Bench "warming," easy money & red tape

This week Kendra and Keen had their first soccer game. They tied with no scores from either team, but Keen made a lot of good blocks and Kendra was smiling on the field. It was a good game. Kendra admitted that she spent a lot of time on the bench, and she didn't mind. The boys talk on the bench.

Heidi has become quite the entrepreneur. She wrote up fryers and went out yesterday to drum up some dog-walking business. I don't think she walked any dogs, but one lady donated $10 to her effort. Now, the woman across the street has agreed to hire the three girls to walk her dog every week day for $5 a day. Their eyes lit up when they started doing the math.

I went to the Social Security office this week to get cards for the kids, but they would not accept birth certificates as valid id. They will accept daycare records, church records, Passports, etc, but not certified birth certificates (go figure). So I went by the Post Office on the way home to see what I need for the Passports. They just need my photo id and the kids birth certificates, so I use the birth certificates to get the Passport. Then, I can use the Passports to get the Social Security cards. Does this seem kooky to anyone else?

a wide brush for a big project

I feel like I need to follow up on some of my more recent posts. Tact is not always one of my strong points, and it's been pointed out to me that my tone has been self-righteous and ungrateful. For that I am deeply sorry. I by far have no right to claim any kind of "holier than thou" attitude. My partial education, minor investment and little summer trip in no way make me an expert, hero or honored veteran. And I would not be who I am or where I am with out the help of family and friends. I am forever indebted to you in love.

If my tone was judgmental and offensive, it was not directed (by me) at any one person, group or church. I can not speak for churches in other countries, but the Church of America (which includes me) has a problem. It doesn't take much research and insight to see that things are terribly out of balance. No, I don't have a simple solution, but we have an abundance of resources: people, books, money and more. Yet, millions on the other side of the globe are not hearing the Gospel, and it's been this way for generations.

Robert Speer said, "There is nothing in the world or the Church -- except the church's disobedience -- to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility." That was around 1930, far before the Internet and the current age of communication and other technologies, so it remains true all the more for this generation.

Paul commented to an Aug 10th blog well by saying, "...people here do not see the need; they do not have their eyes open. Most people here are too wrapped up in the 9-5 grind and have numbed themselves with entertainment. And yes, their greatest quest and ambition is more of the same; career ambitions and entertainment..."

The debate about weather or not all are called to go or some are called to stay is not my concern. My concern is the job is not getting done and that more people need to get involved. But the problem is not only lack of funding; it is far more a lack of people going. Again, I'm painting this picture with a wide brush, and I understand that there are needed and productive ways to minister here in the states.

But I tend to share the mind of James Gilmour, who said, "I thought the matter out, and decided for the mission field; even on the low ground of common sense I seemed to be called to be a missionary. Is the kingdom a harvest field? Then I thought it reasonable that I should seek to work where the work was most abundant and the workers fewest. Labourers say they are over-taxed at home; what then must be the case abroad, where there are wide stretching plains already white to harvest, with scarcely here and there a solitary reaper? ...in place of seeking to assign a reason for going abroad, I would prefer to say that I have failed to discover any reason why I should stay at home." --www.wholesomewords.org/missions/msquotes.html