Gingrich: S.C. 'decided to be with us in changing Washington'

Washington may need a few good people who understand how to cut budgets without killing people. Yet, it is hard to imagine Newt being the person who would change D.C. politics. 

Consider this:

Newt is on his third marriage, and he had a mistress in marriage #1 & marriage # 2 prior to each divorce. Each time the mistress became the next wife. Either this is Washinton's current norm or he is ushering in the next wave of mistress acceptability in our nation's capital. 

Newt was once the third most powerful American in the nation as the U.S. House of Representative Speaker. He left this office in the middle of a term rather than be removed by the U.S. Congress for ethical failures. Either ethical failure is the new norm or evangelical Christians have decided that it's good to forgive people for their failures. The later option would be a good change except that this attitude of forgiveness hasn't' been extended to President Obama for having the second name of Hussein or for being a black man in charge of this country. Why does an overweight ethnically-unaware white man get a free pass over the brilliantly kind hope-filled black guy?

Newt talks about cutting deficits and budges, but there will be few cuts to our military and tax exemptions for oil companies will continue even though they had record profits in 2011. Cuts to African aid relief, cuts to our nations poor, and cuts to 'the least' and marginalized in our society are certainly on his horizon. Fortunately, a tea party majority of sixty senators is out of his reach for 2012; so the democrats can tie up Newt's ideas for four years, and we'll plunge further into debt as neither side can agree to share a meal together -- let alone share power.

In reality, everything will change if Newt is elected. The liberal media will be kept out of the White House Press Room, and the evil questions posed by the evil empire of the liberal media will be kept at bay. Thus, Newt will usher in an entirely new day for our country, and we shall all be saved  by his generosity, goodness, kindness and love.

Sometimes we create fairy tales and they are kept alive by our desire to hope for a better world. Newt's proclamation for changing Washington is just that - a fairy tale.

Death is never 'meant to be'

Nearly fourteen months ago a friend of mine, Dennis Dykstra, suddenly died of heart failure. He seemed to be hitting his stride in life with a newfound passion for orphans and issues of justice in Africa.

One person who saw this picture commented, "What a great picture...you can HEAR them laughing!" Indeed, if you have ever been to Africa or have a great imagination for just a few seconds, you can hear the kids. It's likely many of these kids had never touched a white man before this moment; so even the idea of white skin is a silly thought to a ten year old in East Africa.

Dennis had found his midlife calling to his wife, his family, and pursuing justice. Then life abruptly ended... 

I remember receiving the phone call, and even as I recall it now, I get chills through my entire body. Life is not meant to end this way. Life is not.

As followers of Jesus, we so often say or hear others say, "It was in God's time." "It is according to his plan." At that moment, it seems like consolation, and pushing back against that thought while at a funeral or while giving empathy would be inappropriate. Yet.

This idea that God is fine with death, that God plans for erratic endings to life is wacked.. The ways of Jesus are always about life. Always. While death is a reality of every life, death is never part of the goodness of God. 

While I do believe the God of Israel reigns as Lord of all things, it is impossible to fully understand this idea in a world where suffering and brokenness continue to be the reality in which we live. To prove that death can be overcome, Jesus along with others in the biblical text, rise from the dead. Yet, this isn't the current reality in which we live.

I believe we use phrases like "It was in God's plan" to deal with the complex reality of a God who reigns but not yet fully reigns. If God were to have his way with the world at this moment, Dennis would not have died. He would still be loving his wife and children and chasing after justice around the globe. 

The tragedy of a life cut short is just that - tragedy. There is no great moment that heals all pains. The story never ends as a beautiful romance that keeps the heart warm forever.

Here is my hope as we stop using the sort of terms 'Christian' community has created to solve deep issues of tension -- that we continue to believe that God is FOR life, for hope, for love, for goodness, for kindness, for justice, and for mercy.

As we pursue these things, the ways of Jesus will make themselves more known over the landscape of the earth. When children stop dying of AIDS, when kids have moms & dads, and when bellies are full and water is abundant, THEN we will experience the reign of God. 

When justice flows through the streets of every city and countryside around this mighty planet, then we will know that there is a God who reigns. Until then, we live in part of the hope of God's reign, but human tragedy is never part of that hope. 

So, let's pursue the things that set the heart of Dennis on fire. Let's hope that we can walk alongside the Creator of the universe to do great things. Let us urgently fight AIDS, put an end to poverty, and drill wells for every community in on every continent. In pursing the these things, we find hope in the life of Dennis and so many others. 

God always reigns in healing, in hope, and in resurrection - never in death. Always in life.

Another Way of Being Church

Liberty for what purpose?

It is interesting how ‘compassionate conservatism’ has no traction these days. Perhaps though, evangelical America is so solidified behind the republican party that their votes are expected rather than desired?

Having recently finished Frank Schaeffer’s most recent book titled ‘Sex, God and Mom’, I find his thoughts on the the ‘right’ and evangelical America to have much value. Americans talk about ‘ObamaCare’ as a four letter word while entirely ignoring the millions of people who can’t afford to see a doctor when necessary for healthy living. We cover our disgust of the new health care laws under the guise of ‘liberty’, and yet we fail the biblical text to love our neighbor.

Somehow we’re still o.k. about ignoring our neighbors plight on the same day we heard a sermon of the ‘Good Samaritan.’ But of course, we never find ourselves in that story. We’re good church going republicans… or so we tell ourselves while we proclaim the kingdom to our coworkers who were not in church on Sunday…

I'm looking for a fight...

And here is why I am looking for a fight these days: While the democrats and republicans in Washington D.C. are not playing fair nor nice, nor are they really being helpful to the nation since they prefer fighting and ideology over and against compromise, my representative is Mr. Bill Huizenga.

I'm looking for a fight - someone to take him on in this conservative second district because he plays the same games as the rest of the crew in D.C. But, he's my congressman, and I can fight for him to change his ways or for someone else to go to D.C. to represent me.  This is the beauty of a democracy. I can speak. I can write. I can vote. And I can challenge Mr. Bill Huizenga to either be more honest or change his ways or look for a challenger.

Mr. Congressman, you continue to harp on jobs and job creation, and you direct your accusations at President Obama and the democrats. Undoubtedly they share some of the blame for this mess, but you prefer to take none of the blame.  Furthermore, you tout the idea of job creation as something that America needs -- and we do.

Yet, you fail to address the needs of the second largest business in Michigan - agriculture. We in the AG business are looking for support from you for immigration reform. We have employees who could benefit from reform, and we have businesses that would become more stabilized with the reform. Yet, on this issue you turn away and support the party line. I realize it's about votes. Your position is not about what is right nor what is good nor just nor even about jobs. Yet, you claim to support 'job creators.' In reality, you support new jobs if they fit within the party lines. Is it no wonder our economy is in a mess?

So, please be honest with us. Until you are willing to support immigration reform in D.C. for the sake of the AG business in your own state, your accusations toward 'the other side' are not fair. You have failed to support changes that we believe are necessary, and you seem to be unwillingness to support the AG business in your district. As a follower of Jesus Christ and someone who is passionate about justice and mercy, and also as someone whose family business employs migrants and American citizens, I am rightly offended by the inability of self-reflection and recognition of the problematic policies held by both parties.

This is not simply a differing of opinion or a difference in philosophy. I encourage and challenge you to find a political position that will support job creation that also supports the diverse agriculture scene of Ottawa County. Until your position changes on this issue, your talk about desiring to help with job creation is is what my grandfather would have called chaff. As 'job creators' in your district, should we not expect better?

Kenya Matters Reflections: Late August Edition

On this first day of September, I’m in my favorite coffee shop with my eight-year-old son enjoying quiet time across the table from one another.  A silent glimpse and occasional few words remind us of the presence of the other. For our family and a handful of others here in West Michigan and elsewhere around the globe, life is a constant mix of family, work—and the efforts, thoughts, hopes and prayers for our orphan friends in Karai, Kenya.  

At times I almost wish this project away, as it feels like a burden to care for kids half a world away.  On the other hand, it is also one of the greatest joys of many of our lives.  Two weeks ago I was sitting in a corporate board meeting, and I received an email stating that the water volume of the well was very good!  I immediately interrupted the meeting to share the news. Tears swelled in the eyes of the sixty-six year old co-founder of this company. Friends, we’re making a difference.

A day later at a gathering of friends, while celebrating water at the bottom of our 260 meter deep well, Jason Anderson stated, “Now we’ve done something significant with our lives.”

Savor this reality.  And know that we have work to do.  We have a well & water project that needs funding to develop: irrigation for eight acres of farmland, showers for teenagers, and a filtration system for drinking water. We also have five additional orphan friends who will need tuition assistance for high school this coming year.

We’re asking you in real financial ways to help our thirty-two kids in Karai. Please give it some thought, and consider how you can join us in this effort.

On behalf of the board, we celebrate and challenge ourselves (and you) to the future that lies ahead. 

Blessings,
Randy

What a day -- vacation in the Smoky Mt’s. & more...

Today we are celebrating our 21st anniversary! Sure, I thought we would make it twenty-one years, but I’m not sure I believed we would do it this way. Married at twenty-one and twenty-four, we were pretty young, but then again it was 1990. Things have changed a bit in those short decades, and it’s probably for the better that kids want to know a bit about themselves as adults before they decide to get married.

Yesterday was recovering from the stomach flu of Monday, and today was the Jeep overheating as we pulled into the Smoky Mountain National Park visitor center. Three young kids made good water haulers between the restroom and the Jeep’s radiator with 1/2 liter bottles in hand.

While wrestling with how to deal with the Jeep, considering a car rental and wondering how much the local mechanics would appreciate my tourism wealth, I got a call from a guy back home. His son had been signed up for the youth soccer club of which I help organize, but he had dropped out a few weeks back. Earlier I had left a message that we were hoping his son would play for us this year.

Suddenly my two days of stomach flu and my eight year old Jeep dying on the mountainside were simply small glitches in life. The kid who loves soccer couldn't play because mom was in an accident a few months ago. Yesterday her leg was amputated by surgeons. The complexity of life along with a soccer schedule were more than dad wanted to consider.

Walking into the parks visitors center I noted the sign that told much: “Over the past fifty years, the visibility in the park has been reduced by 40% in the winter and 80% in the summer due to pollution.” I was reminded of my congressman stating how cutting the EPA would benefit business a great deal and help stimulate the economy. I wonder if he asked the residents of Gatlinburg how they feel about cutting EPA regulations and how these cuts might stimulate their economy over the next decade?

Later in the day I received word that our well and water project in Karai, Kenya was progressing well... Well. After four months of Living Water International failing to reach depths necessary for water in the Rift Valley, a local contractor took four days to find water at 220 meters. Now the fun of finding funds to distribute and use the water are pressing, but that too seems to be a good pressure. I still have two healthy legs, and I helped another kid get to the soccer fields this fall.

It’s time for a glass of red wine as I ponder these mountains standing, laying, or perhaps sitting around me. While I can’t see them in the darkness of this summer night, I trust we’ll care for them for years to come as they give us majesty and beauty and grandeur beyond our imaginations. Of course, if we can’t see them, we won’t imagine those things either. Perhaps that’s what our politicians really want.

Grandma is saying goodbye...

Shivers wrestle their way across the muscles, bones, and flesh of my body just writing the title to this post. We've experienced death before with this family, but it's usually been a miscarriage with a life cut short. It's been many years since Grandma Gert went to live with God. We still have great memories. We also still grieve her loss. If only my kids could have tasted her chocolate milk on on hot summer day or seen the look of pure joy her eyes gave out to her grandchildren most every time we entered her kitchen for a family visit.

Death is suppoesd to hurt a bit less as people age. We are supposed to die eventually. But we are not. We were meant to live with God among us on this earth. We were meant to live forever, but somehow we do not yet live in that reality. Until then, we will live with pain, hurt, and tears. The shivers will continue as we know a funeral is coming and Grandpa will be burying his second wife. We will share memories of Grandma Fan for decades to come as well. She was such a natural second grandma. She loved us and my grandpa well.

Life is not supposed to be this way. Until God lives more completely among us, hold me tight. I'm shaking like a leaf on a tree in a summer storm, and I want to believe everything will be o.k. But sometimes I'm not so sure... Just don't tell me God meant for it to be this way or that it's all in God's plan. Death was never in God's plan. Pain was never in God's plan. That isn't the way of God... and I'm sensing the winds are increasing.... I want to go hold my grandpa's hand like my eight year old boyhood of thirty-seven years ago did on many occasions.

Did we lose our souls with this budget deal?

~ Written around 7 p.m. on August 1 of 2011

I'm mystified and deeply discontent with the political rhetoric from the right wing of the republican party these days. It's not that the democrats have it all figured out. It's this never ending mantra that taxes are bad, that increases in taxes are bad, that all monies consumed by our federal government are essentially evil.

Driving down the road today, I slowed for a significant accident. Two police car, a smashed vehicle, one lady in a neck brace. I drove onward slowly wondering whose lives may be forever changed. Moments later another siren, a police car heading toward that scene. Cars slowed and scurried to the side of the road for the sake of the emergency vehicle, and I was reminded that all of us on that road were in favor of helping that police officer and that lady in the neck brace. Time, energy, and money didn't matter at that moment.

At 7 p.m. tonight my wife called to tell me she was running late coming home. She had witnessed a car hit a railing on the highway, tumble down the asphalt and come to rest a hundred yards ahead of her vehicle. She was holding a two year old boy in her arms when she called me. She had pulled him out of that car. He was taken by helicopter to Spectrum.

My grandfather who is eighty-six is sitting at a nursing home at this moment. He's sitting alongside the bed of his second wife. She's eighty-eight. Her body is quickly failing. We are heading over there in minutes, but I'm still waiting for my wife to come home. I'm sure she is shaken up. And my Grandpa will need my now 45 year old hand to hold his hand. He won't mind that I am no longer eight years old.

In D.C. the House of Representatives just passed the budget bill that will keep the U.S. government out of foreclosure. This is good news for business. This is good news for investors and stocks and people who play those kind of games. I wonder if it will be good news for single moms and elderly people without husbands and wives or even grandkids to hold their hands. But you see, we don't really care about these things anymore. It's become all about our own money. We can read my stories of this day, and we can weep or be moved. But at the end of the day we would rather allow others suffer or die alone rather than have our taxes increased by 5% even if we could afford the cost. Many of us are still doing very well in the midst of this economy. That's why they call us 'job creators.' After all, we don't really want to hear about the pain of others. Let's leave that to someone else.

Thanks for keeping my taxes low Mr. Amash and Mr. Huizenga I'm sure your motives were pure and honest and certainly in line with the Christian faith passed along to me by my four amazing grandparents. On second thought, I will pass on praise. You went to Washington and lost your heart and soul somewhere in the baggage area at one of the D.C. airports.

When we elected you, we expected better than what you gave us over the past three months. While many of us grew up republicans, we try not to worship our money. If we want to be a nation of gluttony and greed, you are representing us well. But in fact you've opened the door for others to step into D.C. in 2012. We, in West Michigan have more heart, more soul, and more love than just for our money. It's time for a new Paul Henry or Vern Ehlers to represent us. Most of us still believe in things greater than low taxes. As for each of you, you've shown your true heart, and for this we are both saddened and appalled.

Kenya Matters' - pics from July

Kenya Matters' photostream on Flickr.

In July of this year two groups of friends visited our project in Karai, Kenya.

A group of six people from Spring Valley church visited in late June & early July for about two weeks.

A day after the Spring Valley group departed, Kurt & Lori Wilson and their children, Pierce & Miriam, spent three days with our Kenyan friends.

These pictures tell part of the story of Kenya Matters!

time for another change...

Fortunately for me, my life is full of seasons each year. Beyond the four distinct seasons of Michigan, I have seasons of fall high school volleyball, winter rest, spring flowers, summer with my kids, among other seasons that intersect these such as finding chunks of time for Kenya Matters, my kids soccer & other things dear to my heart.

This spring has come and gone with a furry as it didn't arrive until May 8, and it is now starting to slip into summer... With this change, I will soon have time for my kids, my amazing wife, the garden & yard, the honey 'to-do' list, reading a bit, and hopefully writing.

I'm craving a return to writing almost as much as I'm craving a return to family time. As I get older, it seems increasingly important for me to share thoughts of goodness, kindness, justice, and mercy as proclaimed by Jesus. At the same time, I find thoughtful theological voices all too often stay away from the political hot buttons that are inflaming this country at this time.

A case in point, Jesus followers should be advocating for justice and mercy toward the eleven million immigrants who reside in our nation. Yet, various factions of the population believe we should treat them as 'illegal' and secondly as humans. Yet, many of these same factions call themselves 'Christians.' While I don't doubt their sincerity of wanting to follow Jesus, there is no doubt how the biblical text is to be understood when it comes to our treatment of the least, the poor, the marginalized.

Perhaps Jesus followers are not committed to the ways of Jesus, but all too often I believe they are simply misguided. Let's at least this is the case.

Leaving Kenya... again

My fifth trip to this country in the past 28 months has created something in my life that I never expected or entertained even three years ago. It was Jason Anderson's invitation to accompany him on a trip in Dec. of 2008 that began this journey.

In Dec. of 2008 I found myself falling in love with 32 orphan children in rural Kenya. Then I found myself growing in passion and hope for the lives of these kids. Today I found myself on the grounds of the well guarded U.S. Embassy in Nairobi meeting with someone from USAID, and I dream of a day when I can speak fluent Swahili.

As I walked away from my orphan friends and their caregivers late this morning, the contentment in my life when I am here in Kenya is... while I am such a stranger with white skin here, it's as if I can breathe air while underwater. I really don't fully belong. Not only is my skin white, I don't yet understand the customs of this place nor do I speak any of the languages (thankfully English is spoken most places here).

When here, I feel as if life is complete with the exception of being part of my children's lives, and the contentment isn't the result of Xanax, a message, or yoga. It's real, and it's life here. I only wish more of my friends could touch these kids and ALSO realize that we can be content in life without going 100 m.p.h., winning every game, every scholarship, and every business meeting. Life is so much more. It's about people, about caring, about simply tasting dinner without rushing off to the next thing, and it's about inviting the neighbor for tea when there is still work to be done.

Don't get me wrong. These people are in no way lazy or without ambition. They simply seem to have a better sense of how God has created us as human beings -- that relationships and caring for one another always win the day...