The windows of the heavens were opened

I have NEVER driven through rain that heavy! Near Chicago...listen to it as we come out from under the bridge. Pray for us as we travel, because...wow!

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Location:Trompeter Rd,Peru,United States

If butterflies can fly...

I watched three white butterflies flit around the yard. Their flight was erratic so that they appeared driven by random chance, or a strong breeze. Aimless they seemed, and yet arriving upon a flower or leaf they looked to have attained their goal.

This was no accident. At times they would approach one another and spin crazy circles of courtship or intimidation (I could not tell which). Then those sheets of living paper would dance away by a mysterious impulse imbued by He who said, "let birds fly," and, "let the earth bring forth...creeping things."

People are like that, especially children, but also adults. How random we seem...thoughtless...aimless...driven by impulse...dancing in courtship or intimidation. But, like butterflies, there is no accident to our actions, either. Consider St. Paul writing to the Ephesian Christians:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ~Ephesians 2:1-3

The "prince of the power of the air" blew our butterfly bodies in swirling sin-circles, as our fallen flesh beat wicked wings, delighting in the dance.

And yet again, He who said, "Let there be...," became incarnate by the Spirit of the Virgin Mary, that we may have life, and that eternally.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ~Ephesians 2:4-6

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

A New Normal, part 2

A New Normal, Part 2.

Wherein I detail the meeting between me and another missionary.


“A New Normal” is a multi-part story of how I came to be a Missionary to Papua New Guinea. Click here to read the first installment.


Because we live in Fort Wayne, Indiana we often have seminary students and their families attend our church. They come in all sizes: there are singles, married couples without kids, and families with a variety of children in whole numerical values right on up the number line. As long as I have been attending, the record has been six children.

But when we first met that family they only had four, and so did we. We hit it off right away, as parents of large families are required to do (there is a law somewhere). As it turned out, the wife/mother of this clan was quite the play-date queen. She has the gift of assembling mothers and entertaining them while their children run amok.

And so it was that through these interconnected relationship webs, we came into contact with another Papua New Guinea missionary. Except he wasn’t a missionary yet. He was a seminary student with a wife and four kids. I’ll leave it to the numerologists to decipher the meaning of all our families having four children, even though by the time we met some of us were on our fifth. If this all seems complicated, relax; the story gets easier from here on out.

Seminary students are funny. Not necessarily humorous (although some are), but quirky. They have to undergo four years of arduous, strenuous, and at times monotonous training. One of those years is spent doing field work with a congregation, assisting a pastor (we call it a Vicarage). Upon completion of their academic requirements they do not get to relax, try as they might. For always looming above the seminarian, like an approaching storm, is Call Night.

Call Night is a momentous occasion when the seminary faculty reveals to the seminarians where their dart has struck the map…er, I mean, where they thoughtfully and considerately have been called to serve a congregation as a Pastor. Yet somehow a dart must have gone wide, because one man received a call as a Missionary to Papua New Guinea.

Typically, seminarians have little or no idea where they are going. This announcement, therefore, would have been a 1.21-gigawatt shock had this particular seminarian not known ahead of time. But, in fact, he did know, and I knew as well, because he told me.


In the next installment of “A New Normal” I will tell you what he told me. Stay tuned...


p.s. "The seminarian" in this episode is the Rev. Peter Haugen. Find out more about him and how you can pray for and support his family here. Haugen family

p.p.s. And this family needs prayer and support, too. Ritzman family

Location:Millbrook Dr,Fort Wayne,United States

Musing Medieval

Say what you want about Dante's errant theology (and rightly deserved), he's not all bad. Consider this discourse on Original Sin, the Incarnation, and Atonement from the Paradiso (Canto VII):

Your nature, when it took sin to it's seed,
sinned totally. It lost this innate worth,
and it lost Paradise by the same deed.

Limited man, by subsequent obedience,
could never make amends, he could not go
as low in his humility as once,

rebellious, he had sought to rise in pride.
Thus was he shut from every means himself
to meet God's claim that He be satisfied.

Thus it was up to God, to Him alone
in His own ways--by one or both, I say--
to give man back his whole life and perfection.

All other means would have been short, I say,
of perfect justice, but that God's own Son
humbled Himself to take on human clay.


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Patience,...

Rest assured faithful blog readers, there is much going on behind the scenes. And although the curtain looks closed, trust me when I say there are a lot of stage hands busily scurrying around back there.

What that all means is that I am woking on sorting out the many details necessary to take the next step in my assignment as missionary. Without being vague, here is what you can expect:

1) A wrap-up on orientation. The dust is still settling, but there is enough cohesion to make a useful analysis of the two-week ordeal.

2) A continuation of my personal account of becoming a missionary, what I have entitled, "A New Normal." I will put links if you have missed any of these. Here is part 1.

3) Updates on Papua New Guinea (PNG). Who is there and what is going on.

That's a brief list, but it is a start. Until then...

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:11-14


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The curse

"Cursed is the ground because of you...thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you" Genesis 3:17-18

"And behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." Genesis 22:12-13

"And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Mark 15:17-18

"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26


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Location:S Kirkwood Rd,Kirkwood,United States

Hello baby!

A 10 day-old baby showed up at Orientation today. Here's the new mom, Angelica, watching Beth demonstrate baby-wrapping techniques.