May 29 2010
Meeting with Alex and how God provides
This week has been fairly nice on many levels. I was able to spend a fair amount of time this the week with my friend Alex from Columbia. It has been such a blessing watching him grow as a person and in his knowledge of God these last few weeks as he prepares to return home to his wife and son this weekend. We went over many of the basics of the faith. I could see a zeal for the Lord and his word developing in him. It is very exciting. We hope to continue to meet via Skype after he leaves.
We also were part of a pilot program to preview a bunch of videos called “God Provides” produced by Crown Financial Ministries. These are really first rate videos that explores what real faith looks like from many angles through key Bible stories. The ones called “Lifted Up” and “Abraham and Isaac” were tear-jerkers for me.
Another interesting thing happened this week. My son T-10 was part of the awards ceremony for his 4th grade class. It was really cool. He won a bunch of academic awards including getting the high score for the math Olympiads, being part of the 4th grade Battle of the Books team which got a silver metal and he was chosen as the student of the year for his home room. We were so excited. Anyway, it was kind of interesting. We had to go up for the final award because they honor the parents as well as the students for that particular award. Of course I forgot and wore the rattiest pair of shorts and polo shirt I had that morning (almost didn’t take a shower) because it was fairly early in the morning and we usually don’t have to do much at these events. Anyway, during the ceremony I was feeling some discomfort in my knee. Not too bad but it was getting progressively worse. By the time it was time for us to go up, I could barely put weight on it. It was scary. I managed to get up there with Lisa because I didn’t want to ruin this special day for my son. Anyway, after getting home, the situation got progressively worse. By the evening, I could barely walk. I borrowed a colleagues crutches. It made it hard to sit for a ministry meeting, etc. It was difficult. It was a struggle to even get from my office to the kitchen at home. I was thinking it seemed like swelling and inflammation and didn’t feel any structural damage so I decided to wait till the next day. Well the next day, while weak, I was able to walk and everything was slowly getting back to normal.
God really reminded me of something yesterday. It takes so little time for a situation to go from great to bad to great again. It takes very little for that to happen. This reminded me of how fragile we are and how much we depend on God to keep us doing the things that we do. Pray as I send Alex off on Sunday and as we welcome several students from the airport this week.
Today my son, T-9 became T-10. He had two of his buddies over for his birthday party and they had pizza, cake, played with their DS’s until the wii… I mean wee hours of the night (wii was played a little too) and fun was had by all. The last couple of weeks I’ve had the pleasure of being T-10′s Webelo den leader. It has been a blast watching he and his friend D work through some of the requirements and learn and truly grow. It was not too long ago that Jonathan as at this stage… or it seems. Actually Jonathan is now a teenager, spending countless hours studying about military history and the world… If you ask him what he wants to be… he would say to you, Ruler of the World. (I think tongue in cheek…). Our little one… it seems like she just came home from China and the precocious 7 year old is already talking about boys and wanting to dress well for them. What in the world?!?! Time is just flying. Lisa and I feel blessed to be able to be a part of all this but sometimes it feels like we are watching a car race running in front of us as we sit in the stands as spectators… the only think… we are actually in the race too, they are just moving that fast. Not too long ago, Jonathan and I read Ecclesiasties for our bed time story and I was really touched by its description of the brevity of life. Of how things go so fast… And his conclusion is it is all vanity… the only thing that matters is worshiping God. The fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. I am really beginning to appreciate that as I clearly get past the half way point of my life.
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Still, this week was very hard… Several dear friends are going home long term this weekend. In addition, several of our staff have had some huge family crises and we are transitioning one of our kids through teenhood and another through being a Webelo… I can’t remember when we have had more “stuff” to do in my life. No I take that back, back in High School, the weeks before I left for New Jersey for the first time, I had just about every hour scheduled with packing, having dinner with someone, etc. It was just as non-stop but the idea that that sort of life style not ending any more can be daunting… Still the exciting thing is that God is showing me through daily time in His word and in prayer that it can be done. We are being forced to depend on Him for every second of every day and it actually works!
One of the things we end each Bible study with every week is “if this passage is true, (which I believe it is) how does it change the way that you live…” I’ve been really challenged this year to make this question a part of every Bible truth that I know and imagine this… THE BIBLE ACTUALLY IS TRUE AND LIVING AS IF IT IS ACTUALLY WORKS! Imagine that…
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Guitar soloist Cesar kicked it off with Vietnamese brother Toan with a great song that they put together that day. Then new student Malone from China who just arrived last week sang a very well crafted song that he wrote on guitar. Miguel played a guitar instrumental number and Claudia, a classical piano soloist who has been accepted into the UTA piano performance Master’s program played some Debussy for us. It was truly a feast for the ears. (
After the sonorous start, we moved to our discussion groups and I (Roy) had the pleasure of leading the discovery Bible study through John 3, the story of Nicodemus. The students had so much insight to share. Every there had so many good things to say. My good friends Julian and Alex from Colombia especially were both so insightful in the things that they shared. It is really cool because Alex has agreed to lead the next Discovery group in two weeks. He is returning to his country in a month but he has a desire to see something like our Friday night in his country some day.
Our little girl is truly growing up so fast. C-7 was in a concert this week at her school. She sang with her first grade class and she did it with so much dedication and purpose. It was a real blessing. Afterward, we snapped a bunch of pictures with the family. 
This last weekend, Ron, Derrah and I had the privilege of going to Lubbock to share with the international student ministry community about some things God have been teaching us about doing ministry through many quick multiplying small groups among people groups on campus.
Many of you may remember this but perhaps not. There was a time when there was nothing I loved more than strapping on some roller blades, putting on some pads and going to the local tennis court to play some hockey. I used to love the game… actually I still do. I was reminded of that when I was caught up in the hockey at the Olympics this winter in Vancouver. It is a really fun sport to watch and definitely to play. I honestly still have a thing for the Anaheim Ducks but the Dallas Stars are a close second.
Well, imagine my surprise to find that one of our students, one from Colombia of all places also loves hockey and plays a lot in his home country. Julian must be very good. He has traveled to the U.S. in the past for international tournaments with players who play pro roller hockey in the states. One Friday night, this game me the opportunity to take out the old blades, my skates and pads. (They really smell after being in storage for so long) It was really fun. I even let him use my old practice skates while he is here.
Well in talking with him, I found out that he had never been to a real life ice hockey game. God placed it in my heart to take him and I prayed that the opportunity might come up. When it rains it pours when we take things to the Lord. First, my colleague, Jason and I jumped online and were able to get $99 tickets right next to the ice for a fraction of the price. Then, a member of our church said she had some free tickets that she wanted to share with us. You should have seen Julian’s face when we shared the opportunity with him: the chance to go to two games in one week. The smile was bigger than the smile of the Cheshire cat. He wanted to go to both.
Tonight was the first of these games. It was truly amazing! We sat right up on the action, so close we could see everything – from faces pressed up against the glass during a fight to pucks scooting around the boards right in front of us. It was an exciting game AND the Stars played well for once. Julian and our other friend Alex, also from Columbia seemed like they were in heaven. We saw big hits, goals galore and interestingly, right before the end of the game there was a fight right in front of us. Yikes!
I know both of our friends from Colombia were blessed greatly, both in different ways. On the way up and back we had some great conversations about life, about Columbia, the USA, about things even deeper too. Most of all, we truly enjoyed each other’s company. I know we will never forget this experience and it will forever knit us as friends and hopefully allow us to share even more deeply all in the context of a couple of guys enjoying time together watching a common sport that they love. Praise the Lord for His goodness.
Wow its aleady the end of March. The weather is changing in Texas and students are coming up on the stretch run in their academic year. The last few weeks have been tumultuous and exciting but in the end the thing we best saw was God working out his will in all of it.
It rained hard and was cold the morning we went to Six Flags (the very thing our friends from Nebraska were trying to escape from) BUT it stopped raining around 10 AM AND, the result was that there were hardly any people on this spring break Tuesday morning and so we got to go on more rides than I’ve ever been on. In fact, talking to friends who went on other days that week. they had to wait more than a couple of hours to ride one ride which were were able to get on in 40 minutes. Seems like a God thing…
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