Being a good neighbor...in Colorado

We moved to Colorado 3 weeks ago today. God used my sister-in-law's broad relational connections here to help us get this nice 4-5 month rental. Getting short-term rentals in the Denver area is not easy, as most landlords are looking for at least a 12 month commitment. I had read in August that this was the hardest time since the early 2000s to get rentals in this area, as there is a lot of demand and much less supply.

The tenant before us here is a professional soccer player on the Colorado team. He scored a goal at the game that we attended several weeks ago.

During the last few years in Paris, we've gotten to learn a lot about connecting with people in our neighborhood. We've built good relationships with people in our apartment complex of 14 stories. Through our kids, we've connected with children and their parents in a French PreK/Kindergarten, as well as in a French elementary school. We've also connected with local merchants through frequenting their businesses.

One thing that we love about our Paris neighborhood is its ethnic & cultural diversity. While definitely French, it is also a mosaic of other cultures. I was worried about not being able to connect with this same diversity during this year of U.S. Home Ministry Assignment.

I also wondered if we would be able to connect with our neighbors here as we have been able to do in Paris. We hadn't really lived here for more than a few months since our 1998-2000 stint doing graduate studies @ Wheaton. Back then, I wasn't that interested in connecting with those around me, except within the student community @ Wheaton. While that student community was ethnically & culturally diverse, everyone there had at least signed on that they were Xians.

During the past 3 days, I've been happy to connect with a number of neighbors in the complex where our rental townhouse is. These include:
--a woman originally from Latvia who lives with her mother on the place directly to our left. She came by on Saturday to try to get in contact with our landlord (who used to live here) in order to offer a baby gift to his 7 week old twin girls.
--our upstairs neighbors. They have a cute dog. My in-laws were her this weekend and my father-in-law asked him to borrow some tools for some projects in our place. Last evening we had a talk while I was outside our ground level apartment & he was on his 2nd story balcony looking down. His mother is originally from Germany and met his father when he was in the military stationed there. When he found out about our work, he matter-of-factly mentioned that he wasn't a "church-going person." I mentioned that many of our friends in Paris are also like that and that we're often more comfortable around people like that than we are around "church-goers."
--the woman who lives on the apartment to our right. Yesterday my wife asked how her surgery went. I don't know how my wife knew about this, but she certainly must have been in previous conversations with her. She mentioned that it was rather a test that she had and that she would have surgery soon for knee problem. She mentioned that she would be away for a week and asked if we would pick up her newspapers for her.
--another woman in our complex has been in the military for 23 or so years. She works in the videography. We learned this yesterday when she saw the Vietnam vet baseball cap that my father-in-law was wearing and made a postive comment. (We were just giving final farewells to my in-laws right outside our apartment when she pulled into her parking spot just a few meters from ours).
--on Saturday morning I met a woman who parked with her dog grooming trailer right by our place. Her business is driving around and giving beauty treatment to dogs. She comes to her clients, rather than them having to go to her or other dog grooming places. In the course of our conversation, I learned she was originally from Cuba and fled it in the early 1960s when Castro took over. One of her grandmothers had the name "Clavier" and was French. I got her business card and home to be able to pass it on to others who might have dogs looking for grooming.

One thing that I need to do is write down people's names right away, as I'm drawing some blanks on them.

But I'm pleased that we're making this kind of connections here in the Denver area. I hope that we are salt and light wherever we go on this U.S. trip.

Yesterday I got back to the book "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes & Posner. One point that struck me was "generate small wins." I think that the idea of "being a witness" can be intimidating, as it's a very large idea. However, one way to generate small & measurable wins is by seeing each interaction or conversation with neighbors as a small win or step toward being a witness to them. In general, we're not going to regularly have opportunities to speak to the masses. However, we can have an impact on a small scale one person at a time and one conversation/interaction/act of kindness at a time.

May God be glorified & honored through us living missionally & connecting with our neighbors in the U.S. this year. While they are different, we're discovering that they are pretty much the same as our neighbors in Paris in terms of concerns (health, economic, aging parents, children, etc.).

Hands and Feet

While driving home tonight, I heard this song by the Newboys on KLove, a station in the Denver area. It's titled "Hands and Feet" and addresses the theme of being the hands and feet of Jesus, a practical way of leading through serving.

An image flashed across my T.V. screen
another broken heart comes into view
I saw the pain and I turned my back
Why can't I do the things I want to?

I am willing yet am so afraid
you give me strength when I say ...

I wanna be your hands
I wanna be your feet
I'll go where you send me, go where you send me
I'll be your hands
I'll be your feet
I'll go where you send me, go where you send me

And I'll try, yeah I'll try
to touch the world
like you touched my life
And I'll find my way
To be your hands

I'll abandon every selfish thought
I surrender everything I've got
You can have everything I am
And perfect everything I'm not

I am willing, I'm not afraid
you give me strength when I say ...

I wanna be your hands
I wanna be your feet
I'll go where you send me, go where you send me
I'll be your hands
I'll be your feet
I'll go where you send me, go where you send me

And I'll try, yeah I'll try
to touch the world
like you touched my life
And I'll find my way

This is the last time

I turn my back on you
From now on I'll go out
send me where you want me to
I finally have a mission
I promise I'll complete
I don't need excuses
when I am your hands and feet
I am your hands and feet

Hands,(Hands)(Hands)
Feet, (Feet)(Feet)
Go, (Go)(Go)
Go, (Go)(Go)

I wanna be your hands
I wanna be your feet
I'll go where you send me, go where you send me
I'll be your hands
I'll be your feet
I'll go where you send me, go where you send me
I'll be your hands
I'll be your feet

I will go
I will go where you send me
I will go
I will go where you send me
I will go, go
I will go, go
I will GO!
Go where you send me

I wanna be your hands
I wanna be your feet

(fades out)

Addressing the heart

In recent days I've been spending some morning time hanging out in the Gospel of Mark.

This morning I was struck by some emotions that I saw in Jesus in Mark. Jesus could perceive his enemies' emotions even before they verbalized opposition to him.

Mark 2:1-12 tells of Jesus' healing of the paralytic man carried by 4 men & lowered to Jesus through the roof. Verse 8 says that "Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them..." Verse 6 says that some of the scribes were sitting there "questioning in their hearts."

Mark 3:1-6 tells of Jesus' healing of the man with a withered hand. Verse 5 says that Jesus looked at the Pharisees "with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart." Anger and grief are combined here in Jesus' reaction.

On Monday we started a home schooling program for our children. This year we plan on having our 2 older kids do 4 days of a French home schooling program offered by the CNED, a program authorized by the French gov't. Then on Fridays, we have them in a special program for home-schooling families. We've never homeschooled before, as our kids have only done French public school in Paris until now.

I think this time we invest in our children this year will be important in all our lives. We've already seen how home schooling allows for better use of time than public school, as we can field questions right away & make corrections immediately. I expect that our kids will come out academically stronger this year because of our home schooling investment in them.

I started reading Tedd Tripp's "Shepherding a Child's Heart."

In summary of what I've already read today, Tripp writes:

"There are 2 issues that feed into the persons your children become: 1) the shaping influences of life, and 2) their Godward orientation. Therefore, your parenting must be addressed to both these issues. You must be concerned about how you structure the shaping influences of life that are under your control (many things are not, e.g. death, and so forth). Secondly, you must be actively shepherding the Godward orientation of your children. In all of this you must pray that God will work in and around your efforts and the responses of your children to make them people who know and honor God." (pp. 24-25)

Tripp points out that children have a Godward orientation that either follows God or idols. Thus, even in the best environments, kids can still choose to not follow God. Or under terrible environments, some kids still choose God.

This will be a year of getting to know our kids better and hopefully being part of shaping their hearts.

Good & perfect gifts

Tonight I went with my family to the Colorado Rapids vs. Houston soccer game @ the Dick's Sporting Goods Center in Commerce City, CO. It was an excellent evening together.

It was a reminder of the kindness & generosity that we've felt this past month since we returned to the U.S. on a planned 1 year Home Ministry Assignment. We had a number of things up in the air when we arrived, including housing in the Denver area. We knew that we should spend time in this area, but didn't know how all the details would work out.

2 weeks ago God provided housing for us even when I was in Michigan & my wife & kids were in South Dakota. It came through a friend of my brother & sister-in-law. He was renting a place to a soccer player on the Colorado Rapids. This player's family had to return to their home country on August 15. My sister-in-law somehow found about an opening in their place from August 15 through mid-January 2011, which is exactly the time that we need housing here.

After moving into this place on Tuesday, we met our landlord on Wednesday. He's on the pastoral staff at a local church in this area, as well as being chaplain for the Rapids' team. When he found out that we liked soccer, he offered us tickets to tonight's game.

I've been meditating on the Gospel of Mark the past few days. This morning I was struck by Jesus' understanding of His own identity in relationship to God the Father. At his baptism, a voice from heaven said this was His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased.

At the game, we enjoyed perfect weather, an easy 3-0 victory, some good munchies, and lots of live entertainment. It was my whole family's first professional live game, except for me, who has already been to a lot of professional games. A good memory created together.

Back in the U.S.

2 weeks ago, we were packing our backs & getting ready to get picked up to go to the airport for our Paris-Denver flight.

That feels like much longer than 2 weeks now. It's been a busy time of the 5 of us adjusting to an 8 hour jet lag, as well as getting settled in in different ways. I dropped off my wife & our kids @ her parents' home in western South Dakota over the weekend, then drove back to Colorado.

Every day has been full of activity.

On Monday I met with a pastor of a young church in Denver. He suggested some great books to read about leadership. I started "Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes & Posner. So much that I want to learn this year away from the Paris field.

But now it's off to bed.

T minus 10 and counting

It's Monday morning and pouring outside. It hasn't rained this hard in awhile here. Have unplugged the computers & am running this one on battery, just in case some big lightning comes. We've done pretty well vs. lightning over the years, although we had a fax machine get fried 11 years ago in Wheaton.

Our flight to Colorado is in 10 days. Over the weekend, we got one major concern straightened out: the use of our apartment while we're away. A woman with YWAM will stay here. It's likely that 1-2 of her female colleagues will also stay here during the course of our year away.

We continue to plug away each day at preparing for our departure from Paris, as well as arrival in the U.S. There is a lot to do on both fronts.

On the Paris side, we've been having a number of events where we're saying goodbye to people. It's encouraging that people generally are sad that we're leaving, but insistent that we come back. They are excited about the opportunity to pass this next year in the U.S. & discover things there.

While I hadn't realized it before, it is a good time for a break away from the field here. Last Wednesday I met with David, a colleague who will take over the communications responsibilities with the arts ministries. He has some excellent ideas that will help move this area beyond where I've taken it. I honestly don't feel threatened by him, but relieved that it will move beyond where I'm able to take it.

It seems like there are regular reminders that none of us are irreplacable. In some ways, we're like chess pieces that God moves around His worldwide chessboard. This doesn't mean that we are to rest passive & indifferent. However, we do need to remember that He is ultimately in charge of our placement.

These days are reminders to me of different strengths & weaknesses that I and my wife have and how we can complement each other in working in our strengths. We're also blessed with offers of help that we've gotten from friends & family in Paris, as well as stateside.

Last night Spain won the World Cup football (soccer) tournament in South Africa. 12 years ago when France won the WC in France, we were preparing to return to the U.S. for 1 year of study at Wheaton. This ended up stretching to 2 years. It didn't seem that complicated back then, as we had a lot less stuff, as well as gracious offers of people to store it in their garages or basement storage areas. This time, we're planning on keeping all of it in our apartment, which in many ways is even simpler.

It's strange to think that we'll be away for a year. In 2 Sundays, we won't be hearing French songs & sermons in church. I'll miss the simplicity of our church & church family here.

In Matthew 6, it says something like "Each day has its own worries." This is in the context of the passage that talks about God's provision for our daily needs as we seek first the Kingdom of God & His righteousness. May we accomplish today what we need to accomplish and turn over the rest for the next day(s).

Transitions & replacements

We're scheduled to fly to Denver 2 weeks from today for the start of a planned 1 year U.S. Home Ministry Assignment (HMA). Yesterday I completed my 2nd fairly major home repair job, the replacement of a metal device that helps open & close the rolling curtains in a bedroom. The device itself only cost 18 euros ($25). However, had we had to pay for labor as well, it could have easily cost us 150 euros (over $200). Several weeks ago I had to do replace something in the sink in one of the water rooms. Again, the parts weren't that expensive, but it easily would have run over $200 for labor.

I'm not super mechanically enclined, nor to I especially enjoy projects like these. However, I did enjoy trying to figure out the whole process from discerning what was broken to getting what was needed to fix it to completing the repair.

Yesterday I met with D@vid. He's with another group and has a lot of experience in working with artists. He himself is a musician who has done previous min in Montreal, Brazil, etc. He will be taking over the communications responsibilities that I've been doing for a number of years now. Yesterday I passed on the passwords to a number of different accounts, as well as showed him how to do use some of these different tools.

I periodically hear adages related to the notion that no one is irreplaceable. As we plan for a year away, we're forced to bring closure to some of what we've done, as well as turn things over. It's important to always be thinking about the future & who are those that we should be preparing to turn things over to. For we are all terminal & will have to turn things over eventually, whether we want to or not. If we more intentionally plan for transitions, then they are more likely to go smoothly than if we don't plan for them.

One way to measure the effectiveness of our leadership is by how smoothly the transition goes and how well our replacement(s) do.

Last evening we had an enjoyable evening with Bill & R@chel & their 2 children. They kindly took our kids all afternoon, which helped us get more done yesterday. G*d quickly & miraculously provided an apartment for them in a part of Paris close to Radio France & the Eiffel Tower. They are in a part of Paris that I don't know well, but am glad they are living in.

We first met them in IL while we were doing grad studies 1998-2000. They've been interested in working in Paris since then & left a successful min in a growing ch&rch in order to come here. We have been blessed to track with them these past 10-12 years & now have them in Paris. We are especially excited when new families arrive.

In some ways, it feels strange to be leaving Paris at this time when things are going well & G*d is bringing people like Bill & Rachel to Paris. However, G*d has His ways of moving His personnel around the field.

It's been encouraging to us to have people actually sad that we are leaving for this next year. Several have insisted that we do come back. Actually more people in Paris know about our 1 year stateside than do in the U.S. This is due to our needing to be part of a July 28 or 29 meeting that will help give some direction about this next year stateside.

It's good we're having this season to do some goodbyes to our friends here. It doesn't feel super rushed and we're not having one super bonanza party, but rather different gatherings of friends at different times.