather, and St. Louis' usual 80% humidity). Highway 270 (the circumferential highway around the city) was shut down, because semis had blown over in multiple places. It was total pandemonium. Communciations was affected, with police, fire, and EMS unable to radio each other. Plus, it got dark soon, and there was no light now other than candles and flashlights. Now, I know, this is standard in places like Uganda. There, ironically, because power goes out all the time, the populace is generally much better prepared, either because they never had power to begin with, or because they have the requisite generators and/or battery backup systems in place to begin with. America is not used to such things, so, if you'll pardon the expression, we always get caught with our pants down in an emergency it seems.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 07-17-2006

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Greetings! Just a little FYI to bring everybody up to speed with what we've been up to lately. Last week, we had our meeting in Sioux City, IA (Lighthouse Baptist Church, Pastor John Morris). The whole thing started to feel like a massive conspiracy to keep us from making the trip. You see, last time, we were supposed to travel out there in February, but, as it turned out, that was just days after I buried Kyle. Needless to say, I was in no condition to be cheery or encouraging to anybody. So, we rescheduled for July. Then, as we're heading out there last Saturday, about 40 miles out of town our speedometer zeroed and our transmission started 'acting up'. I pulled it over, called AAA (God bless AAA!), and got it towed back to St. Louis. Then, as we were exiting on to the road leading to the mechanic, one of the rear tires blew out. The tire was decimated. Praise the LORD we weren't driving when it happened. So, we finally got all the stuff with the car squared away, and finished our trip, arriving late in Sioux City Saturday night. What a mess! Fortunately, however, we were able to leave our car with one of 'our' mechanics, and Dad let us borrow their van to make the trip, so it all worked out the best it could under the circumstances. We had a good meeting. Anna's Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Brad were in attendance (they live about an hour from Sioux City), which was pretty cool. God really moved, and I think it's pretty obvious, based on His actions, why there was so much opposition going to this church.

Couch to 5K

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Alright. I have to confess. I've been keeping secrets. Oh, such secrets! You have no IDEA!! Sneaky Okay, maybe not that melodramatic, but I do have one secret to reveal: I've been running again. Earth shaking, I know, but believe it or not, I have maintained a consistent running regimen for the past eight weeks. You see, Kyle's death really shook us up, and reminded me emphatically that the future is uncertain. Anna was pretty concerned about me, because I've had a fairly sedentary job for a while now, and had managed to get pretty badly out of shape.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update, 06-28-2006

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Hello, again! It's been a restful time for us this month, and a chance to get caught up on things around the house that needed doing. This past week, and the next, I'm filling the pulpit for our pastor, Ken Spilger, while he and the clan are off on vacation, visiting family up in Washington state. I'm preaching a series of four messages on Baptist Distinctives. Last week, we covered B, A, P, and T, meaning, Biblical Authority, the Autonomy of the Local Church, the Priesthood of the Believer, and the Two Ordinances of the Local Church (Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper). As you've probably guessed, we'll be finishing up with I, S, T, and S next week, meaning Individual Soul Liberty, a Saved Church (Purity of the Church), the Two Offices of the Local Church (Pastor and Deacon), and Separation of Church and State. I think most of us are at least aware of these things in principle, but it helps to have them articulated, and spelled out in an organized fashion for review. The history of our denomination is important to consider as well. I was able to bring this out, particularly in the points on the autonomy of the local church, and believer's Baptism. There are very good and compelling scriptural reasons for our historic doctrinal stances, and it is those stances in particular that have caused considerable problems for Baptists in the past, as Baptists found themselves in disagreement, and legal conflict with the Episcopal state church that existed in our country before the Revolution. It's all been very interesting and profitable, and I'm looking forward to finishing the series on Sunday. I tell you what, I'm glad I'm saved, and I'm also glad I'm Baptist!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 06-19-2006

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Hello! It's been awhile since our last email update. Innocent I guess I just haven't been super motivated to type one up of late. Anyway, just to bring you all up to speed:

Our meeting in Hannibal, MO went well (Pastor James Barmore, Victory Baptist Church). We had a great service with the folks there. It's a young church plant, in a town that's normally torn between Southern Baptist and Catholic. They're the only Independent Baptist gig around. They had some folks leave lately, and need to grow. Please pray that God will help them to bear fruit, and would add to the church as He would.