It is obvious that I have neglected being a "blogger" for other responsibilities...but to be honest I have FAR less time on my hands now than I did when I began this avenue for exploring how I was feeling about having that much time on my hands!!
Not much has changed really. I am continuing as the "interim" minister at Southern Heights C.C. (which is going well...but obviously NOT like a full-time located ministry)...not to mention that they cannot afford to pay me or give me benefits life a full-time staff person. Be that as it may, God continues to care for my family's needs and I hope that I am being faithful and obedient to His calling.
When I am not working on one of the four teaching opportunities at Somerset, or thinking about worship for Sunday morning, I am teaching an online Introduction to the Bible class in Tabarre, Haiti via Skype technology. Whatever time is not consumed by the interim ministry is taken up by preparing for class time (5 hours per week of teaching). This is not a paid position but it is time consuming and my prayer is that we are creating the beginning of something that will reach FAR beyond whatever influence I am having on these five students. The idea is that eventually there will be a physical building with full-time professors, students, and administration in place to train indigenous peoples for ministry in the country of Haiti (which is no easy task because of the cultural unrest and the syncretist forms of spirituality that exist there)...but for now we are doing the best we can with what God has entrusted us with.
I have to confess that I am a little uneasy with the way things are in my life right now. It seems as if I am working twice as hard for half the material benefit (but again, God has been SO gracious to meet my family's needs in a variety of ways). I have read recently that a shift is coming in the way that churches and church people view things like Bible College, Seminary, staff, and missions, so perhaps I am also a part of this shift and I am struggling to adapt to what many are calling the "Google World" (especially since I am by both biology and nature a Gutenberg person...to date I have refused to adopt any of "the cloud" technology for a variety of reasons).
I am NOT a country music fan but I do remember a few lyrics from an old country song that seem to sum up how I feel about this shift (which obviously shows that others have felt the same way about other cultural shifts that they were facing), I think that the name of the song is "Old Hippie" and about all I can remember is the line, "he's an old hippie and he don't know what to do; should he cling to the old or grab on to the new" except "the new", in this case, is a complete paradigm shift for the first time in the history of the US as to how we view everything from church, to politics, technology, etc...perhaps my current feelings are best summed up by Will Farrell in his role as Ricky Bobby when he was about to be in the middle a BIG NASCAR wreck... "hold on baby Jesus...this is gonna get bumpy!"
"I believe, help me in my unbelief."
