the breastplate of Patrick

I know, it's not very upbeat, and it seems I have my holidays mixed up, but I found this today as well. ~~Good Stuff~~

"He [St. Patrick] was ordered to appear before the King, and as he made his way there, began to chant a hymn now known as the breastplate of Patrick, or the lorica or Deer's Cry..."
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/medieval/celtic/celtic.shtml

St. Patrick's Breastplate

( the Lorica or Deer's Cry)

For my shield this day I call: A mighty power: The Holy Trinity! Affirming Threeness, Confessing oneness, in the making of all Through love ... For my shield this day I call: Christ's power in his coming and in his baptizing, Christ's power in his dying On the cross, his rising from the tomb, his ascending; Christ's power in his coming for judgement and ending. For my shield this day I call: strong power of the seraphim, with angels obeying, and archangels attending, in the glorious company of the holy and risen ones in the prayers of the fathers in visions prophetic and commands apostolic in the annals if witness ... For my shield this day I call: Heaven's might, sun's brightness, Moon's whiteness, Fire's glory, Lightening's swiftness, Wind's wildness, Ocean's depth Earth's solidity, Rock's immobility. This day I call to me: God's strength to direct me, God's power to sustain me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's vision to light me, God's ear to my hearing, God's word to my speaking, God's hand to uphold me, God's pathway before me, God's shield to protect me ...

From evil enticements, from failings of nature, from one man or many, that seek to destroy me, anear or afar .. Around me I gather these forces to save my soul and my body ... Against knowledge unlawful that injures the body, that injures the spirit. Be Christ this day my strong protector against poison and burning against drowning wounding through reward wide plenty Christ beside me Christ before me Christ behind me Christ within me Christ beneath me Christ above me Christ to the right of me Christ to the left of me Christ in my lying, my sitting, my rising Christ in heart of all who know me Chirst on tongue of all who meet me; Chirst in eye of all who see me; Christ in ear of all who hear me. For my shield this day I call a mighty power: The Holy Trinity! Affirming Threeness, Confessing oneness, in the making of all Through love ...

the journey inward

A friend recently suggested I Google "Celtic Monasticism." I'm glad he did, and though it has put me to sleep several times today, I'm finding the study quite intriguing.

"...the Celtic saints were travelers who journeyed far and wide, leaping into their tiny coracles and setting sail on the sea, often without oars or sails, and often without a specific destination, content to let God take them where God would...

Their love of travel was motivated by their love of God; their journey was undertaken in order to come closer to God. Theirs was a journey in which oars or sails were not necessary, for that for which they were searching was to be found not without, but within: It has been said that, "The longest journey is the journey inward" (Dag Hammarskjold). The peregrinations of the Celtic saints were ways of expressing outwardly a journey which they wanted to undertake inwardly...

This journey was a journey in which one achieved stability of soul, a constant striving after God in which one might remain in a single place while nevertheless being constantly on the move. On the other hand, one might stay in a single place and nevertheless be on a journey of intense transformation. Celtic monasticism is a world in which journey and stability of place are not at odds at all, but expressions of one spiritual ideal...

...the constant peregrinations of the saints were not an effort to find God, as the hymns tells us that if you can't find God where you are, there's no need to go anywhere else looking for him. The Celtic saints were deeply aware of the omnipresence of God, beside us, beneath us, above us, all around us and within us and all creation. Celtic monasticism full of such peregrini who, in their constant wanderings, spread monasticism throughout Ireland, to Scotland, and Northumbria, and later to continental Europe."

http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/medieval/celtic/celtic.shtml

Update from Ahtapa

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Dec. 17, 2008

Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and our eternal King. We are sending you our love and best wishes for the celebration of Christmas and remembrance of our Lord who came to the world and die for us on the Cross. By Him and in Him we have hope for eternal life. We would like to Thank each one of you for praying for us and we especially thank you for praying for our country as we have faced some political conflict in our country. We were concerned that our brothers from Michigan would not make it on time for Northmen meeting, but they made it earlier than the original arrival time. We have been blessed so much with their visit. We had a good Northmen gathering. The messages from all seven speakers were great. There were five American speakers, two Lisu, and one Hmong. We had 50 people all together. Most of them stayed the whole time, some had to leave earlier. We are very thankful to you all for praying for us and God was so good to us in making every possible for His children to live in peace and security. Right after the Northmen, we had a big thanksgiving feast waiting for us. It was so good to have many friends in the village come to participate in this service. The Ahka and the Lisu in the village and a nearby village and some people came up from Chiangmai to celebrate with us. Yabota, Ahlu, Nana, and many other friends from the Night Bazaar came up for thanksgiving. This was very special. We were so happy that they came to hear great sermons and great songs.

We were very busy and the Northmen team worked very hard. We got a new door and stairs to the learning center. Nick and Norm took a special trip up to Ahlemi’s village to see her parents and got the wedding lined up. Many people came to the wedding. Ahlemi was very beautiful and Nick was very handsome. As parents, Leah and I were overwhelmed with joy to see them in their most happy time. Leah worked very hard in the kitchen and make sure everything would turn out perfect. Ahlemi's mother was happy that Leah was there to help her. I could not sleep for many nights. I was so excited for their wedding. We helped the two line-up their honey moon trip to Huahin beach in Southern Thailand. On their way back, they will go to the American embassy to get their marriage certificate so Nick can get a Marital visa. Please pray for them as they travel back to Chiangmai.

We took a quick trip to KhunKlang. Xai Xong called us to come to help him get some warm clothes to Mae Vark village. The Hmong villages were having difficulty with the cold winter. We got several boxes of used clothes. It took us about 3.30 hours for 19 kilometers of road. Scott could not go because he was still sick from the previous village trip when we went to Lishiya's village. The road to Lishiya’s village was much better than the one to this Hmong village. It was good that Scott did not go. Xai Xong's clinic was good place to rest. There were no roosters to bother him. (Mike said that one night at Xai Xong’s he was getting away night from roosters but they ran into scooters running all night.)

Dennis and I took the Northmen team from Michigan to the airport yesterday morning. It was very difficult for us to say good bye. The kids did not want them to leave. We stayed with the team till the last minute before the boarding time. When we came home we felt very strange. Everybody was very silent. When the smaller kids came home they also were quiet. Some came to me and threw their arms around me and told me how much they missed Papa Mike, Papa Norman, and pee Scott. Once again the kids have to adjust their emotional volume.

Dennis is going to leave on December 21. As for now we do not want to think about his leaving. It is hard to handle this. Dennis is working hard to finish the left over project of building the scoring stations. We finished painting the door and the stairs today. They look very good. The color is attractive, a Chinese favorite color (Red). We wanted mahogany but it turned out a little red. This is fine for us.

The kids are practicing songs and dancing for the Christmas gathering. They look forward to this event. We also plan to have a special party for the kids on December 31. Lishiya and the folks will come down to join with us if there is no other problem to interrupt the plan.

The brothers in Myanmar are going to have an all Churches of Christ and Christian Churches convention in Rangoon on December 21. I was invited to come to this gathering but I cannot go due to the work at the hostel and the trip that we have to make to the Lisu Christian Christmas convention at MaeKon village. I was invited to come to this one. The headman and leaders asked me seriously to come because my father and I helped them found the village way back in the 80’s. Saitun from the Golden Triangle also asked us to come to his place to speak. Please pray for us that we will be able to do everything for God's glory.

30 sets of water purifiers are on the border ready to ship to Yangon for the Nargis victims. Please pray that we will be able to send them over to Jay and help install them for the villagers.

Praise the Lord for Vilailuk and Praiwan that they make decision to join with Christ in baptism for the remission of sin. Pray for them as they are growing in Christ. Praiwan is a good boy and very active boy. He loves sports. He will have a contest in track tomorrow. Vilailuk has very good voice and she likes to praise God and lead the singing.

Pray for Nick and Ahlemi as they are travelling back home from their honeymoon.

Pray for Ahtapa and Leah. We plan to take a trip back to USA in May if God provides the funds for us. We would like to be with Christopher for his high school graduation. We also would like to visit our friends and supporters.

Pray for our school and our plan for relocate at Zion hill. Things are looking very positive. Right now the kidney bean is about ready for harvest. We will harvest next week. Brother Norm Miller showed us how to find water. There was water on the property but we did not know how deep and how much water is down there. Please pray that we will have funds for all the transition and for water drilling.

May God richly bless you and grant you joy as we celebrate Christmas and we pray that God will continue to keep your cup overflowing with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In Christ,

Ahtapa and Leah

It's not so much a career, as much as an adventure

"So were you born and raised around here?" I asked a new co-worker yesterday.
He promptly replied, "No, I'm from Green County. It's like a hundred miles from here."

With plans of moving in a few months, job hunting is a bit... awkward. Soon after coming to town, I started working for a handyman down the street, but after about a month, he ran out of work. So I quickly landed a job working for another local carpenter, but his work soon dried up after about a month as well. (Don't look at me. I like to think of it as if I just work so hard, I keep working myself out of a job.)

So last Tuesday I headed off to the big city of Lexington to find some temp work. I visited about a half dozen staffing agencies. Two took my resume, and only one had me fill out an application. I was feeling a bit defeated.

Wednesday I decided I might as well get some cash out of the day, so I went into donate plasma. Long story short, I ended up blacking out during the procedure. My pulse dropped down into the forties. I went into convulsions and dry heaves, but you better believe I walked out with my $25.

Thursday about 5:30AM, I found myself at a "work today paid today" labor staffing service, and by 7:30AM I was listening to five of the seven guys on my crew compare notes about their prison experiences. That day we unloaded about 350 pieces of furniture, and I went home with a wapp'n $50.

Friday, I was contract labor for a moving company (Excuse me, we are not "movers." We are "installers"). This company has hired me, and I've been working there this week. It's good work and pay considering my "career goals."

On a serious note, one of my new co-workers took advantage of a moment we were alone today, and he referred to me as "a man of God" and asked a very personal theological question. It made all of last week worth it.

A busy time at for the Asian Gospel Outreach

Here's an update from Mike on the Northmen team.

Hello all from Thailand, Today was a day of travel, preparation, buying, wedding rehearsal and such. All on Thai time of course. Scott is really having trouble with Thai time. He wants to do everything like in America. Now Now Now! That does not work here. Tomorrow is the big wedding (rehearsal tonight and I must remember in Lisu there is no kissing of the bride. Nick when with Norman and Joseph today to complete the marriage deal. He got off with two water buffalo, final cost arrangements yet to be set. I think we are sending the couple south to the beautiful beaches of Thailand for about four days. Then they will come back to work here with Ahtapa and Leah. Nick is ideal for the work. The kids love him. Athapa trusts him and knows him fairly well. Ahlemi is already a part of the family and Nick might as well be.
So tomorrow morning busy, busy. Wedding at 10........ish. But before that all the cooking and final prep. We hauled home enough food for an army from Changmai today. Radishes,
big withe ones for greens and to dice into the stir fry, mustard greens, oranges, squash, onions, garlic, two or three other kinds of greens; Oh yes, another pig is being slaughtered as I write. That makes three since we have been here. Grandpa no longer has this job. Chatchai is now in charge and boys do it all. This piggy will be stir fry for the multitude tomorrow.
Hopefully things will settle down Friday afternoon after all leave. Maybe Saturday we will do a little travel and some evangelism. If we meet here Sunday one of us will preach or maybe two. Dennis has been leading the kids early morning devoitons and he does a great job. (for you early riseers that happens at 4:40 am). Then the kids work on the rosetta stone program (english study) and breakfast before being off to shcool. Of course no one will go to school tomorrow. We need to do some finish up work on our stairway project yet but it will not take long. It is usuable. We have the material in hand to build the learning center score table. Hopefiully we can get that all cut out and maybe even get started putting it together before we leave.

So long for now. I will try to get someting off tomorrow after the wedding. Who knows what is going to happen. I am wearing native Lisu pants and shirt. Nick will be in tux and Ahlemi in a rented gown. Later. Mike"

Update From Ahtapa and Mike

I received two updates today. The first is from Ahtapa (the head of the Asian Gospel Outreach), and the second is from Mike (the director of the Northmen Ministry and leader of the team that is visiting this week). Ahtapa also sent pics. I will try to add them to our flickr site.

"Greetings to you from Thailand. We are all doing fine here in the land of Smile. Thank you very for your prayers. The two major aiports are back to full services now. Yeh, There was time of concern and worry and doubt but now we all got through that moment with God's help. Big thanks for your prayers.

We had wonderful Norhtmen meeting in the jungle. We got home and all the ladies had prepared big Thanksgiving feast for us. The sermons were excellents. The theme for this year is "Content In Christ"

there were 50 people.( Adults and young boys). The weather was nice. Not as cold as last year but cold enought that we had to set big camp fire and got around it.

We will be busy in building more score station for our learning center. We also need to put at least one more stairway up to the building. We have Mike Steere, Norm Miller, Dennis Moss, Scott Davison, and Nick Papi to help us for these projects. By the way Nick Papi will get marry with Ahlemi on this coming Friday. This another main event coming soon.

Well I have to stop for now. I need to take the bath before it get too cold. Have a wonderdul day of worshp and fellowship.

YOur brother Ahtapa and family."

"Hello All, We are home and all went well at the Northmen meeting. Ahtapa has written about that so I will let Terry send it also. I think there were about 50 of us. The fellowship was great and we saw many old friends. Coming back here we shared in the annual Thanksgiving assembly and meal. It was great as usual. We are tired but happy and glad to be here. Tomorrow we will begin work on outside stairway to the learning center and also the
score station for the learning center. This school system is real neat and we will fill you in on it more as we observe and talk with the kids who seem to be very excited about it. The outside stairway is necessary so kids will not have to go up through the boys dorm. In other words the learning center is the upper room of the building we built two years ago. The property Ahtapa is looking at is really interesting and we will be discussing that more through the week. We still need to sell our Northmen property in Ogemaw County to pay for the school property here.
Weather is beautiful with sun and warmth although chilly at night. We will be buying some blankets and a new wash machine (pump gone on the old one). That is the way we use the funds some of you have sent to be used here.
We had no major travel problems and in fact arrived here much sooner than we thought we could. God was at work and we thank all of you who prayed. Tonight we are relaxing a little and a devotional time later. We will be off to bed early because its back to school tomorrow for the kids. Friday they were off due to the King's birthday. Things are ok here in this area but be praying for Thailand in general. Norman and Scott are out checking out the village. If they don't get back by dark we will go find where they are wandering. The kids will find them easy.
I will try to write tomorrow and let know how the stair way is coming. Cost of that will be one of our projects also. As will the cost of the score center. In Him love, Mike"

Update on the Northmen team and our house sell

An update on the team visiting the Asian Gospel Outreach I received today:
"Hi all, just a short note to let you know that the men arrived safely at the hostel on Thurs.morning. Will be leaving Fri for the mountains and the Thai Northmen. Thank you for all your prayers. Terry"

As for the house, the sell fell through. The buyer got cold feet...something about his possible divorce. I don't know. So anyway, we've lowered the asking price from $89,900 to $85K. It showed again today. Please continue to pray.

The loss of George

The study of missions has made me more aware of cultures and cultures within cultures. It's really interesting to watch how people interact. It's particularly eye opening when you step out of your own for a season and then return.
I have recently been amerced in to the Kentucky blue-collar world, and I find it quite amusing. I stopped to listen to a couple of men talking at the job site today. They thought I was interested in the conversation, and I was to a degree. But what really intrigued me was the fact that one of them was speaking English with such a country slur I had to make an effort to follow. It was like another language.

One dear friend invited me to his "place" for lunch. He owns quite a bit of land a long the river with a number of rental properties, but he's living out of several tents and a RV trailer. He's planning on turning his "new" box truck into living space as well. His house burnt down about 5 months ago, and He's working on rebuilding, but the kicker for me was the lumber delivered today, not for the house, but for the new deck he wants me to help him build over the river.
How people determine priorities and lifestyles is fascinating. He loves his simple, debt-free living, and even his wife seems happy.

This Thanksgiving brought a bit of a downer for him though. He had befriended a couple of wild, white geese. They knew his voice. As he would walk down toward the river and call, "George!...Lucy!" And they would start honking.
He went to visit his daughter for Thanksgiving, and when he returned, Lucy was alone and honking inconsolably. These sort of geese mate for life. Someone must have shot George for their family feast. My friend was so angry the next time I saw him, he said, "I hate people." He took time off to make Lucy a home on the bank out of bails of straw.
Today when we went to lunch, he made sure to feed her. "I gotta' keep her eating through her morn'n."
One of his friends was there and asked about her mate. He seemed upset as well to hear of the loss and agreed to help get her a new partner.

Some would argue that these folk have their priorities messed up and need to change their lifestyles, and how this all meshes with my Christian views of priorities and such is up for debate. But I'm gleaning some insight from the riverbank and learning a bit about love from this culture within my culture.

Travel prayers

I got an offer on the house today (Praise the Lord!! It's been on the market for 4 months), but the offer is very low. I'm making a counter offer this afternoon. Please pray that I will have wisdom, and the house will sell soon. The sooner it sells the better we can prepare financially for our move to Thailand.

Here's an update from Mike I received today:
"Hi All, Thanks for your many, many prayers. God indeed answers. We leave tomorrow morning with the same basic schedule. We will not be going anywhere near Bangkok and will arrive in Changmai about the same time we would have the other way. Thanks much. We will let you know when we arrive. Mike"