water4christmas

Some of you have heard this idea from already, but if not, some of us have had the idea of not buying or receiving gifts for Christmas this year and instead giving the money we would have spent on presents to organizations that provide sustainable clean drinking water where there is currently no clean water. Wells can be built in Africa for 1-15 grand depending on the soil and other such stuff according to one websight I found. The dream is to start a group of us who will encourage as many people as possible to join with us in doing this. If we get 500 people to do this we could raise upwards of $100,000 grand. We plan on spreading the word through a websight, emails, blogs, word of mouth, student groups on various college campuses, the Ellen DeGeneres show, and any other way we can figure out. We figure our overhead costs will only be about a hundred dollars (the cost of a good websight for one year).

I plan on this being a positive campaign, which means everything about this will be about how we can raise money to help people in a very basic need of life and not about attacking the consumerism of Christmas, thought this very well may do that indirectly.

If you want to be a part of the team that organizes this, we will be having our first meeting in the Prince Student Union on the campus of MVNU on Saturday March 10th at 10 AM. Feel free to invite others that you know might want to be a part of this.

The end goal is simply to provide sustainable clean drinking water for as many people as we can. To do this we will most likely work through faith based groups and secular groups (I say that upfront so that there are no misunderstandings later). If you are going to come, try to do a bit of research and brings some organizations info with you to the meeting.

If you have any questions email me at peterkevinson@yahoo.com or call me at 740 392 3197.

Out tentative name for everything is water4christmas.

Welcome to Italy

I can't believe I have another kid! It almost seemed a little bit too easy this time, as Mandy says speak for yourself. I think I really like Italy, though I have grown to like Holland.

feeling loved

Last night Mandy and I went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday and kind of a last date by ourselves before the new baby comes. I choose the Alcove which is a fancy but very reasonably priced restraunt in downtown Mount Vernon. While we were eating another Nazarene Pastor (hint: think of the biggest Nazarene church in town) and his wife came in to eat, I think they were on a date as well. He came over and said "Hi" and we chated for a second, but they sat on the other side of the resturaunt so we didn't think about them until our check arrived. Actually, our check never arrived because, in the words of our waitress, someone else had already picked it up. We left that night, after thanking them first, feeling so loved. They loved us last night and showed it to us in a very real way. I hope people feel that loved because of my actions.

Link

Read Lucy's post "Great Article" to see something I am very passionate about.

American Idol

Has American Idol gone over the top this season with how they bring people who seem to have real disabilities on to their show just to make fun of them?

Petra Rocks!!!

Mandy got me a two disk Petra greatest hits collection for Christmas. Definitely one of the best presents I’ve gotten in a long time. I’ve been a big Petra fan ever since I saw their Beyond Belief tour when I was a freshman in High School, which was such a great concert. I’m a not the biggest fan of much that came after, but albums such as This Means War, Beyond Belief, Fired Up, and Petra Phonics will always be some of my all time favorites. What’s cool about the CD’s Mandy gave me is that they have songs I don’t know I’ve ever heard before, so I’ve quickly fell in love with Grave Robber and God Gave Rock and Roll to You (I sing it every where I go and everybody’s getting sick of hearing it.)

Then this last week my good friend Dee brought by a record player, so I could listen to her Petra’s Beat the System live album. Lucy and I jammed too it all morning, though I’m not sure she’s a big fan yet.

Did I mention I met Louie Weaver (Petra’s drummer) in an elevator of a hotel I was staying in while I was in Phoenix after my senior year in High School? He didn’t talk much, I think I scared him.

REVOLUTION

I just read Revolution by Barna, totally inspired me. I need feedback, does anyone have any comments on the book. If you haven't read it yet, read it, and then give me so feedback.

Found on the free book shelf at MVNU library

"The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey

Is it wrong to read to just ridicule what you are reading?

Dr. Cubie

So I'm at the MVNU library trying to do some research on Job for some sermons I'm preaching out of the book and I look up and there's Dr. Cubie coming in. He was there to read some NT Wright in preperation for a class he's teaching on Romans. He said he heard a lot about the guy and wanted to hear for himself what he had to say about Romans (New Interpreters Bible Commentary).

So we started talking about my sermon for this Sunday (the last few chapters of Job) and he gave me a heartfelt commentary on the whole book and the chapters I needed. I got more out of that commentary in just a few minutes then the ones I've spent hours reading. I like Dr. Cubie, he's a good guy.

Ouch!

Just got done playing in our first softball games of the men's fall league here in Mt. Vernon. Let's just say it was ugly, real ugly.

Simple, never easy

I've been struck lately with Shane Claiborn'e quote "simple, never easy." To reach out and love someone is almost always simple, but rarely easy. What really gets me about it is I'm always trying to figure out how our church is suppossed to love our neighborhood and how we are to be involved in it, in fact I'm always trying to figure out how I'm personally suppossed to love and be involved in our neighborhood. I always lack creative ways, saying it's very complicated in our context to love our neighbors. That's a bunch of BS and I know it. What we need to do is very simple, but I know it is hard, so I make it complicated so I have an excuse not to do it.

Last night three neighborhood teens stopped by while some of our neighbors were celebrating national roast a marshmellow night over a fire in my backyard. They sat down with us and enjoyed the fire for a few minutes. I asked them if they would be interested in hanging out once a week with me, occasionally sharing a meal, and talking about the Bible, God, and life. They all seemed so interested and they all said they would do it. Loving these kids is so simple, yet I know how hard it is. I pray I can simply love them.

Go Bucks!

Just in case anybody ever has OSU football tickets for a game this season and is not able to go and they can't figure out who to give them to I want to volunteer me and my wife to use them for you. (Hey, it's worth a shot)

being Christian

I’m so committed to having our church be a church where our number #1 outreach strategy and evangelism strategy is living Christian lives. That sounds pretty and all, but I wonder if it is a cop out to avoid the work necessary to invite others to follow Christ with us. I think it is a balance, I think it involves intentionality, and I think it actually involves planning. I struggle to understand it all. Any thoughts?

Capitalism?

I'm having a discussion with a friend about capitalism and I need to know what is wrong or right about capitalism from a Christian perspective. Also, who is a good definition of capitalism that is serious and not sarcastic? Any help would be appreciated.

Saw on a Church sign today

Get R Done For God

Test

This is only a test...

Old emails...

I was going through emails from last June and read a bunch that came shortly after Lucy was born... I haven't cried like this in a while. Those were some of the scariest days of my life. I don't think I knew which end was up. Even though I wish my daughter never had to have down's syndrome I can honestly say I love her completely the way she is and I wouldn't want her any different. I know that doesn't make sense, but it does in my mind.

I can't imagine ever loving someone as much as her, which is really weird considering we just found out Mandy is expecting. They say the due date in Feb. 6th. We are really excited, yet a bit scared. They say we have a 1 in a hundred shot of having another child with down's. Our doctor is going to get us a level 2 ultrasound at OSU this fall to help with our nerves, but even if everything is ok I'm sure we'll be scared until we get to hold our new baby in our arms.

God's been so good to us this last year and we have no reason to doubt He won't continue to do so in these next seven months and beyond.

A Sermon

I never post my sermons here, I guess I just felt like they didn't belong here. Well, I think the one I just preached might belong here for some strange reason. So below is the sermon preached at West Side today.

For the record: Our mission statement is “to be a neighborhood church that works with God to serve our neighborhood, the West Side of Mount Vernon.” The West Side of Mount Vernon is everything West of Sandusky Street to the Kokosing River on the East and South and to Rolls Royce on the North.
I want to start off this morning by reading a verse that has always been very important to me these last seven years I have lived in this neighborhood. It is found in John 1:14 and it says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Who would like to pray for us this morning?
This verse is very important to me because it is where, in large part, where we get the doctrine of the incarnation. I realize “incarnation” is a big word, but in all reality it’s not all that confusing. To incarnate something is to make something a part of something. Like if you are making brownies from a mix you would incarnate eggs into the mix. So incarnation is a big word for a simple idea.
In the verse I read it talks about how Jesus incarnated Himself into this world. Jesus was the Word and He became flesh and blood and He made His dwelling among us. The word dwelling literally means to pitch a tent. So Jesus literally pitched His tent among us. And that is one of the most beautiful images I know of in the Bible outside of the cross. That Jesus would literally leave Heaven, become a man, and pitch His tent in our neighborhood, in the midst of our lives. So when Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago He incarnated Himself and became the incarnate Word of God. Does everybody understand that concept?
It’s important to understand that concept because that is what we want to be about at West Side Church of the Nazarene. As Jesus incarnated Himself to show the love of God to our world 2000 years ago we truly believe that we are to be about incarnational ministry as well. Our church was started here almost three years ago because that is what we believed in. We believed that we needed to be with people we were trying to reach with the love of Christ. We believed we needed to follow the example of Christ and incarnate ourselves in this neighborhood.
I looked through some of my old files that I have saved on those small disks we used to use at what time and I found some interesting quotes relating to this. The first couple quotes come from informational packets I gave to people and families from other churches who thought they might want to be a part of the team that started this church.
A part of that packet included our Core convictions, one of them said, “Our focus is incarnational, meaning that we identify with and live life among the people of the West Side.”
Another part of that packet included our dreams, one of them said, “We desire to be so involved and such a part of the West Side neighborhood that we would be considered their church, or one of their churches, even by those who do not go to any church.” Another one of our dreams said, “We Desire to have every member of Jubilee involved in ministry that reaches out into the neighborhood. Whether it is an official ministry of the church, or not, is unimportant.” And another selected dream statement of the many we had said, “We dream of a neighborhood transformed in every way by the love of Christ working through His people who are in love with Him.”
In that same packet I included our vision statement which was basically an ideal testimony that we would like to hear about five years down the road into our new church. The testimony I wrote came from an imaginary single parent with two kids. So this is basically how we dreamed we would reach and serve people with the love of Christ.
“My life is completely different than it was a year ago at this time. It all started when me and the boys moved into the West Side this past year and we were just dreading another move. We had hardly any help and it was just a really hard time in my life. But just when we started moving in a couple families from down the street came over and offered to help us move in out of the goodness of their heart. Then when we were done moving in another family from nearby brought dinner for us. What started out as a day that I was dreading turned out to be a wonderful day. That was just the start of a very weird month. I had a couple people stop by a few times to offer to pray for us, I thought it couldn’t hurt, so I let them pray for us. I told the people about my oldest boys reading problem and they got me to a tutoring program in the neighborhood community center. Then I would see all the people that had helped me gather once a week at house nearby, they were definitely weird people.
One day one of the families invited me and the boys over for dinner, so while there I asked them about the group that met together. They told me that they were like a Bible study group, but more. They told me that they studied the Bible together and prayed together, but they were also committed to taking care of each other as well as the neighbors that lived around them. Then that group was also apart of a larger church that met just a few blocks away. A few people who belonged to their church had even started the community center and tutoring program that my son goes to.
They asked me to go to church with them, I said “no”, but within a few weeks I was there. I loved it, the worship was wonderful, the people were all so caring and friendly, and the guy who spoke even kept me somewhat interested in what he had to say. If I wasn’t surprised enough that I liked it, go figure, my boys couldn’t wait to go back the next week. Within a month I gave my life to Jesus Christ and my life hasn’t been the same since.
About a month after that I joined the home group that took care of me when I first moved in and let me tell you they have been wonderful. They’ve not only taught me what it means to be a Christian, but they also have been the family to me that I’ve never had. And just last month I’ve started volunteering at the community center that people in the church run, I figured I needed to start giving back. It has been the most wonderful year of my life and I can’t wait for someone new to move in the neighborhood so I can help them move in.”
And then in a letter I wrote to our entire neighborhood introducing our church to the neighborhood written and put on every door about a week before we started I found this paragraph:
“One of the main goals of this church is to be a neighborhood church for the people and community in the West Side neighborhood of Mount Vernon. When we say we want to be a neighborhood church we mean that we want to be a part of this neighborhood in every aspect. Almost everything we do will be focused in and around this neighborhood. Most importantly we want to serve this neighborhood. I realize all of that is easy to say, but my prayer is that we would be able to live up to those goals."
I read all those quotes to make a point. We are here to reach and serve this neighborhood with the love of Christ. We didn’t start this church to be the fourth option for Nazarenes when picking a church to go to on Sunday morning. We didn’t start this church to be the next cool church in town. We started this church to reach and serve this neighborhood with the love of Christ.
And our plan to reach and serve this neighborhood had absolutely nothing to do with ministering from a distance. We wanted to be a part of this neighborhood in every way. To cast our lot with the people who live here. To actually live here and be known by our neighbors and to know our neighbors. To be a visible, tangible, touchable, ever present, representation of the Body of Christ. To be salt and light here in the West End. To be the city on a Hill that cannot be hidden.
To be honest I think we have lost that focus or at least I have. I think I have been more worried about growing a church on Sunday mornings, than a church that lives, breathes, and witnesses here seven days a week. I realized about two weeks ago that I was just content to have a big crowd sitting here on Sunday mornings filling the pews (or chairs?) and filling the offering plates. That would be ok if we thought the way we were going to reach this neighborhood was going to be by a Sunday morning service, but I don’t think we are going to have a chance doing it that way. We thought the only chance we had since before we ever started this church was to incarnate the Body of Christ into this neighborhood.
After Jesus incarnated Himself John tells us that they were able to see His glory and His grace and His truth and also that He was from the father. When we live here together in this neighborhood I wonder if our neighbors will then be able to see God’s glory as His body is present, if they will be able to feel His grace because we freely give it, if they will be able to understand His truth because we live it, and if they will know we belong to the Father because we act like His Children as we live together in His family.
When Mandy and I first toured all the Nazarene Churches recruiting people to come and help us we said we were going to make one of the requirements for membership in our church, whenever we started taking members and we still haven’t, that you either had to live in this neighborhood or be a part of it in a meaningful way at least once a week in addition to Sunday morning. And the emphasis was always supposed to be on moving into the neighborhood and the part about being involved in the neighborhood weekly was added for those people who really couldn’t move here. Those requirements, even though we haven’t taken members yet, has been so watered down by me over the years as I became happy to just have a growing congregation on Sunday mornings. I apologize to you for that. I apologize especially to those who have been coming here for a while now and never heard that we were committed to this way of reaching out and living life together. I apologize for not holding us to the vision I believe God gave us.
But that is who I believed we are called to be as West Side Church of the Nazarene. A church and a people that are incarnated in this neighborhood. And I realize we can all live in this neighborhood and still be as separate and distant as if we all drove forty five minutes to come to church here. We can all be so busy with life that we forget about each other and this neighborhood and just think that Sunday will be good enough. I don’t say that judgingly, because I know I have done that myself. So even if we all move in here we would have to realize that is just the first step.
I realize I am asking a lot when I say things like this because I know how much it can cost us. Nobody grows up dreaming that one day they will be able to live in the West End. We dream of comfort and luxury. But I also know the dreams of the Kingdom of God our so counter every dream this world puts in our head.
I invite you today to consider moving into the West End of Mount Vernon so that together we can reach and serve the people of this neighborhood with the love of Christ.

I haven't seen it yet, but I want to...

Review: "Who Killed the Electric Car?"by Ed Spivey Jr.SojoMail 6-29-2006 They say you're not paranoid if people are really out to get you. The same can hold true for conspiracy theorists who walk the earth in constant vigil against the dark collusion behind every thwarted effort for human good. Those twitchy bands of nervous nellies - their pockets stuffed with yellowed news clippings on the Kennedy assassination - are no doubt high-fiving the release of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" a documentary that, at least in this one case, proves them 100% correct. In 1992, after a billion dollars in research, General Motors produced 200 EVs, an all-electric vehicle that would comply with California's mandate that a zero-emissions car comprise up to 10% of the total fleet sold in that state. To those lucky few who were able to lease one, the car quickly became an object of love, smugness, and downright obsession. As promised, the car could travel at highway speeds for up to 100 miles on a single charge, more than enough for the average daily commute. The drivers reported nothing but passionate praise for their new rides, and environmentalists saw this as the first wave of a technology that would dramatically reduce air pollution and dependence on foreign oil. They were wrong. The movie is generous in its blame for the unconscionable demise of this miracle car, and aims its first barbs at a fickle driving public suspicious of anything new. It's bona fides for fairness thus established, the filmmakers quickly focus in on the real culprits: GM and the oil companies. If the film is to be believed (cue conspiracists), GM soon realized the EV would compete against its gas-fueled cars. Additionally, the company worried about dealers losing their primary profit centers - periodic maintenance and replacement parts that electric cars would never need. Servicing the EV meant occasionally rotating the tires and replenishing the windshield washer fluid. A car company that had for decades built planned obsolescence into its vehicles had inadvertently produced a car that owners might never need to replace. For their part, oil companies financed a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign against California's air quality regulations. Chevron purchased the patents of a superior battery that would have given the EV even more range, and then kept that technology from the marketplace. The pro-oil Bush administration weighed in by promoting hydrogen technology and then pressured a California regulatory agency to kill the zero emissions requirement in favor of this unproven fuel. In hopes of delaying the proven electric technology, other automobile manufacturers - including the now-green Honda and Toyota - hopped on the hydrogen promotional bandwagon despite the fact that production and infrastructure is decades away, if not a complete pipe dream. Eventually, GM recalled all 200 of its electric cars and crushed them, sometimes within view of their heartbroken owners, many of whom were arrested for attempting to block the action. An aerial view of dozens of flattened EVs in a desert storage area bears mute condemnation of the corporations that purposely kept an innovative and environmentally conscientious technology from reaching the public. "Who Killed the Electric Car" ends on a hopeful note of grassroots activism and ingenuity, and portends that green technology will eventually win out. But this feel-good finale does little for the melancholy the viewer feels after watching this eloquent and sad eulogy to the little car that could have.

My two favorite girls!

 

Another post

Done with seminary, graduated last Saturday. Today's is Mandy's last day of teaching, she's only teaching half time next year. I just read something written about me by someone who doesn't know me very well. People have to be careful doing stuff like that cause my head got so big it almost burst. I had to remember what our graduation speaker told us, "don't believe what people say about you." I think that is some good advice. I leave for Florida on Sunday for a week of vacation. When I come back I look forward to being something like a full time pastor. I really appreciated hof's post on focusing on bringing justice on the micro level and letting the macro level flow out of that. It was pretty interesting considering I just called Rep. Ney's office and asked him to vote for more money for Darfur. Hof said most people interested in social justice don't even know what the justice issues are in their own communities. At first I didn't even think I knew of any in my little town, but then I was able to think of a few. I hope I have the courage to fight for justice and not sell out. After reading Irresistable Revolution I really wanted to get arrested for some kind of social justice issue, but Mandy reminded me that is just a form of urban pride (but we live in rural america). I'm still thinking about joining the Christian Peacemaking Teams (www.cpt.org). Maybe a group of us could join together? I'm currently reading Resident Aliens (by Hauerwas and Willimon) right now, good stuff so far. I just can't help but thinking if we would actually realize we our only resident aliens it would help us live so much more faithfully. There's a bunch of sorta scattered, random thoughts for you.

Irresistable Revolution

I just finished Irrisistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Honestly one of the best books I have ever read. I've realized why I liked it so much today while I wrote my sermon for tomorrow. It gives the ability to imagine a new way of living life. We are so caught up with passages in Scripture about selling all you own, about believers considering none of their possessions their own, about turning the other cheek, and so many others that seem to only play with our minds. They play with our minds so much because they seem to be on to something so great, but they are so opposite the way our society teaches us to live. We can't even imagine living those passages out in 2006 America. But Shane and his friends in Philly seem to have really taken Jesus words seriously and have found a way to live out what they heard Jesus talking about. I'm not saying we all have to do it just like Shane, he would even say we don't. But after they read those hard passages they imagined another way so opposite our culture and they actually had the balls to live it out.

I've just started imagining a new way for us to follow Christ in the West End of Mount Vernon. Hopefully we'll have the balls to keep on imagining and dreaming together and to then see if our dreams can become reality.

Hospitality

The thing I like most about hospitality is when a guest in your house is in the shower of your only bathroom and you really got to urinate. What do I like about that you ask? Well, it gives me an excuse to go urinate outside under the stars.

I'm so happy!!!

I just walked out of my last class in seminary. I am done! Three long years are all done! Thank you God!

Update on my life...

-My last class at seminary is this Monday night, then I'm done. I can't tell you all how excited I am to be done.
-Mandy bought me a new gas grill as a graduation present. We fired it up last night and had a big cookout. I like cookouts.
-I'm reading irresistable revolution by Shane Claiborne of the Simple Way in Philly. It's making me think really hard and evaluate really hard right now. I think I'm gonna have our whole church read it so we can think really hard and evaluate really hard together, which will hopefully lead us to change the way we live together. I absolutely love the book, not because he has any new thoughts, but because he calls us prophetically to live the way we believe. And yes, I've already read Blue Like Jazz and loved it, but this book takes the discussion to a whole nother level.
-I am absolutely amazed by my daughter and so are her doctors and therapists. She shouldn't be doing as well as she is. I love her more every day. Her b-day in June 12th, but were celebrating it on June 4th, you are all invited to come. I'll post the party info on her blog within the next week.
-I've almost lost thirty bounds, this morning I weighed in at 223. If I can get down to 200 and keep it off for at least three months then Mandy and decided I could get a tatoo on my left forarm.

Seperated at Birth? (Thanks Ben)

Mark Palmer

Mark Palmer passed away last week. He was a church planter in Columbus, one in whom I had a deep respect for. The house he lived in was like a community house where three to four other people besides his family lived in and where their church gathered on a regular basis to be church. Their house is known as 64 King, it got that name from its address . I guess the best thing I can say about Mark is that I hope and have been hoping that when Lucy grows up she will be able to live in 64 King or a house like it. I see her being accepted there, being able to thrive there, being able to serve and be served there, seeing and experiencing the Kingdom there, and learning how to be a disciple there.

All you Landing Place people out there in blog land know that we will continue to hold you all up in prayer and we will stay in touch. Also know that we appreciate so much the love you have for our daughter. Who knows what the future holds, but maybe someday Lucy will join you all down there.

live from Israel

well i've ridden a camel, ate at mcdonalds, been in lots of caves, seen lots of tells, floated in the dead sea, walked on the sea of Galilee... make that rode in a boat on the sea of Galilee, saw the valley of Armegedan, saw an ancient fort that was amazing, prayed at the Western Wall, been on part of the via del a rosa, been to the Mount of Olives, been on Mount Carmel, seen where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, saw a shirt that said Super Jew, and have had a good, but very tiring time so far. Though I miss my wife and daughter terribly right now. If any of you see my wife or daughter tell her I love her and miss her very much.

Ugh!

Why is it that 12 hours after I decide to give up cookies and ice cream for lent the girl scout cookies I ordered over a month ago show up on my door step?

I leave for Israel in 12 days... James, sorry I haven't called you back yet.

House

Our church just looked at a house to buy. We would have a couple live in the upstairs and then use the downstairs for ministry/church/whatever space. It has a huge yard and that excites me. It's a big decision, but I think the church is leaning towards doing it.

Peace

As I sit in my peace class I am struck by how easy it is to hold a Christian pacifist position. It doesn’t cost me a thing. If my country goes to war and I am against the war shouldn’t I be required to somehow actively try to be a peacemaker? Shouldn’t I be required to do more than tell a few friends I’m against the war and occasionally say a prayer for peace? Shouldn’t I possibly join a Christian Peace Making Team and go to Iraq and work for peace in nonviolent ways? Oh hold on a second Kevin, you have a wife, a child, and a church. Yeah, but so do a lot of the soldiers fighting in Iraq? They believe in what they are doing enough that they will give years away from their families to go to Iraq. Do I really believe that nonviolence can bring peace or do I just believe that nonviolence is a fun, cool, and even trendy position to hold?

thoughts

Last week I preached on 1 Cor 7:29-31 which says in part, "those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not...For this world in its present form is passing away. " I said lots of things about this, probably even some pretty good stuff, but not what tugs at my heart when I read that.

I think about Lucy some nights and I cry. I really hurt for her. Yet when I read that passage I'm reminded that downs is only for this life, in heaven all our tears will be wiped away. Some times I think about Lucy and get real excited. I dream about her winning Little Miss Knox County at the Fair, about her lighting up our neighborhood with her smile, and about her dancing and singing on Broadway. Yet I know when I read this passage that even if all that takes place that is not where our hope lies and all that is nothing compared to our inheritance in heaven.

I try to keep this life in perspective. It's tough sometimes.

I might write a book

Today, as I was holding Lucy, a book idea came to my mind. Like an idea for me to write a book. Nothing huge, just a small book of theology for the average person. It would address how one should properly look at down syndrome and other birth defects (I'm not even sure if downs is technically a birth defect), specifically how do we see and understand God in the midst of having a child with downs.

I wouldn't want it to be a "our journey" type of book, though it would doubtless have some of that in there, but a book that really helps people understand God, especially in the midst of having a child with downs. One of the first chapters would be on the fall and how that plays a role in downs, and one of the last would be on heaven and everything being made new.

It won't get started on it tell I'm done with seminary this June, and for that matter it might not ever get started. I just want to tell the world what I think is a correct theology, and a correct theology is a lot better than this pop theology (God only gives angels like her to great parents like you) that sounds good at first, but causes a lot more problems latter on.

Question

Someone in my class said today, "All the beatitudes are impractical." He wasn't saying they aren't what we are supposed to do, just that they are impractical. I'm left wondering... Especially in light of my last post.

by the way I think I'm a pacifist.

Be successful and carry your cross?

We are so pragmatic. We want to do things to be successful. So we do things to help us be successful without much thought to what we should be doing. The cross wasn’t very pragmatic. Why do we do church in such a way that is only geared to being successful. Why can’t we do it in such a way that is geared towards being faithful?

We hear all this stuff about numbers, why not more about the marginalized. We hear all this stuff about numbers, why not more about justice. We hear all this stuff about numbers, why not more about loving your neighbor. If we care about the marginalized, fighting for justice, and loving our neighbor we might find ourselves on a cross and not in a large growing church. Yet we are people of the Resurrection and the gift of Pentecost; I wonder where that leads us?

Almost done...

I walked out of my house tonight to go to my weekend class at Ashland and I'm just tired. I want to go cause it's the class I've looked forward to the most at seminary (history and thought of the Christian Peace Position), but I'm just pooped. I want to be done with seminary, though at the same time I love it. I just keep thinking get through March and life will slow down a bit, well at least in my dream world it will...

Oh by the way, I go to Israel in March for one of my last classes. Ten day study tour with Dr. Byron and a bunch of good friends. Only bad thing is that I have to leave behind Mandy and Lucy. Not sure how I'm gonna handle that one just yet...

Well I went to see the monster trucks and I guess the bes t way you could describe it is to say it is a cross between the county fair (rough truck, demolition derby... kind of stuff) and a clean WWE. My little brother loved it, so it was worth it for me.

I went over to the MVNU gym today to walk with Lucy. I realized yesterday I never got beyond our front porch and that I had to get some exercise. I put Lucy in one of those carrying things that straps her to me and went walking. To be honest I felt a little weird as people probably wondered about me, but I really didn't care in the end. I didn't care so much I bought a chocolate muffin before I left at that little cafe thing they had there. I eat terrible and need to fix something quick. E Stetler you need to come up here and fix me with your healthy ways.

I love my daughter. I'm so proud of her and I find out more and more that I forget about here chromosones. I even catch myself dreaming big dreams for her future just like any parent would for their kid. Their probably a tad bit unrealistic, but then again, aren't most parents? I dream she'll sing and dance on Broadway someday. I thank God for her everyday.

I think God has healed her. Not in that she doesn't have downs anymore or that she won't have any problems associated with it, I just believe God has healed her. I can't even describe what I mean when I say that I just believe God has healed her. Thank you Father! 

Basement

I locked myself in my basement today. I had to take the door off the hinges to get out.

Strange Request

Tomorrow night (Friday 1/6) I'm taking my little brother from Big Brothers/Big Sisters to go see the Monster Trucks at Nationwide Arena. Now I'm not sure if anybody who reads this blog has any connections at Nationwide or in the Monster Truck Circuit, but it anybody does could you pull some strings for me and get us pit passes for tomorrow night? I could really care less about getting close to the big trucks, but I know my little would love it. I know that they have an open pit on Saturday afternoon, but we can't go that day. Any help would be appreciated. Call me 740 392 3197 or email me peterkevinson@yahoo.com with an info or help.

Another thing that confuses me...

It is very easy to idealize ministry in other places. Especially other places where the needs are so much greater (the inner city and Africa for example). We get frustrated with the people around us and want to go where the people really need us and somehow deserve our help unlike these ungreatful sinners all around us in our current location (anybody's current location and I'm not specifically talking about anybody in Mount Vernon).

Well, I read an article in last weeks Newsweek called "The Lessons Tulia Teaches." (December 19th, pg.44) Tulia is a town in Texas that had a big scandal because the local sherriff wrongly arrested 47 African Americans on drug charges and they all went to jail. Luckily people stood up for justice and the people were released from prison. One of the people who stood up for justice was a local pastor and it cost him his job. Listen to what he had to say "'I had always believed the truth shall set you free,' said Bean. 'In the end...it took a misrepresentation of the facts to get these people justice.' By that, he means that in order to fuel the crusade, he and his allies had to make the victims appear more innocent than they were an the town more eveil than it actually is."

I know the people I live with in the West End arefar from innocent. They have done plenty of stuff to get them in the messes they are in. That's why I want to go to Africa or the inner city where it's not there fault and the people deserve help. What I realize is that whever I go (and I don't want to leave Mount Vernon) I'm not going to find people who are innocent, who really deserve my help.

I heard a lot about that guy in California who just got executed. He was made out to be a saint. Even if he wasn't guilty of the specific murders he was charged with, the gang he started was responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of murders. He was far from innocent.

So what's my point in all of this? We are not called to help the innocent, cause there are none. We are called to get involved in people's lives who are messy and really don't deserve our help. We are called to stand up for the guy on death row, not because he is innocent, but because he was made in the image of God and though the image is distorted, we want to see it redeemed. We are called to love our neighbor who is grumpy and hates us, not because he deserves it, but because God loves him as much as he loves us. We are called to get involved in lives that are so completely messy by their own creation, not because they deserve it either, but because that is the way of the Word who became flesh.

When it comes down to it, I'm not innocent and I don't deserve God grace. Who am I to be the one who keeps God's grace from another. We need to stop looking for the innocent or the deserving to help. We just need to help those who need help.

Church

So today in our church service we had 19 people. The fewest amount of people we've had in a long time, but we knew it would be that small with the holidays and such. But everyone there was like family, all committed Christ followers. I didn't care we were so small, instead we adapted and did things that we can't do when we have a large crowd. I felt like we worshiped this morning. I felt like we were who we were suppossed to be as the people of God in the West End of Mount Vernon.

Yet on Sundays when we have lots of people (lots for us is 50-60) and non Christ followers present we do things different. We're not so bold to do things that the people of God do. For enstance today we gathered in a circle with held hands and people prayed as they felt led. If we had visitors there I would have felt reluctant to do some of that or other simular stuff at the risk of making them feel uncomfortable.

So my point in all of this is that I worry that I let visitors, especially the non Christian ones, dictate how we practice being the people of God. It causes me so much confusion because we all have such a strong desire to reach out into the lost world, but in doing that we have this tendency to lose sight of who we are to be as the people of God. Another example: a few weeks ago a neighbor came to church with us and during my "pastoral prayer" I was tempted to not be so radical or bold so I wouldn't make her think we were too radical in our faith. I shook off the temptation and prayed the way I needed to, but still the temptation was there. Reaching out to the world around us in part of what we need to be as the people of God, but it is not supposed to form who we are as the people of God. I'm confused.

Persecuted Church

I'm preaching on the Persecuted Church this Sunday. I got to spend about an hour working on it at the library this morning, but then I had to go home to watch Lucy. When Mandy got to school after I started watching her she called to say her Parent/Teacher conferences were starting an hour later than she thought so I could bring Lucy to her at school and I could spend more time at the library.

So when I made it back to the library I saw a student there who I knew spent the last two summers in an undiscosed country being a missionary. So I went and asked him about the persecuted church in the country he went to and he told me a ton, enough to make you cry on one hand and enough to make you beam with pride for our brothers and sisters in Christ
who are being faithful witnesses in very tough, to say the least, times.

As he was telling me his stories, I heard this guy talking behind me, and I thought that couldn't be Fletcher Tink. I turned around and sure enough it was. He's one of the top guys in the Nazarene church when it comes to Compassionate ministries. I introduced myself and told him what we are going to do Sunday and asked me if he could talk to me about the persecuted church and boy did he ever and I was left with the same impression I got from the student.

I say all of this not to point out how cool it was that God made things work in such a way that I got to hear two first hand accounts of the persecuted church. I say all of that because I think God wants us praying for the persecuted church. God didn't say I think I'll do something really cool for Kevin today, I think He said, "His brothers and sisters are being persecuted and he needs to hear about it so at the very least He can battle with them in prayer." Pray for the persecuted church today in these ways:
1. In the persecution they may hold firm.
2. Pray for the families left behind
3. When leaders are martyred, that Godly leaders will rise in their place.

Traditional church

With all of the talk of how bad the traditional church is (and a lot of it is justified) by a lot of my friends in the blog world I thought I needed to post something.
I went to my district office yesterday to drop some stuff off. When I pulled up the District Superintendents wife saw me and ran outside. She said you go in and take care of business while I sit in the car with Lucy. It was raining and cold and she didn't want me to have to take her out in that weather. She is so kind.
I go inside and my DS was there and he came out of his office to talk to me. He was so encouraging to me and our church. He kept telling me it is going to take all kinds of different churches doing all different kinds of things. He believes in me and our church.
Granted we aren't a radicaly different church than most, we probably look more traditional than I would like to admit at times, but he is encouraging us to be who we need to be, who God is calling us to be.
I like my DS a lot. Mandy and I call him P Dubya (that's short for Pastor Wilson). Sure he sees the church through different lenses than I do, but he allows me to keep using my lenses. On top of that Him and his wife love me and my family.

Some more thoughts

-I'm getting really good at praying out loud during church. I think today's was one of my best. I feel like Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount about praying out loud were directed towards me. I don't know how to fix it. Maybe pray more in my closet at home would be a start.
-I just read "Blue Like Jazz." Great book!
-My wife and my mom both read "Wild at Heart" and told me to read it, so I read the first three chapters and they asked what I thought and I told them i wanted a beer. I have the same thoughts after reading Blue Like Jazz. I don't drink, never had a beer before, yet these so called Christian books are corupting me. Don't worry, I have no plans to put down a cold one.
-So we had a guest speaker in church today. He asked us to open our Bibles with him and I realized I left mine on stage. I felt like a bad pastor at that moment, but then I looked behind me and saw Joe Noonen didn't have his and I looked in front of me and saw Alex Varughese didn't have his. But this little girl who has only been to church like three times had hers. She gave me a bit of hope today and not just because she had a Bible.
-Our church is having a Halloween outreach that I'm pumped about. These girls moved into our neighborhood for their senior year to be more involved in the neighborhood (cool enough in itself) and they are turning their back yard into the coolest Halloween stop in the neighborhood: smores, dunking for apples, lots of candy, games and other stuff. They are going to be light on a dark night. Though Halloween is already one of my favorite holidays of the year. What other holiday gets the whole neighborhood out of their houses doing something together? I wish we had halloween every month.
-Our church got Mandy and I a gift certificate to the Buxton Inn in Grandville. I love our church. Our church is a little unorganized and weird at times (it takes after me), but I love it so much. I wouldn't trade that group of people for anything.
-Blue Like Jazz has this story about a confessional booth that is so wonderful, that one story is worth the price of the book in my opinion.
-I hope I'm not trying to be trendy.

weird emotions

Well i found out yesterday that the building we were looking at buying for our church sold to someone else. Then I read about a church building a coffee shop and how my friend wasn't very happy about it. Then I read about the earthquake in Pakistan.

It makes me glad we didn't buy the building. But are we doing anything about the people in Pakistan now that we have funds to spare? I'm a little sick to my stomach and at the same time I'm ready to go my warm bed and go to sleep and forget about everything. Guilt is stupid, it just makes you send in a check and then forget all about it. I want a different lifestyle where guilt isn't a factor cause I'm living different. I can't even describe it right now. Cause you know next week there will be a another disaster and another check to write to avoid the guilt, but I want to live differently, to love differently, to already be living with empty pockets. At least I think I do. Guide us Father.

Some sorta random thoughts...

-Screw you down syndrome. You will not steal our joy.
-I read a study yesterday that said 80% of parents who found out their child had downs during their pregnancy had an abortion during the 1990’s at a certain hospital in Boston. That makes me cry.
-I realized this past weekend I won’t be able to beat up everybody who causes Lucy problems in life. For starters I’m nearly a pacifist, but the real reason is that I live in another Kingdom and I have to show that Kingdom to Lucy.
-I’m not really worried that much about what people will do to Lucy, I’m more worried about what they won’t do (i.e. invite her to sleepovers, giver her a chance, be her friend).
-Who is Iron and Wine?
-Lucy’s eyes penetrate my soul.
-I cry the most when I read articles or books that tell the story of parents finding out their child has downs shortly after birth. It just brings back so many emotions.
-Lucy means “bearer of light,” we couldn’t have picked a more perfect name for her.
-Can you believe Mike Redcay got married? I’m so happy for him, I like him so much!
-We live in reality and we are well aware of reality. Yet we live in hope and are full of hope.
-God is good.
-Sometimes I forget that Lucy has downs.
-downs does not define Lucy, nor does it define our family. (yet that seems to be all that I talk about.)
-When I dreams about Lucy’s future I dream that she becomes a dancer.
-Screw you down syndrome. You will not steal our joy.

Emergent?

I’m not a big fan of labels anymore. I used to be a big fan of the word emergent, as in the emergent church. But this weekend I went to a conference and I asked this church planter who was leading a seminar what he thought about the emergent church and he responded by talking about Willow Creek and Saddleback. Then my professor in class tonight was talking about a church she visited that billed itself as emergent all over it’s website, but in all reality it was a contemporary church that just happened to use art in its services.

I used to want to take our church down the road of the emergent church, not any more. I think there is something much deeper and radical we are called to.

Almost boy

So I just opened my back door to let my dog out. As he goes out he sees a squirrel who wasn’t paying too much attention to anything sitting on our back patio. So Hank, my dog, proceeds to chasing the squirrel. The squirrel jumps on to our chain link fence and runs along the top of it as Hank chases along side of it trying to grab him as they both run. The squirrel fell to Hanks side of the fence though not falling off the fence and Hank nearly got him, but then the squirrel got to the top again and kept running. As the squirrel ran along the top again it fell to the other side of the fence, but instead of just jumping to the ground and safety it jumps to the top of the fence and then verily jumps over Hank, who was jumping as well, to a large tree. It then went high into the tree to safety. Better luck next time Hank, it was a valiant effort!

Good Stuff

Jen Leonard wrote this on her blog:
God’s love is a mystery. It is spoken of in scripture as unfathomable, too wide and deep for us to understand. In Sunday School and Sunday Sermons, I was taught all about the richness of the love of God. About a creator God who made a covenant with His people, about a man named Jesus, the Son of God, who died on the cross for the sins of the world, the sins of His people. I was taught that His love was all I ever would need. That His love would change my life. It all seemed very cut and dry to me. God loved me so much and unconditionally that He sent His only Son to die for me. And that was the ultimate definition of love. But it does not seem all that simple to me anymore. Not so cut and dry. God’s love has become this unfathomable mystery to me.
But as of late this mystery has been being revealed to me in the beauty of community. A covenant love expressed in togetherness. In the last year of life I have experienced the love God expressed . . .
In the beauty of community.In following Jesus together in this life.In the acceptance of who we are as individuals.In the encouragement to be who we are in the body.In the freedom to broken . . . to be vulnerable . . . to simply be.In the knowledge that we create a safe place for each other.In the faith found in the hopelessness.In the perseverance in the midst of doubt and confusion and hurt.In the prayers we offer on each others behalf.In the laying of hands and the faith behind it.In the breaking of bread and passing of the cup.In the shared meals and laughter.In simply being present with each other.In the building of a history together.In the conversations and discussions that move us forward.In the moments where truth is spoken.In the family that has been formed by the blood.
Community has become one of God’s greatest expressions of His love to me. God’s love is present to me in the midst of my life because His community is present to me. God’s love is present and real to us, because we are real and present to each other.
A covenant love expressed in togetherness.

...in bed.

Me and Johnny Bravo went out to lunch today. We went to Hunan Garden and it was a most wonderful time, I think John's the best. Well when the fortune cookies came we said we'd say "in bed" directly after the end of the fortune. Here were the fortune's and you can add "in bed" for yourself at the end of each one.
-There are 365 days in a year, may all 365 of your dreams come true...
-To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun...

Good day...

-Ran in a 5k and did it under my goal. I ran it in about 31:20 (set your goals low enough...)
-Rode an escalator with a 13 year old boy today who had never ridden an escalator before.
-Ate lunch with that same boy at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cleveland and had a wonderful experience. While we were sitting waiting for our food the manager brought out someone else's food, but I thought it was ours and told the boy that so we both turned to look. The manager saw us look and she acted like it was ours and basically said just kidding and walked on by. When she came back again the boy I was with, in a joking manner, said "where's our food?" I was suprised he said it cause he is shy, but I think the managers good attitude opened him up to it. She looked at him and said, "come on" and took him back to the kitchen where she told him to tell the chef "to hurry up with my food or your fired!" He ended up being able to see the whole kitchen and help finish our meals. He then got to help bring them out to the table. What an unexpected joy he got today and what a one did I get watching him get it. The blessings of life!!!

Two Good Movies...

Mandy went out and rented us some movies to watch this weekend and I wasn't impressed with the titles she brought home: Because of Winn Dixie and Finding Neverland. I thought couldn't she get an action flick or possibly a commedy, but no, she brings home those two. But they turned out to be wonderful movies with beautiful stories that just warm your heart and make you want to dream and then live out your dreams.

The Kingdom of God

Is it now? Is it not yet? Is it both? This Kingdom of God thing intrigues me and leaves me hungering for what it may be both in the future, but also now in my present and in the world all around me.

In what is now my favorite blog, Chris Marshall talks an awful lot about it in ways that make me hunger to see it now, to participate in it now, and to invite others to join me in it.

I think in my preaching I'll be focusing on the Kingdom for a while, who knows? Two passages that have been on my mind this last day our Luke 10:8-9 ("When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'") and Luke 17:20-21 (Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Her it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you.")

Any thoughts on the Kingdom of God in general or as found in those passages in specific?

The hurricane

Just a guess, but I think what we are seeing in New Orleans right now might change the way America sees and treats our inner cities for years to come. On one hand we might see what is going on and build the wall between suburbia and inner city even higher. On the other hand we might realize that we need to do something about the conditions of our inner cities that breed things like we see on CNN. I don't expect the later to take place, but we're Kingdom people who live with hope and pray "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, in our inner cities as it is in Heaven."

a long year ahead

I need to preface this by saying how lucky I am to be a stay at home dad, a church planter, husband of a beautiful wife, and a seminary student on a full ride scholarship. I am blessed beyond what I can imagine with all that in my life. Actually I was going to complain about how I don't know how I'll be able to do any of that well with while having to do all of it. But I'm not going to complain cause I have absolutely no room, I am truly blessed.

But if you think about it say a prayer for me sometime. Thanks!

This is me and Joe Noonen before the ordination service. After the GS ordains you, you get to select a mentor to pray a prayer of blessing for you. I chose Joe. 

Standing Ovation

Well Monday night went better than expected in some ways, worse in others, and wonderful overall. I practiced a ton for my song cause I was so nervous but when I got up there it was if I never practiced. I was off pitch, tune, tempo, and everything else I could be off on, but everyone was dying laughing. When I finished everyone gave me an instantaneous standing ovation for my pastor's report. Here's a written copy:

In the spirit of John and Charles Wesley, who wrote hymns to the tunes of the popular songs of their day, I rewrote a popular song of our day for my pastor’s report. And in the spirit of many a men who have no singing ability, I now sing for you my pastor’s report.

We got preachers; we got teachers;
Some singers and hand wavers
An’ we got leaders; we got servers
An’ we got, friendly hand shakers
And the college kids prayer walk our neighborhood
Mm, mm, mmm… I love our church

We got saints; we got seekers
Creative types and dreamers
An’ we got front row sitters, and plenty in the back
Encouragers and those who comfort
And we all talk about how God’s been good
Mm, mm, mmm… I love our church

I love our church
It’s my kind of place
Just walk in through the front door,
Puts a big smile on my face.
It ain’t too far, we come as we are
Mm mm mmm I love our church

Seriously now, it has been a good year for us. As you can tell from the song I really felt in this last year we have come into our own as a church and it has been great to see God continually work in our midst. God has been more than good to us and we praise His Holy name!

Now all I have to live with is everybody giving me complements, well most people tell me how awful it was in a way that I think is suppossed to be a compliment. It was really fun and I'm glad I did it. You only get to live once, so you might as well have fun living it. And I and I think most others there that night had a lot of fun.

Soon to be Ordained

I get ordained this Tuesday night. In all of the events of the past month I more or less forgot about this coming up and the significance of the event. But it is finally here and my favorite GS, Jerry Porter, will be ordaining me.

The ordination service is in the midst of this thing we Nazarenes like to call district assembly. It's not as bad as it sounds. One of the things that goes on during district assembly, besides the ordination service, is the pastor's reports. Each lead pastor of a church has to give a 2 min. or less report to the assembly on how your church did in the last year. My report was scheduled to be given Wednesday morning, read after I'm ordained, so I decided to be creative for my report and write a song for it.

Well we had to turn in a copy of our reports in a few weeks ago to the district superintendent who for some reason really liked all the new start pastors reports (five of us including me) and asked us all to give our reports during the opening service of assembly Monday night, read before I'm ordained. This is a big service mind you and I'm going to sing my report and I don't sing good at all. Gulp! I'm so nervous.

For those of you who want to know, I rewrote Toby Keith's "I love this bar" and renamed it "I love our church." It should be an interesting couple of nights this week to say the least.

anticlimatic

The genetic doctor visit today was very anticlimatic. I guess we were hopping for them to tell us how serious or how not serious her case was and things like what her IQ will be. But they didn't tell us much of anything, in fact they hardly looked at her. But it was still a good experience, they were all real nice and very helpful. The only hard part was when they showed us a picture of her chromosones and we saw three of them on the 21st set. I think it made it kind of real right then or something cause I wanted to cry when I saw them. Thanks for all your prayers today!

Poor Theology and our theology

One of the interesting things that comes with having a child born with down syndrome is all of the poor theology that you hear from people as they comfort you. The best being a form of "God only gives kids with down syndrome to parents He can trust." I'm not saying I mind hearing it and I appreciate the affirmation we have received from so many people in that form, but deep down inside I know it's not true. For starters I'm sure there are plenty of people ahead of me that I would trust with Lucy (not that I would let anyone else have her, she's our's and no one can have her!). But in all reality plenty of bad parents have had kids with down syndrome and the kids have suffered for it. So I don't buy into that theology, though I still appreciate what I know people mean when they say it (so if you have said that to us and our reading this, don't worry about it, we know what you meant and thank you for it). People have been very kind to us in word and deed over these past two weeks and we are so greatful to them all.

Lucy's down syndrome isn't a result of God. It is a result of the fall and of sin. We live in a broken world and bad things happen. God didn't give us a child with down syndrome. God gave us a child who happens to have suffered some of the effects of the fall. When her cells first started to divide they made some mistakes that left her with an extra chromosone on her twenty first set. Thus she has down syndrome: not from God, but because the fall has affected every part of us, even down to how our cells divide at conseption.

So where is the hope? Our God works all things for the good for those who love and serve Him! That's the theology Mandy and I are resting in today. Not in a God who gives us a child with down syndrome, but in a God who will work wonders we can't even imagine or even ask for in a child who suffers, in a more visible way than most, from the fall. And He already has! He is a good God and we praise Him for His faithfullness to our family!

We see the eye and hearts doctors this week, please pray for her eyes and hearts. That her eyes may be 20/20 (or whatever new born eyes need to be) and that she may see with the eyes of God as she lives. That her heart may be perfectly healthy and that she would have the heart of God for the world around her.

P. Dubya

My DS and his wife stopped by yesterday. I call him Pastor Wilson and Mandy has shortened it to P. Dubya. He said he felt like he had a word of the Lord for us that he received last Wednesday during our district monthly day of prayer. He said he felt like God gave him three promises for us (this being before Lucy was even diagnosed though he told us after):

1. Lucy will be a big blessing to us and others.
2. Lucy will be a big benefit to our ministry.
3. Mandy and I will understand and experience God's faithfulness like few others do because of Lucy.

I think we'll hold on to those right now. Thanks P. Dubya! But more importantly thank you Jesus!

Welcome to blogging...

To see Lucy's blog go to www.beautifullucy.blogspot.com That is where daddy will place most of the updates about her, as well as a bunch of pictures. We get the genetic tests back Monday or Tuesday, we need some people to hold our arms up in prayer for us these next two days. We went to church today and everyone gathered around us in prayer. Jamie Parry led the prayer and it was beautiful as I cried the entire time.

I don't like baths! 

Update

Tomorrow, Mandy and I will take Lucy to a Children's hospital branch in Westerville for blood work to determine genetic stuff that might tell us if she has downs or not. We'll probably get a call Monday with preliminary results. Pray for us.

I think today at our doctor visit we were both hoping that the doctor would tell us that she didn't know what the other doctor was talking about, that Lucy didn't have any signs of anything, but she said Lucy did. But some of the stuff she said were signs the previous doctor said weren't. We don't think anybody knows anything right now except that she is our wonderful precious baby. It shows me how much this guy named Chris Marshall knows, check out his blog here that he posted on Tuesday. I think he knows what he's talking about.

The present is a wonderful gift. Thank you Jesus!

Isn't she beautiful? 

one happy family! 

You know what?

I'm pumped. Mandy and I have gotten to hold Lucy all day to day. She is a gift from God! I haven't cried since I've been able to hold her on a regular basis. When she was in that awful incubator all I could think about was her future and I cried and cried. But now when I hold her I live in the present with her and I am so greatful. I honestly have a completely different attitude than I had in the early morning hours today. I'm not sad and I am not really even scared anymore. I haven't forced myself to be like this, I just think God has gifted me with the right perspective for right now just like he has gifted us with the most wonderful little girl. There God goes giving us immeasurable more than all we could ask or even imagine.

Update on Lucy Kay

Dear Friends and Family,
Well the doctor came in this morning and said he couldn’t confirm a diagnosis of downs syndrome. She has some of the symptoms, but not nearly all of them. What they said seemed like a sure thing last night now isn’t. He still thinks she might have some kind of syndrome, possibly even a mild form of down syndrome, but only genetic testing will be able to tell for sure what kind it is.
The real good news is that both she and Mandy are healthy. The doctors said both should be able to come home Tuesday. We will need to eventually take her to Children’s in Columbus, but the doctor said there is no real rush. Thank you for your prayers, they are making a difference. We’ll keep you all updated…
Amazed at the wonderful gifts God gives,
Kevin, Mandy, and Lucy

Lucy Kay Peterson

Dear Friends and Family,
Mandy and I would like to announce the arrival of Lucy Kay Peterson. She came at 11:04 PM on Sunday June 12th. She weighs 7lbs. 3 ounces and is 20 inches long. Labor was quick but tough. She had her cord wrapped around her neck and they had to use the forceps to get her out quickly. We are thrilled with the precious gift God has given us and the world.
We do have a prayer request. They are 99% sure that she has down syndrome. To be honest we are very scared right now. Would you all please take a moment and say a prayer for our beautiful daughter and for her parents. Thank you! We will keep you all updated…
Blessings,
Kevin, Mandy, and Lucy

our last meal

Mandy and I went to Mansfield for our last "date" before the arrival of Lucy. We had a nice meal, then ice cream, then a relaxing ride home through Loudonvile. It's hard to belive that sometime in the next two weeks our lives will change forever. That doesn't mean we won't continue to go on dates, but things will be different.

refugee camps

I just got done talking with my mentor Joe Noonen. He just got back from a tiny country in West Africa where he and a eleven others from MVNU worked in refugee camps for two weeks. I think he needed to tell the stories of what they saw and I think I needed to hear the stories. What an awful and broken world we live in. But what an amazing God we serve who is constantly at work to restore this world with love and compassion. May we join with God in that work.

When you read this pray our friend Mark Knowles who is working with God in El Salvador.

July 19th, 2005

Unless something goes terribly wrong between now and July 19th, I should be getting ordained that night. They told me they will be recommending me to the District Assemply for Ordination. That's kind of weird now that I think about it. Now all that's left to do this crazy week is to write a sermon. love you all!!!

Interview over

Mandy made me look real good during the interview. They asked how she felt about being a pastor's wife and she gave this response that I wasn't expecting, but blew me and the board away. I wish she could have answered all the questions for me, she's good.

It was a real interview easy interview, but I'll find out the results tonight at dinner, which happens to be at the Alcove. I'll let you know...

My wife is cooler than I am: Her score

Ordination

Tomorrow, Friday June 3rd, Mandy and I go in for my ordination interview at 4:30 pm.

The #8 car 

Group Time

Every Tuesday for this last academic year I met in group time with Bill, Becky, Rich, Tom, Rob, Marcus, and Ken. It was for an academic requirement, but it turned into much more than that. Those seven have been a gift of God to me and will be people whom I always love and hold dear to my heart. Today was the last day we had to officially meet. We did the thing where we took time to affirm each other. I love those times. I love my group.

am i a looser?

The Bridge 

traveling buddies

Have you ever gone on a long road trip and found yourself following another car? I end up doing it on long trips; usually because they are going the same speed as I want to go and I have no cruise control. Also, because I figure any cops will get them before they get me. Sometimes I get kind of attached on trips when I follow a car for a long time and I say good bye when they pull off the freeway.

Today I had a ford ranger following me on my way to seminary. I think he was a traveling buddy (either that or the FBI who I think have been investigating me lately; see conspiracy theory). He even got off the same exit as me today, but went a different way soon after. I hope and pray my mysterious traveling buddy has a good day today.

Need a Vacation

In class today I realized Mandy and I need to get away this summer for a week. Of course Lucy will also be with us. I'm thinking the first week in August right now. Anybody have any cool ideas of a place that is no more than five hours away and is a fun place to go to. We like the outdoors, but with a kid we also want all the amenities of comfort we can get. We'll also be on a pretty tight budget. My friend Gary gave me the idea of the finger lakes in upstate New York. Post or email me any good ideas you may have. Thanks!!!

less than 4 1/2 weeks left! 

Does God care about poop stains?

So yesterday our toilet clogs up. So I find this old rusty snake in our basement that was left there from the previous owners to unclog our toilet with. Of course I can't get the stupid thing to work, but it did leave these ugly brown rust stains all over the toilet that looked like poop stains. Eventually I got the toilet unclogged with another device and kind of forgot about the stains until Mandy came home. She asked me about them and I told her that I couldn't find our toilet scrubber. She told me she didn't think they would come off even with a scrubber. And she was right, they didn't. So now we had a permanetly pooped stained toilet, which is never fun to have.

I felt pretty bad about that last night and this morning I woke up and tried to bleach them out. It wasn't working and I felt pretty bad. So I let some bleach soke in the toilet while I took a shower praying that the soaking would bring it out. Literally I was praying in the shower for that bleach to have extra special strength to bring the ugly stains out. But while I was praying it was as if God told me to go down to our friends at GR Smith's hardware store and ask them for advice. So I get out of the shower to find out the bleach didn't work and followed the good Lord's leading to talk to my friend Bill at GR Smith's. He showed me stuff that he thought might work, so I bought it and took it home to try it.

Sure enough it worked like magic and we now have the whitest toilet bowl we've had in a long time. God doesn't always make our bleach extra strong when we ask, some times He just tells us where to get better stuff. God cares about us more than we ever know, even about the poop stains that really get us down.

After all that I woke Mandy up, who was taking a nap on the couch, to show her the clean toilet. She was so proud she gave me a hug and a kiss. So not only did God brighten my day by giving me a clean toilet, He also got me a hug and a kiss from the most beautiful girl in town!

Not to be

Sad day for me today. I've talked about a church we wanted to buy in our neighborhood and I found out today that it got sold to another church. I've never particularly wanted it, well at least as much as the rest of the people in our church, but it seemed so logical. I just always felt like God was going to give it to us, but today I found out that is most likely not going to happen.

I've been through so many emotions today already. I first heard about it from a friend who goes to the church that we wanted to buy. I had to be happy for him cause his church needed to sell it quick so they could finish their new building project, yet I wanted to cry while putting a smile on my face. He wasn't positive the deal had gone through yet, so parts of me hoped the deal might fall through. But then I thought what a pompus ass I was being cause it was another church who was buying it. Then I worried about another church coming down to our neighborhood and the competition that would bring us. That led me to calling myself a lot worse words than ass.

I ended up having to leave the library where I was planning to get some work done and go pray at a few places. I had to go to the where the purchasing church currently meats at and pray for them and then to the church property that we wanted to buy and they are buying and pray for them again. There I saw no more 4-sale signs and I realized it was for real. I had to start planning in my mind how we would welcome this church to our neighborhood and how we could work together as brothers and sisters in Christ.

I also stopped by the Alternative Center and prayed for them. They are moving into the building where we currently meet. I'm pray that God will shine His light into that school through our church. And I pray they will still let us meet in their building after they move in.

I wrote the above as a confession. The Bible says it's good to confess our sins to one another. I also wrote it for the record. I want to read this again in five years and see in what ways God did cool things even through what I think is currently discouraging news. And that's the thing, I'm confident God is taking care of us even now.

I have so many more thoughts going through my mind right now, but I'll save you from them. Blessings on your day knowing that we serve a God who is able to do immeasurable more than all we could ask or even imagine.

ps. The new Narnia trailer is out at www.narnia.com it's good. Of course he's not safe, but he's good.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

For all of my friends who remember Eric Frey. He is now the youth pastor at St. Pauls and might be on TV tomorrow night.
Nazarene ties to this week's Extreme Makeover: Home EditionKansas City—As reported in the April 8 edition of NCN News, Kansas City’s St. Paul’s Church of the Nazarene recently played a major supporting role in the production of an upcoming episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Originally speculated to air May 15, the episode will air May 8. St. Paul’s Church, who provided use of their facilities to the ABC team, will hold a community watch-party for the show. According to St. Paul’s pastor Caleb Reynolds, the church will likely receive some attention in Home Makeover follow-up show How'd They Do That? set to air in May 9.
Reynolds said ABC approached the church asking to use their facilities to help with the production. “The back entrance to the church is a hundred yards or so from the house they renovated,” Reynolds said. “They blocked off the entire street between our lot and the job site so that construction crews could have dedicated use of the road.”
Initially, ABC had only asked for use of the church’s parking lot and back yard.
“We offered to let them eat in our gym and use our newly-renovated kitchen if it would be helpful,” stated Reynolds. “They took us up on the offer, and during construction we served as the dining hall for 300-400 volunteer construction workers, cast, crew, and contractors that were contributing their efforts to the show. Many of the volunteer workers are from the Kansas City metro area, so we felt it was very important for us to be able to make contact with them in a setting like this.
“We have been praying that God would show us ways that we can connect the resources of our church to the needs of our community. I think this opportunity was God answering those prayers.”
Reynolds called the experience rewarding and said that the ABC team was extremely appreciative of using the church facilities.
Both shows air at 8 p.m. Eastern time on their respective nights.

Israel

I found out two nights ago that I might have the oppurtonity to go to the Holy Lands for 10 days next March. It would be with Seminary and it would be my last class there. I think it would only cost me about 1000 dollars, normally 2200, but I'd get a special deal cause of the scholarship program I'm a part of. The only problem is the ten days away from Mandy and Lucy, oh yeah, and Hank. It's someplace I've wanted to go to for years, I hope it works out so I can go.

Do I look like Derek Webb?

If you follow the link in my previous post look at the picture of Derek Webb. Now imagine me minus 60 pounds, with a short hair cut, with a guitar, and singing my guts out. Do you think I look like Derek Webb in that picture?

Derek Webb

This morning I'm driven over to the Naz to use the library and I hear on WNZR that there giving away Derek Webb tickets for tomorrow night at Kenyon. So I go into the library where they have no radio, but I know there giving out four pair over the next 1/2 hour so I decide I'll call radomly to see if I get through. I call once and get through, but they weren't giving them away at the time. Ten minutes later I call back and it's busy, so I know they're giving them away at the moment so I call back again right away and I'm caller ten, I WIN!!! But I found out I called for Wayne Watson instead. But after I told them my crazy story they gave me Derek Webb tickets instead!!! So Mandy and I will be thinking about Trent Charles tomorrow evening while we are listening to the cool, yet convicting, Derek Webb at Gund Commons on the campus of Kenyon College. Now that's a good way to start the morning off.

For all my rowdy friends who are Derek Webb fans who would like to join us go here for more info.

hank 

Paid Clergy?

Next year when I get done with seminary will it be in the best interest of our church, and for me, for me to get a "real" job. The more and more I think about it I wonder why our church, or for that matter many churches, need a full time paid pastor. I sometimes wonder if our church would grow stronger if I did construction forty hours a week and then pastored on the side as a regular member of the church. Some would say I would then be overwhelmed with the work load, but what if I didn't take it on? What if we let the church be the church? Wouldn't the work load be just the same as any other church member? We need a new model of church. We need to see the Body of Christ fully alive and active.

20/5000 Eyesight

This morning two girls from the college, who are apart of our church, prayer walked part of the neighborhood with me. While we were walking one of the girls said something along the lines of “last week’s service was one of the best I was ever apart of. I felt like that was what was church is supposed to be about.”

I was floored after she said that cause I felt last week’s service was pretty average and my sermon was really weak. So I asked what was so good about it and she said, “God.”

I think I need to start opening my eyes so I can see God in our services. I’m so worried about the sermon, the music, the show, and making sure everybody is Ok that I forget to see God, who is there the whole time. Lord, forgive me.

Tray swap

For all my friends who remember switching trays with Treveca our senior year (and yes I'm still a bit bitter), they pulled it off again last night, but this time with Olivet. Olivet's trays our plain so it's not as cool as it was when we walked into the cafeteria and saw the big TNU across the trays.

It feels kind of good knowing that I was a part in a small way with a prank that was so good that it gets repeated. I'll have to not sound too arrogant when I tell our college kids this at church on Sunday.

Hi

Sorry I haven't really blogged in a while. I got frustrated with it for some reason that I can't put my finger on. A couple things of interest for you...
-Saw Mike Pape last weekend. I couldn't believe it when I saw him. Had a good conversation with him and he seems to be doing pretty well for himself. He got married, has a good job, and is building a new house. So for all my college friends who have been wondering what ever happened to Pape, now you know.
-Mandy and I took Hank to Mohican yesterday. Went on a long walk from the covered bridge to the dam and back again. Hank loved it, he couldn't stay out of the water, but luckily we had blankets to put across the back seat for the ride home. I like walks in the woods.
-I don't like two of my seminary classes this quarter. I'm very frustrated in them, yet a friend reminded me I might need to humble myself a bit so maybe I could learn something. With such a big head it is sometimes hard to learn what you need to learn.
-Less than two months tell Lucy is due to join us on the outside. I'm pretty pumped silly about that.
-We got some crazy college kids who are diving into our church. At least two are moving into the neighborhood for their senior year. A couple are graduating and sticking around with us. Others are prayer walking the neighborhood once a week. I was pretty curious about them at first, but I'm begining to see why God has brought us all together.
-I'm in the midst of a sermon series called what does it mean to be the people of God. So we're saved and happy and go to church once a week, but is that it? Are we any different than the rest of the world? If so, how?
-That's all for now. I love you all.

TV evangelist? Yep, that's me! 

I like taking pictures of myself 

I LOVE MY WIFE 

I love warm spring days, especially when I get to spend them with these people. 

The nursery is almost done, I can't wait for Lucy! 

My beautiful pregnant wife 

Narnia

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in theaters December 9th, 2005. I can't wait to take Lucy! She'll have all the books read (or at least read to her) by that time.