Brent Criswell:  One of the certainties of mission team trips is that the work site may not be what we were told. Instead of three houses, we all worked on one house today. Our youth quickly became super stars at roofing. Others worked on siding. It is clearly a gift of the Holy Spirit that we were sent to this house as our team is experienced in accomplishing both tasks. We will go back to that house tomorrow. One of the directors of the center took us on a tour of the devastated areas of Tuscaloosa. Seeing pictures on the news never prepares one for seeing the destruction in real life. The city is slowly but steadily rebounding.

Mike Kreeger: Great day with a remarkable team. We are working on a house for a disabled army veteran who is raising his three children as a single father. The house was started 13 days ago and we were doing roofing and siding today. Licensed electricians and plumbers were finishing up today. They will have this home dome by may 3. Amazing.

Melynda Kreeger: On our way to the worksite, bright & early! Wake up time; 4am pacific standard time...ouch! =)

Kim Kreeger: Today has been an eye opening experience. As we where stoped and taking a tour of the damage, a guy pulled over in his car and told us his story. It just so happened that I was taking a picture of his house that was completly damaged by the tornado. He left the house 15 minutes before the tornado hit, and ran acroos the street to be with his family. While there, they all got together, held onto the kids with locked arms as their legs were flying up in the wind. The roof was blown off the house, and he was able to look up into the tornado. His whole family survived. The house that we woked on today was an Iraq vet, single dad of 3 kids, and sounds like a amazing man. Looking forward to hopefully meeting him this week!! Pics to come!

Mike Kreeger: The damage of the area is humbling. Such a beautiful area with enormous damage. The quote of the day that impacted me was "trying to live a new normal "

Let’s begin with the one I had nothing to do with. On March 20, months after pledging to not do so, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small, non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida, publicly burned a copy of the Koran, the holy book of the Muslim faith. The Rev. Jones held a mock “trial” and found the Koran guilty of five “crimes against humanity.”

The stunt went largely unnoticed in the United States for a couple of weeks (thanks, apparently, to the uncharacteristic restraint and good sense of the American media) but protestors in Afghanistan became aware of it last week and, looking for a symbol of the west, overran a United Nations building killing seven UN workers, none of whom were Americans.

The second event was a funeral service that I was asked to participate in. Amy, a woman in her 90s had died, and because part of her family is Methodist and part Buddhist, the request was for me to co-officiate with a Buddhist priest. We each shared prayers and rituals from our faith traditions in order to make the service meaningful for all of the family gathered there.

The next evening we took the confirmation class from our church to Temple Beth Tikvah, the synagogue in Fullerton, to experience a Shabbat service. Rabbi Kenneth Milhander and his congregation greeted us warmly, included us in the service and spent time with us afterward explaining aspects of the Jewish faith and showing us several of their eight Torahs (four of which survived the Holocaust.)

Two days later a large number of our youth, along with eight adults, went to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. There we learned more about the Holocaust as well as freedom of speech and the tolerance and intolerance that has existed in the world throughout history.

Unfortunately, intolerance still exists and it seems to me that the Rev. Jones and his congregation exhibited a tremendous amount of insensitivity in their ill-advised burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book. From my point of view, it’s just a book. For that matter, so is our Bible, as I tell the third graders every year when we present them with their own Bibles. The Bible is a tool; it’s intended to be used, and while the message inside may be holy, the paper and ink and faux leather cover are not. But clearly many Muslims believe that the Koran in and of itself is sacred. Why would someone who professes to be a good Christian intentionally offend people of another faith by his or her actions? What on earth did they intend to accomplish?

At the same time, I want to affirm that the Rev. Jones had the right to do what he did, because the U.S. Constitution protects free speech. But having the right and doing the right thing are sometimes miles apart.
As for the other experiences, I am proud of the youth in our church and their willingness to learn about other faiths and their eagerness to be open to the fact that God is revealed in many ways and there are many pathways to knowing God. Our Christian faith may be right for us but it doesn’t mean that it has to be right for everyone else. I am so grateful to be part of a denomination that teaches tolerance and openness to our children and youth.
The lesson of the Holocaust and the lesson of the mobs in Afghanistan is the same: intolerance has consequences and innocent people often suffer them. And we, as the human race, are worse off whenever that happens.

When a Jewish lawyer asked Jesus the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, placing the most hated enemy of the Jews into a position of goodness and right behavior. It’s a sobering reminder to us as Christians that all people are our neighbors no matter where they live or how they worship.

Grace and peace to you!

--Brent Criswell

A friend, classmate, and author named Steven Luff gave me a T-shirt just the other day with that saying on it, and it made me think.  Just how far does Jesus’ love go?  Is it possible that Jesus could really love a gay porn star?  A sex addict?  This last one Steven addresses in the book Pure Eyes: A Man’s Guide to Sexual Integrity, available at Amazon here (full disclosure: if you buy through that link, I’ll get a small kickback… thought you should know).

Does Jesus love gay people like Ellen Degeneres?  Some would say not, and continue that natural disasters like hurricane Katrina are actually God’s wrath because of American society’s acceptance of gays and lesbians (read here).  NOTE:  This example and the next both suggest that homosexuality is a sin, something that I whole-heartedly argue against, though I will not do so in this post.

Fred Phelps (whose website I refuse to link from here) would say that U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan are a direct result of the same.  Still others argue that the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan were God’s wrath, perhaps a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 (read here).

Is any of this consistent with the Gospel message?  No.  Not to me it’s not.  And frankly, I think it gives Christians and Christianity a bad name…

And that’s the thing.  Sure, we can find all sorts of things that point to God’s wrath in the face of humanity’s stupidity.  First-century Jews (and I think some today) might have argued that violating the sacred covenant with God would surely result in divine punishment.  And there is more than a little support for that train of thought in the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament as most Christians know it).  And if that were our only source of sacred text, could we argue the point?

But for Christians, that’s not the only source of sacred text.  So given the Gospel text, what’s the significance of Jesus’ teachings or of his sacrifice on the cross?  Don’t most Christians affirm that Jesus taught a message of profound love and even gave his life on the cross as an ultimate act of love for all of humanity for all time?  I – as one Christian – am unwilling to say that Christ’s death wasn’t enough and that God’s wrath has to fill in the gaps.  I’m just not willing to say it.  Because I believe that Jesus loves us where we are and as we are, without qualification and without prejudice.

I am willing to say that Jesus loves gay porn stars.  And yes, I believe it.

In 2007, van Arkel was a 24-year-old Dutch elementary school teacher who was participating in the worldwide Galaxy Zoo project where everyday people can look at archived star photographs—many of them taken by the Hubble Space Telescope—in order to catalog new objects. In one of the photographs, van Arkel noticed an odd object that appeared blue, smudgy and fairly small. In subsequent photos astronomers have observed that it has turned green and is growing larger.
The mysterious giant green blob has been named Hanny’s Voorwerp (pronounced “for-verp,” the word is Dutch for object.) It exists deep in outer space and seems to be strangely alive. It is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old. It is in a remote area of the universe where stars don’t normally form. Parts of the green blob are collapsing and the resulting pressure is creating the stars. All of this is taking place outside of a normal galaxy, which is where stars usually exist. There are two things about Hanny’s Voorwerp that I find mind-bogglingly fascinating. The first is its size. It is approximately the same size as our own Milky Way galaxy. The second is its distance from where we are. It is 650 million light years away, which when written in that form doesn’t seem all that impressive until you consider that a light year (in simple terms—the distance light can travel in a year) is actually 6 trillion miles. I did the math, multiplying 6 trillion miles times 650 million and a came up with a number that I don’t have a name for: 3,900,000,000,000,000,000,000. Hanny’s Voorwerp, the giant green blob in space that is birthing new stars, is that many miles away from earth! A University of Alabama astronomer who examined the blob said, “These are very lonely newborn stars that are in the middle of nowhere.” Indeed.
I can’t help but think of all of this in theological terms. Knowing that new stars are being born out there, so far away reaffirms my faith that God is greater than we can imagine with the limitations of the human mind. Furthermore, I think such a discovery is a reminder that God is still at work creating in the universe. We are privileged to be witnesses to the creation, even from this distance. I am humbled by the vastness of the universe.
By the way, since van Arkel’s discovery, astronomers have looked for similar gas blobs elsewhere in the universe. So far, they’ve found 18 more. I have a feeling that God isn’t finished yet.
Grace and peace to you!

—Brent Criswell

Here is a little bit of what I think about God.  I believe that God is infinite.  What I mean by that is that I think that God is in all places at all times, that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and that God is supremely good.  It follows, then, that if God is all of these things, then God is not only the one who is able to observe the world from the Heavens – getting the “big picture” of the whole of creation – but that God is also intimately present in the life of us all.  I believe that God is constantly talking to us and calling us to do good.

Part of the intimacy through which God relates to us means to me that God speaks our language!  I think that God – as part of being all-knowing – understands that everybody listens and understands in different ways.  More than the certainty that God speaks to French-speakers in French and English-speakers in English, I think that God goes even beyond that.  Any parent will say that they sometimes think their children speak a different language.  John Gray (author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) would say that men and women speak different languages.

I think that accountants speak their own language; computer engineers speak their own language; doctors, astronauts, business executives, law enforcement, politicians, and even seminarians seem to each speak their own language in many ways.  Clearly we are able to communicate with one another about the important things, but not about everything.  And I think that God transcends all of these and is able to call out to each one of us individually in the way that we can best hear and understand.

So is one of these ways by which God communicates better than another?  I don’t think so.  I think that God’s message itself is the important part, regardless of the manner of communication.

As we each continue on our faith journey, let us be receptive to God’s call on our lives and in our hearts.  Peace…

Pastor Bob

We traveled. We visited Marcy’s aunt and cousins in Portland (whom we hadn’t seen in more than a dozen years) and then, since we were in the neighborhood (so to speak) we went on to Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. Marcy’s sister and brother-in-law accompanied us on that trip. We went to Mammoth with our friends the Wests for the blues festival. We went to Morro Bay where we kayaked. We spent a long weekend in San Francisco with Lindsay and Ian. We spent a week in Curacao (which Marcy planned when she discovered we could get there on air miles and there was a hotel bargain to be had.)

I did a bit of work; including participating in our VBS program and making a few phone calls. Yes, I know I was supposed to be on leave. More about that later.

I walked on the beach, I kayaked in the Dana Point marina, I worked on several projects around the house. I read six novels. One Saturday I worked on the Habitat build in Fullerton with seven others from our church.

I also learned a few things about myself.

The first week or two at home felt awkward and uncomfortable. I felt like I should be heading into the church office. I have never thought of myself as a workaholic, but I see that I have tendencies to be one. I need to remember to take care of myself.

I also didn’t fully understand how I was burning myself out working and am grateful to the other staff members who pointed that out to me and encouraged me to take the renewal leave. I am indebted to all of them for picking up the extra work that my absence created for them so that I could have a time of rest and renewal.

The concept of a regular time of rest is deeply rooted in our biblical faith (Genesis 2:2-3) and we are all encouraged to take Sabbath rest. The difficulty for a pastor lies in the fact that Sunday is a workday so we have to find a rest day on other days of the week and at other times.

I am deeply appreciative of the time of renewal that I have had and am excited about our shared ministry in the year ahead.

Grace and peace to you!

Our week in New Orleans has been like that.  We worked on houses that were in various stages of completion. Some of our houses were nearly finished.  Some of them were closer to the beginning part of rebuilding and rehabilitation.  In both cases we are participating in putting together the jigsaw puzzle.  We benefited from the work that previous groups did to get projects started.  We also laid the groundwork for groups that will come after us to finish some of the things that we could not complete.  We are all part of the puzzle and perhaps only the homeowners of the houses we worked on will see the complete picture from start to finish.

It was a humbling experience to work in the neighborhoods in the 9th Ward and realize how much devastation still exists nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina.  We are so fortunate and blessed and all of the members of the team have a greater appreciation for their homes than they did when we left home a little more than a week ago.  We will never forget the homeowners we have met; people like Helen and Alvon.

I hope you will attend worship on Sunday April 18 at 10:30 to hear from the team members as we share about how the experience this week has changed lives.

Grace and Peace to you!

The trip was a learning experience for me. This was my 2nd trip to New Orleans, and I for sure felt more useful. The home owner's stories were so touching to me. I had no idea it was that bad. But enjoyed working for the owners, but for one, Helen, she stepped right in and worked with us. She always had a smile on her face which made me smile(: She was so lively and funny! Anyway, the trip was awesome and hope to do it again! ~Kyle 

This is my first time going on a mission trip, and it has been a great experience. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to go on this mission with my church family. I have met many new people, from home owners, to the many people of New Orleans. Most of all I have had the chance to create new relationships with my fellow church family. We have created great bonds, and many inside jokes together. I will miss spending time with everyone here, and I hope to come again. I will see you again Nawlin. ~ Kailee (Kailke)

This past week has been such an amazing experience. It is hard to put into words the experiences that I have had and the people that have touched me. The area that we are serving has had it very hard since Katrina, but they continue to keep a smile on their faces, positive attitudes, and continue to show their unwavering faith. I had the privilege to work on 2 different homes this week. Giving back to the community, but most of all the home owners that sense off security, or as I call it "their safe place", is am amazing feeling and I am proud to have been able to make a small difference in their lives. I am looking forward to sharing all my experiences with all of you!! ~Kim

This whole week as a whole was an amazing and life changing experience. This is my third time coming on the mission trip. I'm so proud of this team to how much we have done. All i really can say about this week is you really don't realize how much you have until you come here and see how much damage has happened. Something I'm going to take back from here is truly love and appreciation. I'm so happy and proud that my whole family was able to experience this with me and I'm so proud of them and love them from the bottom of my heart:) <3* Courtney *<3

This was such an amazing spring break for me. This is my second mission trip that I have done and we just finished working and I can't wait until next time I will be able to come! Throughout the week I was able to go through many different situations; sad ones, happy ones, and even scary ones but throughout the whole time I was able to see God with us. I stated the week off my forgetting my backpack with my laptop and Ipod in the back of our taxi from the airport. That night we ran into many people who were willing to take the time to help me out by giving numbers to call to get it back. It turns out that the next day the taxi driver called me and brought all of my things to where I was standing which really showed that God was going to be with us for the whole trip. This week I worked at Helen's house the whole week by putting siding up. One thing that really hit me was how she really had nothing, but everyday she was out helping us rebuild her home. It really show that people don't take what we are doing lightly, everyone, even people at McDonalds, stop us and tell us thank you for helping out. I am just so glad I had the chance to come out here for a second time and am already looking forward for when i can come out next! ~Josh Bell~

Betty Shaw 

(Granny Ladder,  Level holder)

Today was a very busy day but God shined His presence all around us today and it is a mind blowing experience to see the devastation that took place in this city and the love that is pouring back into the city. I am extremely blessed to be here. If I could share with you a thought: count your blessings every day. Thank you! chip walker

With Love,

Terri, Greg, Courtney and Kyle Pfenning

TEAM CHARLIE checking in.  Our team consisted of, alphabetically, Charlie and Sally DeBerry, Andria Hastings, Paul Lewis and  Kyle Pfenning plus the homeowner's son worked right along with us -- Our challenge for the day was to cut a hole in the already installed Formica cabinet to accommodate the double sink.  The thought came to mind as it was being done:  "How many Methodists does it take to install a sink?" Obviously it only took 3 to do the work and the other 3 to either give suggestions or go get stuff they needed.  Some of us, when we weren't giving helpful advice, painted the trim in the living room.  We think that by the end of the day tomorrow we will be finished with the living room and we can vacuum it.  That should bring a big smile to Alvon, the homeowner's son.  (From Sally DeBerry)

From Pastor Brent: This morning we gathered at Trinity UMC for orientation and to meet the other three teams that are working out of that center this week.  The three teams include groups from UMCs in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and a group from a synagogue in San Rafael (in Northern California.)  During the orientation the Rabbi shared with us that the song "Sanctuary" has become an important one for their team.  We sang it together and they shared the Hebrew version with us.  It was a true grace moment for us as the same song has been a special part of each of our mission trips.  The presence of different faith communities is also a reminder that there is so much more that unites us as people of faith than things that make us different. 

MORE TO COME...

[1] Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. [2] But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

[3] Then Jesus told them this parable: [4] "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? [5] And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders [6] and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' [7] I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

[8] "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? [9] And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' [10] In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The above scripture talks about things that are lost and things that are found.  From our experience so far here in New Orleans, we can say that some things have been lost but thankfully and by the grace of God were found.  

When we arrived in New Orleans we were informed that Adam Reber's uncle, who had been in the mountains with his friends had disappeared.  Search parties were formed in attempting to find the man before anything tragic were to happen.  As our team stood in the parking lot of our hotel, Pastor Brent took the opportunity to pray.  He spoke about the book of Luke and Jesus' teachings about finding things that are lost. Later we learned that Adam's uncle had been found safe.  We knew the grace of God was all around.

As we were eating dinner on Friday night, Mike, Paul, and Josh, who had taken a later flight than the rest of the team, took a taxi from the airport to the restaurant to meet all of us.  When they arrived, Josh accidentally left his backpack in the taxi.  We didn't know the taxi number, the company name, or the driver's name.  We did not know what could be done to find the backpack.  After a series of phone calls were made, and lots of prayers later, the driver of the taxi contacted Josh and said that he had found his backpack.  Within the half hour the taxi driver found us in the French Quarter and returned the bag.  Again, it is by the grace of God that everything worked out the way it did.

Yesterday the team decided to take a trip through the bayou on an airboat.  The last time we were here in 2008 we did a very similar tour and through that experience we met a man named Ernie.  He was the captain of our boat, and we learned that day that he had lost his home during Hurricane Katrina.  This year, as much as we wanted to see Captain Ernie again, we didn't think it would be possible.  After all, we were using a different company and it was in a completely different location.  While waiting for our tour to start, we were overjoyed to see Captain Ernie walking toward us!!  Apparently the last company he was with went under and he decided to come work for this new company!  He was the captain of our boat in 2008 and again yesterday! He told us how his life has been in the last 2 years.  He lost his home, but he has since found a new one.  We feel so blessed that God brought us all together again! 

The Lord works in mysterious ways! 

Amen!  

New Orleans looks vastly different than it did the first time I saw it in 2007.  A year and a half after the hurricane (or "the storm" as everyone on the Gulf Coast calls it) the city of New Orleans was still a huge mess. While much of it has been rebuilt and restored, there are still signs of storm damage.  I suspect that when we get to our first projects on Monday we will see places where the rebuilding has not yet happened.  In addition, even in the touristy areas of the city the sidewalks and streets still show signs of damage from the storm.

People have asked me why we do this.  Why would 22 of us spend a chunk or our own money in addition to raising all the funds necessary to come?  The answer, for me, is in the stories of the people we meet here; how their lives were so impacted by the storm and how appreciative they are of the help of volunteer groups like ours.  Theologically and biblically, I'm here because Jesus said that whenever we help those in need, we are helping him.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus sharing his love with the world.

We are grateful for your prayers and your support.  Check the blog each day this week for updates and impressions from team members.