The World is Becoming a Better Place

I believe that our world is searching for the right way to live. And I believe that we are slowly getting closer to the right way of treating each other. It is just taking some time.

Back in fourteenth century France, things were pretty bad compared to today. English armies were invading every few years. After the battle ended, the English King would leave behind large numbers of soldiers, not wanting to pay for their return to England. These men became roving bands of outlaws, attacking villages and travelers. Between the wars and the outlaws, there was also the black plague, which was devastating the people of Europe. In those days, when a village needed help neighboring villages did not respond to their pleas. If they were attacked, their neighbors armed themselves and hoped they too would not be attacked. If the plague struck, doors were shut and locked. If hunger assailed people, there was no help coming from nearby towns or villages. There were plenty of instances of individual compassion and help. Many individuals put their lives on the line to help others. But no general organized effort existed to help neighbors in trouble. And the thought of helping strangers who lived far away, would not have even occurred to most people at this time.

Move to the nineteenth century. The historians call it the age of volunteerism, when most of the organizations that help victims were born. In 1863 a Swiss citizen, Jean Henri Dunant spoke out for the need of an international organization to help wounded prisoners of war with improved medical care. The Red Cross, Red Crescent, and articles of the Geneva Convention came out of his efforts. Before Jean Dunant people didn’t care about prisoners of war, wounded or otherwise. Armies also attacked hospitals as if they were active fighting units. The conditions in prisoner of war camps were horrendous. The average person of the day would not care about the deaths of enemy soldiers. And yet Jean Dunant did care. And not only that, he convinced other people to care, so many that even the governments took notice and supported his efforts.

The creation of the Red Cross and the many other organizations created in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are an amazing part of world history. No where else in our history can I find large numbers of people organizing to help others from around the world. Individual acts of mercy are common throughout history. But organizations that help strangers from other countries, which speak other languages, who have strange customs and who worship gods with different names, that is a new and marvelous thing! In the last several hundred years, the number of these groups has expanded a great deal. Many of the organizations are religious and many are not. Many of the groups help people, and some are out to help animals and the environment. Even countries are joining into this wonderful development. Not only does the United States’ defense department prepare to fight a war, they also prepare to launch peace missions. In light of our war ravaged history this has been truly amazing!

The world is evolving ideas of truth and justice that are being recognized as universal. Treating all humans with love and respect was a concept that only a few held a thousand years ago. But today, many more people hold to these principles. I believe that some day, all humans will hold the same basic principles of treating each other as we would our family. And so I believe that universal principles of behavior will continue to develop over time to guide future generations.

God Bless You,

Pastor Bill

Helping Burmese Refugees

A Network of churches and community organizations are helping refugees from Myanmar (Burma) make a new life in the USA. Here is a common story from one of the girls who now live in Rochester NY.

I am from one of the Christian families from Myanmar that have been brought to the United States. I was born on October 15, 1991 in Chin State Matupi Town. When I was six years of age my father died suddenly of an unknown illness. Seven years later I lost my mother, again to an unknown illness. At the age of thirteen I had lost both my parents and went to live with my Uncle, who was very good to me.

I was taken from Thailand to Malaysia at which time we were living in the refugee camp. We were very fearful of the soldiers. They would stop us all the time and want to see our Citizen Card which we did not have because we had fled the country of Burma I was very sad because I had lost my parents, I had to flee my country and now I could not go to school. One day my Uncle was stopped by the police and they demanded his Citizen Card which he did not have at this time. He was arrested and sent to jail. I was sad and lonely but the people in our villages took care of me. I was very grateful.

When my Uncle was released from jail we began to apply to the UN so we could come to the United States. It took us two years to finally be able to leave Malaysia. During that two years we lived in fear of being put in jail. There was a lot of red tape to go through but on November 19, 2008, my Uncle and I arrived in Rochester, New York. Even though I am happy to be here I will always miss my country. I am studying very hard in hope that I may go to college to become a doctor and someday return to my country to help my own people.

I want to take the time to thanks everyone for everything they have done for me. Thank you and God bless America.

If you wish to learn more on Christian Refugee Mission.

Smashing Statues in the Woods

 
 

I was hiking on a mountain that overlooks the valley where I live. A friend and I went up there to see if we could view our houses from there. At the top of the mountain there are a series of communication towers. There is one big microwave tower that stands out from the rest. It has large white oval shaped cones facing in different directions. My friend and I noticed that the white faces had little dark marks on them. After a few minutes we realized that the marks were bullet holes. People had been using the tower as target practice. Other signs of destruction were also seen up in that quiet place. A wire fence was torn down and windows of the attached buildings were smashed. There was an old marble statue that had been erected many years ago. It seems to have been a saint who was blessing the people in the valley below. But the only thing left of the statue was the legs and the stand. Vandals had smashed the rest. Maybe the people who did this didn’t like the idea of being blessed.

I hike quite a bit, and so in the woods I have often found the remains of unbelievable human behavior. The skeletal remains of cars, stripped of everything including the engines, left to rot miles from the nearest road. Junk tires, foam insulation, plastic sheets, dumped deep in the evergreens. The remains of buildings, most likely ghost towns, spray painted or just smashed to bits. This behavior has caused me to wonder why people do crazy things in the woods. Why go to all of the trouble of traveling miles from home just to get drunk around a camp fire and smash beer bottles on the ground? The answer that I have come up with is that people feel free in the woods. With no one else around they feel released from the restrictions that society places on them and they think that they can do anything. And by anything that includes destroying property that doesn’t belong to them and/or permanently damaging natural habitat that belongs in the public trust. And so my question to you is; is this what freedom looks like?
I certainly hope not. If freedom means that I can do anything that I want to do, including hurting others, then the free life is not a life worth living. So if I reject this common notion of freedom, then what is the alternative? There must be limits that we place on our behavior. If not then we take away the freedom of others. We must restrict our actions in order to live together in a supportive way.

Society must have rules. There must be a code of conduct by which we operate. But the limits of our rules are being pushed by our individualistic society. The Internet is an amazing creation that gives all of us many ways to express ourselves. I looked for advice on building a telescope. And I was pleased to find many people who build telescopes as a hobby. And they are happy to publish instructions on how to do this. This is a great example of the positive impact the Internet has had. But the Internet also can have a destructive impact. I remember the story of a local politician whose home phone number was placed on the Internet as an ad for sex. It was like saying, for a good time call… This man and his family were harassed day and night until they changed their phone number. The story expresses the need for some restrictions on self-expression. Unrestrained expression means that innocent people are going to get hurt.

There are issues here that affect our greater society. Did you know that anyone could learn to make a bomb on the Internet? This type of information has been available for a long time in obscure books. But those books were hard to come by. Now this information is easy to obtain. Many people can learn to make bombs out of materials purchased at hardware stores. I’m not sure whether the second amendment protects the publication of this material or not, but surely there must be a way for our society to protect itself against people who spread information for the purpose of hurting others.

Ethical living requires limits on our actions. The unrestricted exercising of rights can take away rights from others. For example, I have seen some ugly fences in beautiful neighborhoods. If you live in a lovely neighborhood with open yards and someone puts up a cyclone fence that doesn’t fit the area, do you have a right to complain? In the Sonoma, California there are many housing developments with strong homeowners associations. They tell the owners what type of fence to put up, what colors to paint them, and what plants can be placed in front of the fences. This makes the development orderly and beautiful. But doesn’t this take basic rights from the individuals who live there? Yet people see the wisdom of giving up some personal freedoms in order to receive something they value in return.

Our right to buy and discard things creates massive landfills that pollute land and water. Our right to go to work for industry also pollutes the environment and causes many to develop health problems. Our right to drive cars that pollute the air causes some people to live indoors because they can’t breath. How does the old saying go? One hand giveth the other taketh away.

We are not free to do whatever we want in the world. I am not free to kill someone just because I feel like it. I am not free to take someone else’s rights away from them.

There must be limits placed on our actions. In order for a fair and just system to exist on our world, some of our personal freedoms must be limited. Our purpose for living is not to impose our selfish wishes onto others and therefore deprive them of important freedoms. We were not placed here on this earth to grab all we can and leave nothing left for others. We were created to care for and love other people as well as ourselves. No one can live in a vacuum. We need each other, and therefore we must learn to limit our actions.

God Bless You,

Pastor Bill

Pray for Our Church and Yours

Please Pray for our Church and Yours! We are struggling financiall, but God is good and we are hanging on. However, I know of two local churches that are in real trouble. Here is an article from USA Today on the struggles of the Christian Church.


Recession pain has hit widely and deeply among U.S. churches — driving down contributions and limiting budgets, according to surveys from two groups specializing in Christian research. Meanwhile, pleas for assistance rose sharply in 2009.


Although pastor Rick Warren, a best-selling author, raised $2.5 million with a New Year's Eve appeal when the budget for his Saddleback Church came up $900,000 short, few pastors have his fame or his affluent Southern California base.

A national survey of 1,002 Protestant pastors in November by Nashville-based LifeWay Research found:

•28% reported raising less money than in 2008.
•57% said the poor economy was hurting their church.
•70% reported increased requests from people outside their congregation for assistance.
•43% budgeted more money to help more needy people.
•3% were considering closing down their churches.

"Churches have not yet entered the recovery," says LifeWay director Ed Stetzer. "Historically, they tend to recover financially when unemployment decreases, usually after the economy as a whole" recovers.

"Still, we have a mandate to help, even when giving is down," says Brady Boyd, senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where 10,000 people attend weekend worship.

New Life dealt with a 13% drop in offerings in 2009 by cutting 25 staff positions through layoffs and attrition, ramping up use of volunteers, and relying on special appeals such as a Christmas collection to help struggling military families nearby to buy food.

"I'm proud that our people rallied and we do as much or more in ministry than we did before," Boyd says.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-01-14-churchmoney14_ST_N.htm

Food for Friends

The Food For Friends weekly soup kitchen at Second Presbyterian Church of Rahway was started in February, 1991. The soup kitchen serves a hot meal to 65-130 people every Saturday, beginning at 12 noon. Six teams of volunteers operate the kitchen. Each team shops for, and prepares, lunch once every six weeks. Lunch consists of meat, vegetable and/or salad, a starch, dessert and coffee, iced tea with fresh or canned fruit.

The food distribution operates on a monthly basis, the last full week of the month, usually the third week. Over 200 bags of food, packed and distributed by volunteers, are given out according to the number of people in any given family. The bags contain proteins, soups, vegetables, fruit, starches, dry milk and various other items.

Holiday programs include a traditional Thanksgiving Day Dinner with all the trimmings, a Christmas breakfast complete with gifts from Santa on Christmas morning and a visit from the Easter Bunny over Easter weekend.

To Learn More;

http://www.rahwayfoodforfriends.com/index.html

Did You Say Something? I Wasn’t Listening

 
I got into trouble when I sent my wife on a fools errand. She went to pick up my son at his friends house, about 20 miles from here. And wouldn’t you know, right after she left he comes walking up the drive way. Our friend Adele said that she told me she was going to drop Edward off at our house. And so I knew I was in deep trouble. How can I have forgotten such a crucial piece of information?

I tried to remember what Adele said to me and when she said it. I thought about pleading ignorance and claiming that she didn’t tell me. The only problem with this strategy is that I do remember her telling me. But I wasn’t really listening. I was thinking of something else at the same time she was speaking to me. And so I remember hearing her, but I also remember other things going on in my mind as well. If I had paid more attention to what she was saying and focused on how important it would become, I wouldn’t have been sweating it out as I waited for my wife to return. And the things that were distracting me weren’t important anyway. I have to remember to stay focused. It is really important to listen to people. That way I won’t get killed by my wife.

The skill of listening to people is very important. It means disciplining our minds to really pay attention, and not letting our thoughts wander. When we’re talking to someone, we need to zoom in on our friend’s words, look into her eyes, and understand everything she is saying. This takes practice and self-discipline. I think about how often I have allowed my thoughts to wander onto the football game that is being played on the television, instead of listening to what my wife is saying. I’m sure she senses that my mind is drifting, but she puts up with me anyway. But I would understand if she became angry with me. Let’s face it, when we open our mouths we all feel we have something important to say. And when people ignore us, it gets frustrating. So when I feel that someone is paying no attention whatsoever to my words, I just want to walk away and do something else. Learning to focus on what other people are saying communicates that we care to the person who is speaking.

And that’s what this is all about - building up our friends. We care about so many people. We care about our friends, our neighbors, and our relatives. Most of us care about the people around us and so we want to help them feel good about themselves. No one feels good when being ignored. So that’s why it’s so important to listen. But there are other ways in which people communicate their thoughts and feelings.

I love to look at the birds of prey migrate over the Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary in PA. Every year thousands of different raptors - hawks, falcons, kites, Osprey’s and Eagles - fly over the mountain on their way south. And on the mountain thousands of bird enthusiasts stand and sit on rocks with their necks craned upward to look at the birds as they fly over. Among the throngs of people sitting on rocks are the expert bird watchers that count the flying travelers in order to monitor bird populations. A bird flies over and the expert says it’s a Coopers Hawk. Another bird flies over and he says it’s a Northern Goshawk. I can’t tell the difference. Even when I look in the bird book, they look almost identical. How can these people looking through binoculars at a bird a mile away tell the difference between them? Because day in and day out they watch the birds and they learn to recognize the subtle differences that make them unique.

In the same way it is important for us to love our friends by learning to recognize the subtle ways they communicate. We don’t always say what we mean. We don’t always express our thoughts. But you know the old expression; he wears his thoughts on his sleeve. It is impossible for me to hide my mood. It’s as plain as the nose on my face. And my wife definitely knows if I am angry just by looking at me. I make it obvious that I am mad or upset. But I drop other more subtle hints about my mood because I’m not so sure I want to talk about it. My family and friends have learned over the years to recognize my mood swings. When we care enough about each other we can learn to pay attention and understand the unspoken communication in the body language of our friends.

Paying attention to the details of a person’s life validates them. My wife comes home from work and talks about what she did during the day. She used to work in the Food Industry surrounded by chemicals all day. She would come home and talk about the product she was working on or the smelly chemicals she was working with. She didn’t have to tell me about them because I could smell them. I had no clue what she is talking about because chemistry was my worst subject in grade school, along with English (and now I am writing a book, go figure.) But just listening to her talking makes her feel good. And as long as I am really paying attention to her and not letting my mind drift off onto other things, I let her know that she is important to me. I believe this is part of the reason our marriage is so wonderful.

The people we love need to feel important. And it is not that hard to help them to feel good about themselves. It doesn’t make us feel too bad either. We just need to pay close attention to what they say and do. Our faces and bodies tell others how we feel. Our words tell others what is going on inside. We communicate our emotions even when we want to conceal them. I believe that all of us can understand each other better. I know that it is possible to be more caring of others. The trick is to understand people by paying close attention to their words and deeds. A good person listens to her friends.

Peace,

Pastor Bill

Bible Talks About the Expansion of Space

Long before the famous scientist Stephen Hawking gazed out into space and decided to be a physicist, we Christians knew. In fact, long before Einstein or Hubble or any of the giants of modern science even for a minute considered that the universe around us is expanding, people who studied the Bible knew. That’s right; the theory of the expanding universe is mentioned in the Bible, in texts that were written over 2,000 years ago.

Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity hinted at the expansion. But it wasn't until the astronomer Edwin Hubble took the light of distant galaxies and ran it through a spectrograph that he realized that the light rays were being stretched out. This stretching shifts the light towards the red end of the spectrum. Measuring this shift told him that the galaxies were moving away from us; in fact they were moving faster than the speed of light. The only explanation for this was an expanding universe. The laws of physics still work because light moves at a consistent rate, but light must travel more distance. The changing sound of a receding train is a good example of this principle.

Psalm 104:2 says; He (God) wraps Himself in light as with a garment, He stretches out the heavens like a tent.

There are ten other Old Testament passages like this one. In Biblical times tents were made from cotton or animal hides. Both can be stretched. God is seen by the writers as creating the heavens by expanding them to make room for God’s purposes. God stretches the fabric of heaven just enough to fill it with all of His creations.

And it’s a good thing that God’s universe is expanding. The early universe was so full of high energy materials, what we call radiation, that life as we know it could not have survived the constant radioactive bombardment. But as the heavens stretched out, the radiation stretched out with it decreasing the amount of high energy material that strikes us. God stretched out the tent of the sky just enough to make a safe place for us to live.

Thus the concept, though not the theory, has been sitting in the Biblical texts waiting for twentieth century people to apply them to science.

God bless you,

Pastor Bill

The Creation of Life

The debate over creation and evolution rages on. But I would like to know a more fundamental question. How tough is it to create life from the primordial ooze? Does modern science have an inkling of how it happened? And if it does, can it be duplicated? Well, I hope this little article can answer some of these questions for you.


All of my information, including all of the quotes will be from the book; A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. Now, Mr. Bryson is not a scientist, but this book is well researched, and I have gathered much of the same information from other sources. If any of the following interests you, I recommend reading his book. It is really informative and well written.

In 1953, graduate student Stanley Miller and his supervisor, Harold Urey created amino acids in a test tube. They declared amino acids to be the “building blocks of life” and everyone just assumed that it would be a short while before someone created life in a bottle. Not quite. Miller and Urey did not successfully duplicate earth’s early atmosphere. Later experiments using a more accurate mixture of gases, “has so far produced only one fairly primitive amino acid”. However, creating amino acids is not what we need to create life. We need to produce proteins.

“Proteins are what you get when you string amino acids together, and we need a lot of them”. For example, collagen is a common protein. To create it we would “need to arrange 1,055 amino acids in precisely the right sequence”. But, of course, we didn’t create proteins in the first place. They created themselves, spontaneously, without direction. “The chances of a 1,055 sequence molecule like collagen spontaneously self-assembling are, frankly, nil”.

That’s just one protein. “We are talking about several hundred thousand types of protein, perhaps a million, each unique and each, as far as we know, vital to the maintenance of a sound and happy you”. And to make it more complicated, each protein folds itself into a specific shape. “Even having achieved this structural complexity, a protein is no good to you if it can’t reproduce itself, and proteins can’t. For this you need DNA”. DNA can copy itself instantly but it can’t do anything else. “Proteins can’t exist without DNA, and DNA has no purpose without proteins”. How could both come into existence at the same time?

Not done yet. “DNA, proteins, and the other components of life couldn’t prosper without some sort of membrane to contain them”. All life needs “the nurturing refuge of a cell”. Without the cell, it’s all just a random collection of chemicals. “As the physicist Paul Davies puts it; If everything needs everything else, how did the community of molecules ever arise in the first place?” How indeed?

Now, my answer to that big question is, God. I believe God is the component that is required to solve the above problems. However, science will continue to delve into these mysteries in its own way. But there are other wonderful mysteries in our world and I will write about some of those, next weekend.

Peace,

Pastor Bill

American Idol Jason Castro Talks About His Faith in Jesus Christ

The Right Time to Give Advice

If you are a friend it is natural to want to give advice now and again. And I think that a little friendly advice is a good thing. However, not all of our advice is well received. Have you ever had your good-natured advice thrown back in your face? I certainly have. So are there any guidelines for us to follow concerning advice giving? I believe a little common sense mixed together with experience can help us with this question.

I hate asking for directions when I am lost. Is that so like a man, or what? I figure that I should be able to navigate my way around the world without anyone else’s help. So what is wrong with that? What is wrong is when I fail miserably in this endeavor. When I am helplessly lost, my wonderfully helpful wife comes to the rescue. She says, “Bill why don’t you pull into this gas station and ask for help?” Wise advice considering we have been driving around in circles for an hour or more. Now, how do I respond to this advice? With a pleasant “thank you honey”? And then wisely turn into the gas station? Of course not. I say, “I know what I am doing. I don’t need your help.” And I keep driving in circles. I am sure that some learned person has a rational theory for why I respond in this way, but I don’t care. All I know is that I don’t want Betsy’s or anyone else’s advice when I am driving. So stop aggravating me.

People don’t always appreciate advice. Sometimes we don’t want to be helped; we want to do it ourselves. Sometimes we don’t want to be told what to do. Sometimes we are so mad at whatever is going wrong, we just don't want to hear anything from anyone. So I realized that there must be a trick to offering advice to people. So I thought about the times when I am grateful for the advice I am given. And the answer was simple. I accept it when I ask for it. I usually get mad when I am offered unsolicited advice. But when I need help and ask for it, no problem. So it makes sense to me to wait for my opportunities to give advice. I try to withhold my opinion until someone asks for it. I don’t see the point of giving something if there is no one to receive it. When people need help they will ask for it. I just wait for the question to come.

Around and around I drive until my wife makes me stop and car and she asks for help. She would be better off if she waited until I became so frustrated that I give up my stubbornness and grudgingly ask for help. Maybe some day she will learn the right time to give advice, and maybe I will learn to take it.

Peace,
Pastor Bill

NYTS President speaks out about BP oil spill

The Rev. Dr. Dale Irvin comments about the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Irvin is president of the New York Theological Seminary, in New York City.

Youth Sunday 2010

Here are some pictures from Youth Sunday at FBC Rahway, June 13th.

Comet McNaught a Wonder from God

Saw a pretty bright comet this morning at 3:30 AM with my good friend Helder. We brought several telescopes and gazed with wonder at this amazing sight. God's creation is truly wonderous! Since I started gazing into the night sky, I am awed by what I have seen. The heavens really are telling the Glory of God! This picture is from an astronomy web site that I am a member of. Enjoy.

Kids for Christ 2010

Over 200 people attended Kids for Christ at FBC Rahway on Saturday, June 5th. A truly blessed event. Thank you everyone who made it possible.

Being Sensitive to the Needs of Others

We ran into money problems again. After all of the times my family and I have been short of cash, you would think that I would know not to get too upset. We have always solved our cash problems before. Money comes and money goes. I usually figure out what bills to pay and what to hold off on paying. Then after a while the money shows up and everything goes back to normal. But every time this happens, I just can’t help getting upset. And the emotional turmoil is clearly stamped on my face. I usually develop a grim look and start barking at my family. It’s as if I broke out in measles, the little red spots telling everyone around me that something is wrong.

What normally happens is I look at the check register and see something strange in it. As the checkbook balance goes down I get more and more agitated. And then, checks to companies I don’t recognize. Checks for things that are way outside of the budget. For example, there was a check written to Pet Smart the local pet supply store. This normally wouldn’t get me aggravated except for the fact that the check is a lot higher than I would think kitty treats should cost. A lot higher. Like the difference between the cost of a used Yugo and a new Porsche.

So the conversation with my wife usually goes like this.
“What did you buy at Pet Smart?”
My wife answers, “The cats needed food, kitty litter and I got them a couple of treats.”
“Are the cats going to pay the bill for all of this stuff?”
“You know I have to buy these things for the cats.”
“Maybe we should look into replacing them with pet rocks. The maintenance would be less, and they wouldn’t wake us up at night.”

Not appreciating my sarcasm, Betsy leaves in a huff. And I am left stewing about expenses above and beyond the budget. The expression on my face now changes into something more like Frankenstein with a toothache. Not a pretty sight.

And so it should be of no surprise to me when my son picks up on my problem. He takes one look at my face and can tell something is wrong. Eddie is a good kid. He looks after his parents. He looks into my face and without hesitating asks me what is the matter. I appreciate his asking, though I usually say that nothing is wrong and try to change the subject. My oldest son is very sensitive to the feelings and emotions of his parents. He reads us very well, not just by looking at our faces, but also by checking out our body language and listening to the tone of our voices. Eddie and his brother and sister are sensitive enough to pick up the signals their mom and dad send.

The question I ask is, can I do the same thing? Can I be as sensitive to the needs of the people around me as my children are to my emotional ups and downs? I ask this question because I think it is extremely important for me to know and understand the people around me. I want to be able to read the signs that someone is in trouble. I want to be able to spot the cry for help without a word being exchanged. Jesus said that God knows what we need even before we have asked. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know the needs of my wife or my kids without their having to ask? I know that I am asking for a lot here. But how much more supportive a relationship we all would have if we could only be able to read the silent communication of the people around us.

Now I don’t really want my son to know that there are bills that we are having trouble paying. I don’t want him to be concerned about this. He is too young to be worrying about money. And I just don’t want to deal with the embarrassment of talking about this subject. But, strangely enough, I am glad he noticed. I feel good when my son comes up to me and asks me if there is anything that he can do. It feels good when people see that something is bothering me and take some time to respond to it. Showing concern for others is an important part of life. And I hope that I will show that I care for the people around me each and every day.

Just Show Up

Every time I walk into this Nursing Home I can’t believe how terrible is smells. The place looks clean, but it smells like an outhouse. Thank God my parishioner is outside smoking. I don’t like the smoking part but the atmosphere outside is healthier than inside. I’m a pastor and once a month I just sort of, show up. Sometimes I am expected, and sometimes I appear out of the either. Sometimes my parishioner greets me with a warm smile and sometimes I get the distinct feeling my presence is not appreciated. Either way, I regularly hop onto my proverbial pony and ride the circuit to visit my parishioners. Its wonderful work, if sometimes smelly, and a great blessing for myself and my people.

Accepting People
I walked into the house and there were stacks of newspapers everywhere. It was like walking down a Home Depot isle with boxes on the storage shelves stretching high into the sky. There was a path that wound between the stacks of pulped and reformed trees. The path led to a chair for me and one for her. We sat and talked about this and that, surrounded by the stories that enfolded her life. In between the pages were murders, wars, the ups and downs of the stock market. Stacks and stacks of cartoons, obituaries and, pre-owned certified hardly used cars for sale. Here was the history of the local civilized world my friend and I lived in. And here it was slowly turning yellow, along with its caretaker. I tried not to let the newspapers distract me too much. Instead, with all of the people I visit I try and focus on them. In every home there are items that draw my attention. We all have some quirky things in our private spaces. So my job is to focus on the person and accept everything about my friend and her living space even if it includes a few old newspapers.

The Steelers just scored a touchdown. Our conversation about the comings and goings of her grandchildren paused for a brief moment while we took in the celebrations. This lovely older woman always had football on when I came calling on Sunday afternoons. We would talk while the running backs dodged and weaved on the field of dreams. Since we lived in Pennsylvania the game was always either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Crowds bundled up against the cold while we sat in our warm and comfortable chairs. I think she would have loved to go to one of those freezing games, but she needed a special chair that lifted her into a standing position as well as a chair lift to get up the stairs. We sat and talked, and every once in a while cheered. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon despite the games obvious distractions. It never crossed my mind to ask if she would turn off the game. I didn’t mind if the game interrupted us every so often. I adjusted my comfort level to hers and we were both fine. Watching a football game while visiting with someone is a bonus.

Honoring the Past
He jumped out of his burning bomber over Denmark. When he landed he broke his leg. I thought parachutes were supposed to prevent that kind of thing. Local people turned him over to the Germans. Another myth, the locals were on our side, shot to pieces. My parishioner spent a freezing/starving year in a German prison camp. Then they kicked him out and sent him on a bizarre journey. As the war neared its end the Germans cleared out their prisoner of war camps and sent all of the prisoners away from the front. The fact that they were surrounded and there was no place to go didn’t matter. After hearing this story I took a history book out of the library that documented this strange episode. At the end of World War II hundreds of thousands of people were wandering across Europe trying to survive. My parishioner walked with his comrades across Germany. They begged for food from locals. They slept outside in the winter. They stayed a night in a functioning concentration camp. They ended up in a forest against a river they couldn’t cross. They made huts out of tree branches. He still had pictures of his home in the woods. Finally they were rescued by the US Army. An amazing and hair raising tail that I will never forget. His story along with many others has helped me to better understand and honor war veterans. Not having lived through these experiences, the next best thing is to sit and listen to the epic stories they have to tell.

Her eyesight deteriorating, she talked to me about what her eyes had seen through many long years. We talked about Scranton and the surrounding area. She related all of the changes that had happened and all of the people who had come and gone throughout her life. On the wall there was a picture that caught my ever curious eye. It was a picture of President and Mrs. Clinton, autographed in gold ink. I asked about it and was surprised by the answer. My friend was Mrs. Clinton’s nanny when she visited her relatives in Scranton. Hillary Clinton spent many of her childhood summers in our lovely valley. When they entered the White House they sent the picture to this old friend who had seen so much in her long life. My friend’s eyes had seen this young woman growing up, and now she saw through the eyes of her memories.

Being There
I visited him every month for years at the VA Hospital. Alzheimer’s was very advanced and he didn’t know who I was, or where he was, or whether I was there or not. I said hello and talked about people he knew at church. I hoped I would get a response if I mentioned familiar things. At first this worked but over time the responses disappeared. So I talked as long as I could think of things to say, one way conversations are very difficult. When I got ready to go I left a business card with a note and date on it. I did this for the family. There were always new photos on the wall so I knew that they came and visited too. They needed to know that someone cared for this man who sat day after day and just existed. Everyone needs someone who cares.

Two in the morning we were in the hospital chapel. We prayed some and spent the rest of the waiting period talking about whatever came into our minds. His wife was having an emergency operation. She had been seriously ill for months. When I got the call I figured I was going to be doing a funeral. I’m happy to say that she recovered from this terrible illness. That night though, we had no idea what was to come. So we sat and talked and prayed. It didn’t matter what we talked about. What mattered to my friend was that someone was there.

So, Just Show Up
An old pastor once told me that most of ministry was just showing up. I’ve tried a lot of things since that conversation. I have given away Bibles, knocked on doors like an insurance salesman, started programs, and Bible studies. Despite all of this, visiting people has always been the most successful of my efforts. And it’s so easy. I knock on the door; do a little bit of talking and a lot of listening. People need to be listened to. People need to know someone cares for them. People need to be honored. So that is what I do, and I hope you will too with your friends and relatives. It’s great work if you can find it.

Prayer Conference Call

Prayer Conference Every Tuesday Night. 218-862-7200, Code 484632. Call in anytime between 8 and 9PM if you have a prayer concern.