Month: December 2007

My Thought Spot 18: Bus Rides with Starbucks

My episodes seem to be getting more and more spread out. The downside of this is that I have much more information to pack in. This show is a bit longer than I really want to be, but I think my core audience (my parents) might still stick with me through it.

Show Notes:

My Thought Spot 18: Bus Rides with Starbucks [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

His mom said he was an ugly baby

Betty Lukens pictureSeveral months ago we were given the opportunity to buy a Betty Lukens flannel graph set for a great price. There was a missionary family that was going to be coming to town and they are a retailer for the wonderful picture set. We were buying a small set from them and another missionary family was buying a large set. The family that was selling them would bring them in for us so that we would not have to pay unreasonable amounts for shipping. Their trip got postponed and we had to wait for our flannel graph sets.

However, they did come this week to teach a class in a local church on how to teach children’s classes. It was a great 8 hours worth of classes. I am really glad I was able to attend. The couple who taught the classes have over 40 years of experience in children’s ministry. Not only did they teach “how,” but more importantly they taught “why.” I have always been impressed by people who have a philosophy for what they do. It is not just a set of rules, but guiding principles, that if you keep them in perspective, will help you build your own set of dos and don’ts.

The husband was illustrating how to teach a Bible story and he chose the first part of the life of Moses. The Bible says that Moses “was a goodly child.” My Spanish Bible says he was a beautiful child. The whole idea is that he was a good looking baby.

The missionary telling the story stopped and asked the audience if they had ever seen an ugly baby. Of course, everyone obligingly said “no.” Then he said, “I have seen an ugly baby.” All the men laughed and the women were shocked that he would even say that. Then he continued by saying that his second son was an ugly baby. The women were even more shocked.

I happened to be sitting by the speaker’s wife. I leaned over and made a comment about my sister being the ugliest baby in the world (before you blast me, I don’t have a sister). The wife then laughed and said, “Our son really was an ugly baby!”

He must have really been a sight if even his mother admits that he was ugly. They claim he has grown up to be a handsome man though. Sure, like I believe that.

Missionary Talks 39: Brenda Edwards

Two weeks ago when I was on my trip to Tampico I got a chance to interview Richard and Brenda Edwards. They are a couple who spent a few years in Kenya as missionaries. In this episode, Brenda tells us about taking her children to Africa and some concerns she had as a mother. She also talks about shopping frustrations.

While recording we were in competition with a dog barking in the house. I tried to eliminate those sections as much as possible, but you can probably still pick out the dog in some places. There are also some random traffic noises. But, I think it is clear enough.

I am still working on the William Carey script. I have had some computer problems on the machine that I was writing on. I will have to move that info onto my main machine and try to get that knocked out this week. I will be recording the William Carey bio on my new microphone. I hope to get a good clean recording to work with. With just a little bit of money I have been able to clean up the sound in my recordings. It won’t affect the next couple of interviews for Missionary Talks, but you will be able to hear it in the next episode of My Thought Spot, which I am editing now.

Baptismal service

Bill baptizing EduardoToday we had our first baptismal service for our deaf church. Though we have had one of our members baptized, he was baptized in the church from which he came. We were just getting organized as a ministry and he had grown up under the other pastor (a good church of like faith). They already had the baptism planned and therefore we gave the other pastor and church the honor.

Me baptizing my sonToday we had a deaf man of 28 years of age get baptized. Eduardo has been coming to our church since the end of August or the first of September. He accepted the Lord as his Savior in September. The other missionary with whom we work spent the month of November explaining baptism to our church and its significance. Eduardo indicated that he wanted to be baptized.

The second person baptized today was our son. It was my privilege, a few years ago, to lead him to a saving knowledge of the Lord. Today I was honored in being able to baptize him as well.

It was a special day at church for all of us. These are steps on the road to spiritual maturity in our ministry.

Come look at the broccoli

Today we went to the convention center. They were having a computer show. According to the newspaper the company that was the host to the show wanted to make it an annual show like CES is in the United States. While it may someday have that status, I assure you that it has a long way to go.

There were several manufacturers there which have large presences in Mexico. There were also individual vendors selling their products at the show. We had fun, but it only took 15 minutes to see the whole show floor to get an idea of who might have what we were looking for. Then it took another 15 minutes and ask our questions at four vendors’ booths just to find out they did not have what we needed.

We went away empty handed. But, that is exactly why my wife went with me. She figured it was safer if she went with me so that I would buy much less.

We got there 5 minutes before the doors were to open. Of course, they opened several minutes late.

While we were standing in the large hallway, our children had been running around looking at the gigantic fish tanks and 3D models of local plantations.

Our daughter came to me and started pulling me over to one of the models and said that I had to see the broccoli. Huh?

I went over and looked at the trees as she pointed and said, “This yummy broccoli.”

[audio:broccoli.mp3]