Nov 29 2008
Joy to the World on Black Friday
(pictures)I spent my afternoon & evening evening on Black Friday with my daughter… Often a tag like that suggests long lines, loss of massive amounts of money, holding on to clothes, unhappy faces, people falling over each other to get stuff. I just got a update from an Indian student on Facebook that said, “had a terror tym in Grapevine… it was a nightmare there.” Grapevine is a huge and usually nice outlet mall in the area, I asked why and he said, “Oooh man… It was terrible.. I went there along with some of my friends to buy Jacket n staffs…. It was a mess… I was surprised at the rush of people there in Grapevine…:s” I think we all understand… Anyway, back to my story… While C-5 and I went to a place that was crowded and busy, we found it to be very invigorating and joyful. C-5 and I took a bunch of international students to Granbury, TX to see their annual Christmas Parade.
With students from Taiwan, Korea, Iran, Vietnam, USA, and Turkey, C-5 and I with friends the Humphrey’s & Ahern’s were able to enjoy the parade that truly celebrated Jesus and we also saw a little of the other guy in a red suit. We even met up with another of our ISI groups from UTD led by Ray & Laurie Cotton & John & Mary Anderson… It was cool, in that group was on old friend from Taiwan that we hadn’t seen in a while.
We started the day visiting a cowboy store (have to do it in Texas), and they toured the wonderful historic town square in Granbury, TX. This is a town rich in history as Davey Crocketts 
wife settled here after the war of Texas independence and it is also rumored that Jesse James lived in this town after his law breaking days. There are delightful shops with antiques, country foods (C-5 ate more chips and salsa samples that all get out… even the really hot stuff… she has a real thing for hot foods), unique and fun things. (We didn’t have to buy much… C-5 loved it all though)
Anyway, C-5and the students had a delightful time taking tons of pictures, holding up candles where the flame was passed from person to person throughout the parade route, singing Christmas carols including Joy to the World and other favorites. We ended the perfect evening with a stop at Starbucks to reminisce and reflect on the evening. It was a truly joyful day on Black Friday.
While Lisa and I were focused on the Thanksgiving Party for UTA international students with our church two others of our ministry teams hosted other “new” thanksgiving parties… Here’s what happened…
A lady from Iran who works in the int’l student office and brought her three daughters (soph at CC and two HS seniors) went on and on about how wonderful everything was and how much she and the students appreciated it. She called me the blessing man (I’ve been called lots of things over the years, but this was a first!) and said I would be blessed because of all that we did to make the students feel loved. We had lots of students from Pakistan and they really had a good time. I re-connected with several students I had met at the BSM retreat in Oct. and two of them lead different int’l student organizations on campus.
During part of the evening, I was talking to Ron Bunyard about the party, peoples, reaction, etc. and Geoff Carter, one of our small group leaders, came up to us and told us that there was a student who wanted to know how to become a Christian and he wanted us to come and help her. Ron, the local ISI minister, went over and shared with her the torn napkin (modified bridge) illustration… I watched from a distance. It was cool watching him and seeing him share something that matters so much to him to a new friend and watching some of our church people seeing it happen and obviously being encouraged by it.
control over it… There is no way we should have had enough food. When we started the evening, our estimate was that we would have half the food compared to last year and while we asked many people to double what they promised, we were concerned. We even asked our volunteers not to eat at first until all the students went by. What we didn’t realize is that students felt uncomfortable eating with their hosts not eating too… still God took care of that. The trickle of students slowed down early in the evening and there was plenty of food left so we opened up the eating to volunteers. We counted up all the tickets and there were over 200 students there AND we had so much food afterward that we had to take lots of leftovers to Arlington Life Shelter. It seems like every time we have a big even we have Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 played out and every time He comes through… I can truly understand now why Jesus had to do the “feeding” illustration twice and they still didn’t get it.
Cool technology angle and another feeding the 5000 story… During the evening, I was concerned about the seemingly small number of students and I didn’t want our church people to be disappointed. The BSM international ministry intern and I took out our iPhones and logged into our Facebook App and we updated our profile, to remind people about the dinner and we even went into the chat application to see who was on line on Facebook… I noticed a couple of international students that said they were planning on coming and some that said they wouldn’t. I invited them and one couple from Iran ended up coming with several of their friends. It was cool… and still, as I shared before, we handed out over 200 tickets for food… Wow!
photographers and Benji & Don, two professional level photographers were available and took some great pictures. I will post these as soon as I get the pictures from them. I know the students will be blessed by seeing themselves and their friends online and the students next year will be blessed to see what to expect so they may want to come.
Had a major blow out today at home with the home school thing. It was a situation that required discipline, patience, healing, etc. It was not a pretty sight. I think the hardest thing about home schooling is that one second we have to play the role of teacher: objective, disciplined, hard driving, inspiring, the next we, the same people have to switch to principal: tough, unyielding and finally parent, supportive, encouraging, gentle yet firm… To do all three in the same situation is tough even for the two of us combined… I guess this is a common theme in our lives right now… Even in our ministry and in most of our lives we sense the same dynamic. One day I focus on ministering on a campus, counseling students, teaching the Bible, sharing about Jesus, the next I have to figure out which campuses to send people to and how to start new ministries with limited staff, get the people who want to help trained, develop a curriculum… The next I have a role in technology development or as a video editor or website designer or computer repair guy. On the last day I have to think like a minister/PR guy as I share about the needs of the ministry and the opportunity to get involved financially and prayerfully and I minster to a pastor or prayer partner or finanicial supporter. So many hats… Its hard to get momentum and any kind of focus in any roll or even in our relationships with friends, students, and church people, and yet… God still works in spite of our limitations and he continues to move mightily… what a God we serve… He never fails to amaze me.
Our ISI DFW team working in cooperation with our national office was involve with the “
Tonight a most remarkable thing happened in our house… Let me preface what I write with the following. I am generally not politically expressive… I generally don’t make a big deal about elections, who I will vote for, etc. I do have strong views on politics, economics, policy, etc… In college, I immensely enjoyed following and studying the subject. The systems, cause and effect relationships, etc. (Lots of etc’s here) really fascinated me. I loved reading Machiavelli, Mill, Jefferson, etc. But there came a point in my life the God’s kingdom became more riveting than the world’s governments and while God works through governments and such and those who are involved in it, I have become disillusioned with government’s ability to cause much change in the world. It is the heart of people that is the problem… not systems… God is in control and only He can change the heart of man such that any real change can occur. Government can only check the effects of our fallen hearts… (if you want to debate man’s inherent condition or my view of politics… we can in the comments…) You have to pick your battles and I chose to change hearts not the result of hearts… Still, I vote on important occasions like today’s and follow politics, policy, etc., especially with and eye towards how it relates to God’s Kingdom, trying to figure out how He is moving in the world through it.
Anyway… enough of my philosophy… the remarkable thing happened when we were watching the election coverage… For some reason, my boys were really captured by this particular election. I don’t know why. T-8 had some real issues with Sen. Obama as only a eight year old could… He had heard some things that he did not agree with (I swear I had nothing to do with it) and so he felt it his duty to cheer on Sen. McCain. It was amazing watching him. It was almost like watching a baskeball game. Whenever McCain won a state he would cheer vigorously throughout the house. Whenevern Obama wont a state, he would remind me that there was still hope… He was so into it. When it was declared Sen. Obama was the next president… it was just too much for him. He burst into tears… the kind reserved for when he is most dissappointed… It was truly remarkable… He was unconsolable for the next 20 minutes… I’d never seen anything like it… I’m sure some of us felt the same way… others of us felt the opposite in the heights of emotions… but to see it played out raw in a 8 year old was incredible. It did us good to console him with a reminder of our trust in the system, the values we all agree in as Americans and in the God who is over all… Still… I hope he remembers this night… I hope he never forgets that his passions DO matter and what he cares about is important and yet God is over all.
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themselves in an a traditional American way. They became witnesses to the fact that loving others and giving without condition is in the DNA of a true Christ follower. They also felt a sense of accomplishment as they themselves were able to “give back.” It was a real blessing for them to hear from some of the other volunteers genuine appreciation for their being there and helping out. One woman who developed the booth we manned said that this is first time she was able to spend some of the time with her Grandkids at the event because of our students… This brought smiles and joy to our students.
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