Church on the Rocks

This church sounds a lot like the one The Monkey once told me he was going to plant one day. I should have known he was up to something when he told me he was off to live the "High Life".

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/1FDE58A96F4DFD38862572700022CCCA?OpenDocument

Brick City, USA

Here it is Sunday night and I still can't get Illinois' lost to Purdue on Saturday out of my head. I wish they would have been playing in Dallas, TX so that we could have used all of those bricks the Illini shot at the free throw line to build our new headquarters.

It just seems like this team is waiting for Dee Brown to check into the game. I sure hope they can right the ship. In the spirit of supporting the Ilini, I have decided to start recruiting my nephew, Jacob, to go to the U of I. He may only be 1 but he has some mad ball skillz. The other day when I was visiting his new little sister at the hospital, he saw the game on television and threw a ball at my head. Deep down I think he was trying to tell me that he is the one who is going to carry the Illini on his back.

The bad news for Illini fans is that Jake probably won't be enlisting until 2026...and he is currently under three feet tall...and he is thinking about a career in Bible Translation.

Go Illini!

The Passion of the Toad

I am currently at Kentucky Christian University sharing our work with their student body. I am full of joy right now due to the conversation that I just had with this young couple who are trying to discern God's will for their lives. I won't go into detail about everything that this couple is praying and thinking about. The thing that made this conversation so special is their simple love for Jesus and their simple desire to be used by God. Words fail to communicate the excitement in my heart for these servants of God.

There is something special when I get the opportunity to see someone come alive. In fact, I'm not sure there is anything more inspiring or beautiful. Seeing individuals use their gifts and passions for the glory of God simply gets me excited. It is the one thing that continually makes me come alive. My prayer is that I will have many more days of seeing people come alive in Jesus.

Uncle Toadie Reloaded

God is so good! This past weekend, I got to hold my new baby niece, Alyssa. My visit was something only God could orchestrate. This past Tuesday I unexpectedly received a call from a church asking me to come present our work to their missions' committee. As I was heading north, my mom called me to tell me that Alyssa was coming 3 weeks early. The hospital just happens to be 80 miles away from where I was heading to share our ministry. How cool is that! Did I mention how good our God is to us?

Alyssa also told me that she likes her Uncle Toadie the most. Simply amazing.

On top of this, I got to see a second birth at church. This past Sunday a six year old boy named Kellan give his life to Jesus. Kellan said he wanted to be baptized in Christ because he loves Jesus. I think that might be the best answer I have ever heard.

I am full of praise today. Who am I that God is so good to me?

I Will Remember

I am often guilty of forgetting the many ways God has provided in my life. When I am in the middle of struggles, discouragement or just the hustle and bustle of life, I am quick to throw up my hands and ask, "God, where did you go?" The following entry are the words I received from a dear friend yesterday. Through these gentle words, I was reminding to remember God's faithfulness in my life:

Nathan,

Remember God's faithfulness to you in the past and it'll remind you that He never changes and will always remain faithful. I have what I call my "I will remember...." list. I have written down all the things God has done in my life. Whether it be healing my daughter "Anne" when she was three months old or His financial provision when "Will" and I were paying double bills because our house had not sold in Illinois. Someone left a check in "Will's" mailbox at the office.

I remember the victory he gives me each day when I'm tempted to be impatient and unkind in the way I speak towards my children and instead my words come out with love and I think, that was not me because I was really upset.

I remember that when I was living in rebellion towards God in high school, he still protected me even when I put myself in very dangerous situations. I remember that he has removed my sin as far as the east is from the west and he has hurled my transgressions into the depths of the sea.

Maybe you guys could make an "I will remember..." list.??

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The Lord is gracious to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." Lamentations 3:22-26.

"We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Psalm 33:20-22.

I will remember this day the way God used these words to bless my heart and remind me of His neverending goodness.

Naughty and Ice

This past weekend I drove over to Missouri to present our missions work with the good people of Rolla. Little did I know that I would be greeted with a barrage of ice reminiscent of The Great Ice Storm of 1987. For all you weather novices who don't recall this historic storm, The Great Ice Storm of 1987 knocked out the power of Southwest Missouri for 2 weeks. I remember those two weeks well because not only did we not have power, we also did not have running water (we had to flush our toilets with water from the pond next door). For two weeks, I and my family did our best to emulate the Ingels from Little House on the Prairie. We even had our own Nelli Olsen and everything...wait, no that really was the Ingels. Every since that winter, I continually get our families confused.

Even though I didn't get to do my presentation, I still had a great time hanging out with the Fosters and the Cooks. Their kids are absolutely a blast. Chris and Dorothy's little boy, Luke (2 1/2), made me laugh the hardest when he and the other kids were running around the church auditorium after Sunday morning worship. When one little boy pushed my man over, Luke jumped off the ground and shouted, "You're naughty!" as he pointed his finger at his assailant. I'm not really sure why this made me laugh so hard. I guess I just love it when people call a duck a duck.

Because of the weather, I was forced to come home Monday. It was a pretty exciting adventure. I saw a truck spin out of control right in front of me, a 300lb hog standing in the middle of traffic blocking off interstate 64 and then at a gas station I saw a lady dump like 4 gallons of gasoline all over her car as she sat inside her SUV looking at her make-up (yes, I did run over to shut it off).

I then came home, had a Coke and wondered if I really did see a hog in the middle of the road. I thought about it some more and I really did.

Famous Fat Guys

I was thinking the other day about the times in the HOLE when we used to have a fat guy roll call. Various guys would come out of their room patting their belly. I remember the first time I got called out. I was like, "dang it! Now everybody knows!" In honor of all the extra holiday weight I have put on, I have decided to come up with an all-time fat guy roll call. I know I'll probably overlook someone...if that is possible but here is my top ten fat guys of all-time. The next time you make fun of someone who is a little overweight...cough hmm hmm...cough...just remember what the world would be like without fat guys.

10. King Eglon from the book of Judges. No one really knows what this dude looked like except for the fact that we know he was so fat that after being killed his fat consumed an entire sword.

9. Fred Flinstone/Jackie Gleason/Kevin James These three guys get lumped together because their characters were based off of the same premise. I would probably even go as far as to say that their characters were stolen off of Jackie Gleason in the Honeymooners.

8. John Belushi. I would have ranked the guy higher but I was a little young to really appreciate any of his work.

7. Marlon Brando. Where would we be without the Godfather. Simply my favorite character from movie history.

6. Orson Wells. First the guy created War of the Worlds and then he ate them.

5. Fat Albert. When you get to the point where they add the title "Fat" to your name, you probably should be in the top five.

4. Henry VIII Ok, so here is a pick where the world probably would have been better off. But you still have to respect a guy who decides to create his own schism...ok, actually that is a bad example too. But he was a fat guy and so he makes the list.

3. William Howard Taft. He wasn't the greatest president but he was the biggest...and he cost Teddy Roosevelt his second term in office.

2. Chris Farley. This is more an emotional pick than a logical one. His comedy has "shaped" my life tremendously.

1. Budha Only a fat guy could be this happy, or a fat guy with enlightenment.

Overheard at Urbana

"When Standing Before God, Only God is Great."

Talk About a Grudge...

I'm doing a short lecture at Purdue University this Thursday about how we recevied the English Bible. Did you know that church officials were so upset with John Wycliffe for translating the scriptures into English that 43 years after his death they dug up his body, burned his remains and then threw the ashes into the river?

Talk about a grudge. Geesh.

Great Day in the Morning!

So the Midwestern Monk went back to substitute teaching today. Everything was peaches and creame until "Bobby" decided to toss his cookies as we were loading up our things to go home. The best part about this story is that the kid upchucked right in the door way.

All the kids started freakin' out. "What are we going to do? How are we going to get out!" With my monkish skills, I then coached the kids how to step around the regurgitation without causing any further episode. Yep. I'm pretty much a hero.

So what did you do with your day?

Urbana...St. Louis....Whatever

Lindsay and I just returned from Urbana '06 in St. Louis, MO. It was an incredible week that has made an impression on me in ways I will never fully know. There were over 22,000 college students from 144 different countries. I know I have talked about glimpses of heaven before but this conference expanded my view of how big the Kingdom is. It also made me realize how diverse and beautiful the people of God are.

I am overwhelmed right now with what to write about. I want to tell you about the students who came to our booth who felt moved to pray for the Bibleless. I want to tell you about the guy who handed me his credit card info and told me to credit his account for $500 for PBT. I want to tell you about the numerous students who shared my passion for helping the oppressed, poor and the forgotten peoples of the earth.

I feel like I need to let these stories flow out slowly or I will just end up throwing up on you a bunch of stories and information that will not make any sense. Some of the stories I heard are too painful to relay while some of the stories make me want to dance. I think I need time to listen to God and time to journal these thoughts privately to dicepher what needs to be whispered and what needs to be shouted from the mountain tops.

I just want to thank you all for praying for me and for joining me in this journey. What a wonderful and glorious God we serve!