Here I stand, in a brave new world, with a pit in my stomach the size of China...

Only in recent weeks, even days, have I started to think about the action heros, or movie athletes that stand on the brink of impossible disaster, what might be going through their heads.  Because here I am a mere 36 hours from my debut as an actual teacher, and I have a pit in my stomach.  Now over the past two weeks, my wonderful wife has helped me talk through my "career-shock," but there are some moments in the day when my stomach feels like the Smurfs are jumping up and down with soccer cleats on.  Why does it happen?  Why in those moments of change, newness, or 'first-timedness' do we get that pit?

I think back to the day I asked Stacia to marry me.  We were on beautiful Huntington Beach, sun was shining, I had just bought a skim board, and I knew 2 things: there was a ring in my backpack, and that she WOULD say yes.  Yet there it was again.  That pit.  Low and behold she did say yes, and that day the skim board tried to make me into a 6'3" pretzel on the beach, but that is besides the point.  I had a huge pit, eventhough I knew what was going to happen.

I think that this is where faith comes in.  I am starting a bible study that is covering 52 men of the bible.  This week's is about Noah.  The author described the scene leading up to the flood.  The boat was not made in a day, but rather in years.  Imagine years and years of building something larger than a football field, and having the most corrupt, mean, dis-likeable people mocking you every single day.  (And a majority of those people are your family!)


Noah was in a moment of faith, where there was nothing else but his wife, his kids, and his God.  Now for those of you who are curious, we are not building a boat on our balcony, but we are about to embrace a flood of newness unlike anything we have ever had before.  For me this is an opportunity to follow God in his call.  The 8th grade team leader asked all of us to share what brought us into teaching.  I thought in my mind, it was a means for getting Stacia and me to Hong Kong! But the reality is, this is an act of faith.  There is a lot that I am confident in when it comes to TEACHING 8th grade bible, in fact, that's not the part that is feeding my pit.  The transformation into a TEACHER feeds my pit.  Gradebooks, discipline, Powerteacher, Eclass, and SO MANY MEETINGS! (That unfortunately don't happen at McDonalds, Chipotle, or Fika Coffee).


2 Timothy 3:10-11 says "You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra, (Hong Kong!)-which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. "  Yet in all of my "stuff" that is happening, God is going to guide me, teach me, mold me and rescue me...even if that means rescuing me from myself!

All for now, I'll let you know how it goes this week!

Tdub

Hong Kong...Welcome Home!

Okay people!  Here we are, one week in from arriving in HK.  

Expectations:

-things would be new

-things would be different

-we will eat a lot of rice

-we are going to meet new people

-it's going to be hot

-we are not in parker any more

Realities:

-things are very new and very cool

-things are very different (working for a school rather than a church is VERY different!)

-we have eaten a lot of rice and noodles, so much that when we at american food, we kind of got an upset stomach

-we have met a great group of people, we have made some great friends and look forward to the new relationships

-it is very hot and humid, but getting nicer each day

-we are for sure not in parker any more and that is and okay thing

Overall, this past week has been one of orientation to the new apartment, the new job, the new town, the new city, and the new culture.  It has been an interesting ride so far, filled with the ups and downs both emotionally and physically...and it's not done yet. This is a great place, a holy place, where God is doing amazing things.  This school is centered completely on Christ's love and teaching. Student's don't have to be christians when they enter this place.  Some don't become Christians while they are here, but they are at least having the seed planted.  

I am (and we are as a couple) in a place right now of transition, learning everything new, trying not to forget where we came from.  It is a strange chaos to be in.  I refer to it as chaos because when you are in chaos at one moment you feel out of control, and in the next you are at total peace.   I know, at the end of this path of chaos is my God, cheering me on, reaching his hand out to me.  Like Peter, when he stepped out of the boat to walk on water toward's Jesus, it will be very VERY easy to look at the waves around me, but with the support of my beautiful wife, and the reminder to stay centered and focused on Christ, I know that I will be able to grow and accept this place as my own.

Prayer request:  That in the next week, my comfort level in becoming a teacher becomes better.  It's so crazy how much teachers do, and how much different Pastoring and Teaching is...on the other hand, they are SO similar, I am feeling at home in this new place in that sense.  Who needs curriculum right!?! :)

All for now, hopefully our internet and cell phones (iphone 4 by the way) will be up and we will be able to frequent Facebook and email better.  My prayers are with our family and friends in the states, can't wait to Skype soon!

-Tdub

The Precise Q-tip countdown...

When Stacia and I got married, we moved her out of her apartment and into the little white house.  When we combined our stuff, I noticed one thing.  We would never run out of Q-tips.  We had three packages full of 750 soft ear mops each for our cleaning pleasure.  Fast forward from January 2010 to July 2011.  Today was our last day in the white house.  Last week we moved our furniture and other stuff to the storage unit.  We had reaped the benefit of living in a church house, experiencing staff and other volunteers coming to help clean out, trash out, and prepare the house for its next tenants.  However, I noticed one thing this morning.  Our once abundant cash of q-tips was now a small pile of 15.  Stacia and I were finishing up in the bathroom, cleaning out the rest of the stuff so I took the remaining 15 and placed them into a sandwich bag, and into one of our many tubs that is going to HK.

When I think about the q-tips, I think about how God gives us timers.  Sometimes they are evident, and other times they are not.  When we moved Stacia into the white house, I was dumbfounded by the amount of q-tips in our house, not knowing that it was our timer.  So many people question God's timing.  Why are we moving now? Why did they die then?  Why was his job eliminated?  We want to control God's time.   We have a want to be God and hold onto that hourglass of life and keep it running full.  But that's the unfortunate part, we are not God.


Our timing sucks.  Period.  Let's just get that out of the way right now.

God knew that tomorrow, July 23, 2011 we would be changing everything, and moving our entire existance to Hong Kong to serve him.  Did I know that when I saw the abundance of Q-tips coming into that little white house?  Nope.  But now that I am sitting here in an airport hotel, preparing for a new adventure, I smile.  God's timing is so great, and to be able to fully trust in that timing is the most freeing feeling one can experience.

The next post that comes from me will be from HK!

Be Blessed

Faith in the storm

Mark 4:37-40 says, "And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" ³⁹And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?"

Tonight was the epitome of understanding what it means to have a faith that is "unshakeable."

To start though, I'll visit the mindset of the disciples.  They have been following this rabbi around that is talking against the laws that have been taught and re-taught for hundreds of years before.  The crowds are so big that Jesus tells the disciples to get on a boat and cross the sea.  

Then the storm comes, the disciples freak out, and lose faith; Jesus jumps in and saves the day.

So here's what happened.   It's only 11 days until we move to Hong Kong.  We are packing the house, saying goodbye to friends, having the last lunch break with students, the last boot camp, last staff meeting, canceling dish network, internet, changing banks, and cleaning out my office to get ready for the new change.  On top of all of this, we find out that the car won't start at Chipotle.  We were able to jump the car, get it started, and drive it back to the house with the plan to work on it after I finished stuff at work. 

After our last minute boot camp decision, we worked out, came home and started packing the bathroom (my wonderful wife has done an AMAZING job getting us organized and packed up).  Packing led to more packing and we looked up at 8pm and remembered Auto zone closed at 9!  We ate a real quick dinner, jumped the battery and drove to Auto zone.  We got the battery tested and low and behold, it was a bad battery.  

We bought a new battery and took the company's offer to install our new battery.  Have I mentioned that there is a HUGE thunderstorm moving closer and closer with each minute?!  I was standing next to our 'mighty battery installer,' holding my cell phone flashlight over the battery as he worked on removing the old one and installing the new. 

It seemed that everything that could make the process go longer, did.  He had issues getting the right bit for his ratchet, the bolt holding the battery down was huge, the rain started coming, he removeed the battery, put the grease on the components, dropped the battery felt, tightened the connection, realized the felt dropped, undid the battery, put on the felt, and reconnected the battery.

FLASH, FLASH, FLASH, FLASH  -- The lightning is all around us, but the thunder is still a good distance away.  The rain though, starts to pour.  

Finally, the battery is installed, the downpour begins, and the lightning is flashing like another 4th of July celebration.

As this all is happening, Stacia was sitting nervously in the car.  With each flash of lightning, she jumped and covered her face.  She was worried that we were going to be struck by lightning.  She was on the brink of calling off the repair and moving it till the next day, but we kept going.

As I was standing in the lightning and rain, I watched as my cell phone battery was flashing at me saying "I'm tired, turn me off, or plug me in," I felt like my faith was being pushed.  The cell phone could have died, the rain could have been hail, the lightning could have been on top of us, and so many other things could have caused me to stop the process, or not allow us to finish. 

Todd Agnew sings a great song called "This Fragile Breath".  The chorus of the song says:

     " You speak with thunder and lightning
        Your voice shakes the mountains
        The foundations of the earth
        All I can offer is this fragile breath
        With each one I'll praise You
      With each one I'll praise You more"  (take a listen)

Like the disciples, standing in the storms of the world, God tells us to be calm, and trust him.  Most times, our human-ness gets in our way and we balk on our faith.

I am starting to understand more and more that faith is going to be the key for us as we enter into this move to our new home.  The thunder and lightning are all around:  Will I be able to teach? Will the kids respect me?  Will I be able to dress like an adult?  These are all thoughts that Satan wants me to believe, but God reminds me that we are walking with Him in our move.  I don't know what is going to happen, but I know that we are boarding the boat, the storm is going to rock us, and Jesus is going to remind us of how powerful He truly is!

"Follow Me..."

“Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him." 

                        -Matthew 9:9

I can't imagine.  The Savior of the world, the Messiah, the fulfillment of of the prophecy of the Old Testament is standing in front of me saying "follow me".  Drop everything, forget it all and follow.  We know from reading other stories that Jesus stood in front of a few men and challenged them to follow Him.  Unlike Matthew they asked Jesus to say goodbye to their families, and to bury their dead father and Jesus said no.  

On one level that is where I see Stacia and me...

Yesterday culminated the last of the "big things" to take off of our list of things to do before moving to HK.  Last week we sold the car and were able to pay out of the loan.  Goodbye Car.

After the car was sold, we decided to sell our desks, printer (still available), book shelf (still available), LCD Tv, sound system, and whatever else we could find.  All of those things were just things.  Even the car, it was easy to sell, we don't have a need for the car, or the loan, any more.  But it seemed that the realization of our move became real yesterday.  Yesterday, we took our Boxer, Nooma, to her new home.  The family that we have given her to is great.  She is going to have a great yard, kids to play with (ages 13, 16, 18), and overall a home full of love.  Though we had the love, the yard was much more than we could offer her with a 600 sq. ft. apartment on the 7th floor of a tall building.  She would have been miserable with us.  But the challenge of leaving became real yesterday.  Are we doing the right thing?  Is this what we are supposed to do?

As Stacia and I discussed it, I thought about Jesus' call on his disciples.  "Follow me."  Simple.  When we started this journey, applying, getting our documents together, figuring out which schools to apply, which to skip, we had a prayer (which I think I described in a former post) that we would both have jobs, that it would be in a school that would be welcoming, challenging and the easiest possible transition into a foreign culture.  Enter ICS-HK.  The email comes, we have jobs.

  

Follow me...

When Jesus calls us into anything, something is being sacrificed.  But is it a sacrifice or preparation?  While I was sitting with a great friend last night, he said, "I believe that everything that happens prepares us for something more." God constantly puts us into situations where He is challenging us, forming us into a new self.  

Look back at Matthew.  He said yes.  Left his tax collecting (which was a HATED profession, he probably saw following Jesus as a way to be better liked), left his wealth, left his friends, sacrificed his reputation, to follow Jesus.  

Even though we are roughly 2000 years after that event, I believe that Jesus is telling Stacia and me to follow him to HK.  We don't know what's in store, we don't know how life is going to be, but we have each other and we have Jesus.  Anything else that comes up, will only be gifts from God, forming us into the disciples that he wants us to be.

All for now,

T.

One thing I will miss about the whitehouse...

Today I realized one thing that I will miss about this small little farm house that we have called home. It has been a blessing to live on 35 acres for the past 2 and 1/2 years. Deer greet us in the morning, chipmunks eat our trash, bunnies provoke our dog, and the AMAZING Sunsets. (as seen by this amazing picture taken by my wife :) )

But today I just realized a new thing I will miss.

I recently got our moped running again and thought, "I wonder if Nooma (our boxer) would chase after me?"

So we tested it. Ultimate success. She stayed right behind me, and what normally takes about an hour to do, we did in 15 minuets. She is now laying on the couch tired and relaxed.

I will miss the mopeding-dog-chasing-game, but I know that HK is going to bring some more awesome moped experiences!

All for now!

Illustrations of change...a Michael Scott joint

Here we are...95 days until we move to Hong Kong.  Wow. 

Last night we spent youth group with the High School students talking about God's Calling on our lives.  More specifically, I talked about Stacia and I's journey to today, a mere 95 days until we leave.

I shared with the students the ups and downs of finding schools we liked, being rejected by those schools, and then being accepted by a school that wasn't even on our radar.  We talked about all of the intracacies that God places into our own journeys, and how each moment is written by God.

We finally talked about being patient, understanding that if God is calling us to do something big, it's not going to happen tomorrow and in taking those baby steps, we find out how strong we really are.

I was taken back by the most recent episode of the Office this past week.  It is no secret that Steve Carrell is leaving the Office, and so Michael Scott's final episodes are upon us (Here is the episode if you would like to watch it)






Michael is training his replacement, the new Manager of Dunder Mifflin Sabre. I was able to relate to Michael in this episode as I started to think about the new person coming into PEPC Student Ministries. I have grown so much over the past three years and the community of PEPC has watched that happen. I have also watched a great group of kids grow up in front of my eyes as well.

Toward the end of the episode Deangelo Vickers (played by Will asks Michael how to do meetings and they have a "tender" moment where the baton has been passed and Vickers tells Michael to "Enjoy this time, you have worked so hard, get your senioritis on."

This has been a great time. And in the next 95 days I look forward to mission trips and paintball excursions, Youth Sunday, breakfasts and lunches, Popsicles at the skate park, and so much more, and I am also so excited for this next step in Stacia and I's journey.

Hopefully I will be getting more blogging done!