Visiting Santa Fe

We have been in New Mexico for 5 days and it has been good to be with family. 

In January of 2011, my dad, Bill was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s) Disease.   For the past few years he had been feeling more and more ‘run down’ and found it necessary to sleep a bit more and schedule in a daily nap in order to make it thru the day, but otherwise he seemed in pretty good health.   He began working part time in 2003, and he visited his doctor more frequently during the past few years, always suspecting something wasn’t quite right, but his day to day life was not drastically altered really until last fall.  

Since we saw him a year ago, much has changed.  Last summer Bill flew to NY to pick up my sister Rachel and together they drove across the country to NM in a car with no A/C.  That was an adventure and a fun memory for them both.    Our whole family met up and spent time together in Alamogordo, New Mexico before my brother and his family moved out to England with the Air Force.   We went to White Sands, NM and had a picnic, took family photos, and went to the (Holoman) Air Force Base pool with Uncle Dave.  We went up to the mountains, had a camp-fire.  We had easy late night conversations and played games together.

We hung out at White Sands last summer. 

But as summer the summer of 2010 ended and fall came along, my dad’s health began to decline more significantly.  At times his speech would slur in conversation and that prompted more doctor visits.  Something was certainly wrong.   Tests were run and specialists were consulted.  In time, the numerous symptoms left no room for doubt in anyone's mind that my dad has ALS.  

This summer everything is drastically different.    Now his speech is slow and he is very difficult to understand.  It is a labor for him to communicate.  His fingers are curled and no longer useful.  His walk is slow and unsteady.  His neck muscles struggle to hold up his head. He has lost significant weight.  He can no longer button his shirts or zip his pants.  Though the disease has progressed much in the past 6 months, there is still a lot Bill is able to do.   We are grateful that his is still walking!  He is still able to feed himself with the use of a special grip on his utensils.  We praise the Lord that we can still communicate some.  Bill has a good sense of humor and has joked that his speech is a new “foreign language” for us to learn.  We love to see him smile and hear him laugh at our stories!  Just this morning we took the kids to nearby park today to launch rockets and Bill joined us.  He was able to walk there on his own and got to enjoy his grandkids run around.  We are grateful for each new memory we get to make, and keenly aware that each day we have is a gift.

Shaving is difficult, so when we showed up, Bill was sporting a nice white beard.  I helped him shave it off the other night.  We called it "manscaping".

Crossing Cultures in Wildwood

Have you ever seen that T.V.  show called Jersey Shore?  I guess it’s about these wild New York ‘Italian’ kids who go out to the coast to waste their lives partying and hooking up with people.  It has characters with names like “Snooki” and ‘the Situation’.  It’s sort of popular, but to be honest I’ve never seen it.  And call me an idiot for not paying attention to details, but I never even knew Jersey had so much shore!  But it does and down at the southern tip you’ll find Wildwood.  

Before going to serve in Wildwood, New Jersiey this summer Stephanie and I were told that there are “tons of international students” there.  But to be honest, I didn’t totally believe it!  Even though my sister Rachel had served on the project and told me about it and my best friends told me what a great place it was to meet people from other countries, I thought they were all basically exaggerating!  I sincerely thought “sure, there probably are a few more international students in Wildwood than there are in Daytona Beach or something, -but seriously,  how many could there really be?”   But let me say that I was totally failing to comprehend the reality!  It’s basically mind blowing how many international students there are in Wildwood over the summer.  I don’t understand it!

But what does make sense to me is having a summer project there!  At least part of the  reason so many students come from all over the world is because of Mory’s Piers.  Mory’s Piers is a beach side boardwalk string of amusement parks. They have a very proficient internship system that involves sending recruiters to universities in countries like Romania, Kazakhstan, Turkey and China to promote their job opportunities.   Students sign contracts and then get on planes and move out here for the summer to work at Mory’s wannabe Disneyland.  I met some guys from Bulgaria.  They told me that there are at least 100 students from Bulgaria working at the Piers! At another point I heard there are 500 in the area and they jokingly call Wildwood –New Bulgaria during the summer.   And some students love it so much they come back year after year. 

In the middle of the project we host a raging BBQ and invite co-workers, neighbors and anyone else who the students have met.  Our students are working beside students from countries where it’s actually difficult to send missionaries.  They are  gaining cross-cultural ministry experience and having opportunities to proclaim the Gospel to people who have never met a Christian before!  

On Thursday nights we host what's called "international Cafe."  We broadcasted a wireless internet signal for people to use and the students would hang out on the driveway.  It's a great way to hang out together 

Some Wildwood Pictures

Here is the group picture of the Wildwood Summer Project 2011

This is the summer project house in Wildwood.  Around 40 of the students live in this house an another 6 are across the street.  We utilize the driveway and the back yard for events and hang out.  

Senior: Sammy Ramsey

The first time I saw Sammy Ramsey, he was wearing a flashy Christian hoodie sweatshirt, his hat was stylishly cocked to the side and he was wearing sunglasses indoors.  I’m pretty sure he had some kind of chain with a  Christian emblem on it, but most memorable for sure was his huge and shining “JESUS” belt buckle.  He was up front at our Real Life meeting singing with the praise band and looking like one fly Jesus loving dude!   

Sam is actually an amazing singer –he’s sung at the Apollo theater, and even tried out to be a guest actor on the t.v. show Glee.  In a few weeks he'll be trying out for American Idol!  With his help, we’ve been able to incorporate black gospel music into our Real Life praise sets.   

Over the years Sammy has served faithfully as a leader in our ministry.  Sam lead musically, but he’s also a gifted communicator, with a great mind as well.  Sam loves God first and foremost, but he also has an incredible passion for science.  He studied entomology and his excitement for  bugs is literally out of this world.  (That's a millipede on his face!!!) 

God has been at work so faithfully throughout all of his life and it was always fun and edifying to hang out and talk with him –his life has truly been an adventure full of great stories and amazing occurrences!  Before Sammy was born, doctors told his mother that she wouldn’t be able to have kids.  I can’t remember all the details, but I do remember that despite the diagnosis, she decided to trust God and pray for children.  In time she had three, Sam has an older brother and an older sister.   Sam went to school in one of the worst high schools in America near Washington D.C.  and yet his love of science motivated him to excel academically.  One year he got to go to England to present  some research (on bugs) at London University, as well as Cambridge and Oxford.    

But science wasn’t always kind to Sam Ramsey.  In high school the foundations of his worldview were rocked by the teachings of Charles Darwin.  Sam loved science –and Charles Darwin’s ideas form much of the bedrock of current scientific theory.   To love science these days usually means you assent fully to all the major tenets of ‘Darwinism’.  But that presented a very personal –as well as spiritual- conflict.    

Did you know that the full title of Darwin’s most famous book is not simply “The Origin of the Species?”  The first thru fifth editions of his books were titled more fully On the origin of the species by the means of natural selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”   In it he says, “one of the strongest evidences for my theory is the existence of living 'primitive races'”. Throughout Darwin’s writing it is implicitly suggested as well as overtly stated that blacks (as well as other indigenous people) are inferior to white people.  One famous part in Darwin’s The Descent of Man says

“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world.  At the same time the anthropomorphous (human-like) apes….will no doubt be exterminated.  The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla. 

Jack Critiques Alan Jackson

On our way out to Wildwood, NJ the other day (for our summer project) we were listening to the radio; Country music as usual.  The Alan Jackson song "Where I come From" came on and Stephanie and I were talking.  I like the song and I've heard it often, but I wasn't listening intently to it when my son Jack yelled from the back seat -"Is this song based on lies?"  


I wasn't too sure in the moment what he was talking about.   Thinking about verse two I said "Well, I think he's just talking about some good food bud."  
But then the Chorus came on again, I turned it up and I knew exactly what he was referring to.  Here's how it goes:


I said where I come from
It's cornbread and chicken
Where I come from a lotta front porch sittin'
Where I come from tryin' to make a livin'
And workin' hard to get to heaven
Where I come from


I asked leadingly "What was the lie that you heard in there bud?"  And Jack proceeded to expound the theological truth that we don't work hard to get to heaven.  Salvation is free -a gift from God because he loves us.  "God doesn't love you because you work hard" he said.  And then I asked my boys "So why does God love us?"  And Joe shouted with passion and authority "For no apparent reason."  


Amen my sons.  Sorry Alan Jackson -bad theology! 
We've been talking about Grace a lot in our home and how God saves us not because we are "good" or because we "earn it" or because we are "better than anybody else" or because we are religious, or because of anything that we do, but simply because of his loving kindness -which we totally don't deserve. 


Ephesians 2:8,9 ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.


Titus 3:3-7 ³ At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 

Senior: Chui Wong

(It is my hope to write some short bios on some of our most active seniors who have graduated this year.) 

A couple of weeks ago at our annual, Senior Dessert, we got to hear from Senior Chui Wong.  She shared her testimony and was able to encourage those who are staying behind to follow after Christ, and have the faith to persevere even when going thru trials or difficulties in life.  

Chui grew up in Queens, NY and she’s from a Buddhist family.  As far as she knows, she is the only follower of Christ in her family; the first to put her faith in him.    Her family is into ancestral worship with an emphasis on trying your best to live a good and moral life in order to be saved.   She remembers as a little girl, she liked the ritual incense burning -offerings to her dead relatives -but mostly because she was somewhat of a pyro :)

It was thru a bout of depression that God reached into Chui’s life with saving Grace.  A bad junior high relationship ended abruptly and left Chui hopeless and despairing.  She used to lock herself in the bathroom stalls at school and just sit there and silently cry.  Her life was defined by sadness as she struggled to understand who she was or what life was about.  She knew she was miserable, and began to pray for help.  She prayed to every god, demigod, ancestor and spirit she could think of.

After about 9 months of depression, she went with a friend to church.  There, she heard the good news thru the scriptures and was able to see that Jesus is the savior.  She placed her faith in Christ, and thru that she found the strength to forgive those who had hurt her and live life  with joy in God.

The Chui I know is  spunky, energetic and outspoken.  She speaks her mind and challenges others to walk with God in a passionate and authentic way.  She is a strong leader and a good friend who has really ministered to some of the freshman girls this year.  She’s also come with us for the past two years to Big Break which has been a lot of fun.   Her involvement has truly been a blessing to our ministry here!

I know that she will be missed very much here at Cornell.  And she told me that she would be missing all the Christian fellowship that is so readily available.  She’s going to take a gap year back home though, so she won’t be too far.  Hopefully she’ll be able to visit a few times!  

One scripture she shared last week was 

Phillipians 3:13-14

 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting

what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Proximity is key

I want to ask you to pray for us this week as we work to raise some new financial support.

This summer we are going to be moving to a different house -a house that is very close to campus.  It is literally only about 200 meters from North Campus.  As we work to put the gospel within arms reach of every student we see a lot of benefit in living close to the students.  Back when we served in Nebraska we lived 2 blocks from the student Union building.  It was awesome for our family and our students to be so near to the school.

Proximity is a key ingredient in everything we do.  We are constantly coaching our students on how to be present on the campus both physically and emotionally so that they can engage their friends and classmates with the Gospel.  Jesus came close in order to reveal himself and demonstrate his love to mankind; thru his humility and sacrifice he made a way for us to be reconciled to God.  As Christ's ambassadors, we must get close to people in order to serve as he did and point people to him.

Living close to campus has many advantages.  First, it will enable us to host students at our home more easily.  Jesus did so much of his ministry while eating meals with people -we want to do the same.  Hospitality is one extremely effective way to serve others and demonstrate God's grace.  Living close to campus will enable Stephanie to meet with more women leaders.  Just this week, as things were coming to a close, we were trying to organize our schedules to be able to catch up with many students before they leave for the summer.  It is hard to coordinate taking care of our kids and meeting up with some of the girls.  But when we live right next to campus,  Stephanie will be able to meet with them at our house even while our kids take naps!

The university is our mission field and living within walking is going to be amazing.   But the financial cost is high.  Living near to campus costs more money and so we need more faith-filled partners to help make this happen.

The semester has been busy and we are heading out to our summer project next Monday, but in the short meantime we are working to raise $1,000 in new monthly support.  That's a lot of money to raise in one week, so we are praying for 10 new partners who will give $100 per month.  Right now, two people have stepped forward to join our support team, so we only need 8 more!

Please pray for 8 more people to join our support team this week!