Remedial

Remedial

I am currently enrolled at a University, working towards my Christian Ministries degree. In conversation with my advisor, he used the word remedial. I'm going to be honest, I wasn't to happy that he was using that word, because it meant that the credits that I have worked so hard for, don't count towards my degree. They won't fall under Math or Gen. Ed. but they will get me to the place that I need to be, so I can take the classes that I need for my degree.

I have to admit that I actually became a little angry! Because I felt like I was "wasting" money! But as I have thought about it I have come to the realization that alot of Christians don't even participate in remedial courses. Let's call it discipleship.

Discipleship

The act of teaching others about the life of Jesus Christ. To teach others the lessons of Christ and how to apply them in their lives.

For many, we see a person saved, and then expect them to be a Dr. of Theology. There is no teaching, there is no imparting words of encouragement or affirmation, we get them to the altar, to ask Christ in to their hearts and then toss them back into the water to be swallowed up by the next big fish.

When will we teach the remedial classes about who Jesus is and what he taught?

I know personally that I thought; if I just live out what I see others in the church doing, I'll be fine. Man was I wrong, because it seemed that many that I chose to watch, were wolves in sheep's clothes. I struggled and for many years wandered around, slopping hogs.


I had to teach myself, and I'm still learning what it means to be a follower of Christ. It is by going back to the source, taking baby steps, and relying on God that I have "grown" into the person I am today. Am I perfect? Far from it, but I finally see the benefit of the "remedial," and it's to get me to the place that I need to be.

Time is flying

I cannot believe how quickly time passes!

It feels like yesterday we brought Declan home and he is now 8 months old.
Caleb starts Kindergarden this year and I feel older than dirt!

I have started college courses again and I am having a hard time budgeting my time. Ironic then that I'm writing in my blog, huh?

Musings

So, as this crazy world continues to spin, I continue to race from one meeting, to the next, to the ballgames, to the events, and it feels like time is flying all around me.

James 4:14, "you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for awhile and then vanishes."




My life is a mist! A vapor that is here one second and gone the next. So, I ask myself, where are my priorities? Have they become wrapped up in my agenda and have they become my identity?


I pray that they haven't but I'm not so sure.


How are you doing? Are you on this hoped up treadmill called life, running and running, so focused on not falling that you forgot what you were on the treadmill for in the first place? I pray that we all take time to slow down, re-focus and spend time on what is truly the importance of life; our relationships, first with God, then each other.

Completely out of breath!

Processing it all

Man, life comes at you quickly.

I am reminded about how foolish it is to make plans and to think way in to the future. A week and a half ago, I was on vacation, sitting in the recliner, drinking a cup of coffee and visiting with my mom and her boyfriend, as they were visiting from Ohio. It started off as any regular morning in our home, the routine of waking up, my stumbling to the coffee pot, Emily putting on the kettle to boil water for tea. The boys were awake. 8 month old Declan playing in the play pen, smiling and jabbering away, Caleb still waking up and not quite ready to face the day yet. Emily went to the computer to check her facebook, and I heard her exclaim, "What is this?" She was asking me to translate what had been said on Marcos Kurrle's facebook page, and as I read, I did not want to believe what I was seeing. Two of our dear friends had been killed in a horrible automobile accident. 36 year old Julie Kurrle and six year old son Timi had died that morning, as they were going to get their paperwork in order in preparation for their visit to the States. 

I did not want for this to be true, as I'm sure many others were wishing the same thing. In my mind, I began to re-live my relationship with Julie and her husband Norberto.

The initial encounter

In 1998 I made my first missionary visit to Paraguay, South America. The first person I met when I stepped off the plane was Norberto. He was assigned to be my companion for my journey from Asuncion, to the village of Raul Pena. We instantly hit it off. We are close in age and it felt as if I had picked up a long dormant friendship, and we resumed right where we left off. He introduced me to Mate, the strong tea that is the drink of the Paraguayans. We discussed the "luxuries" of traveling by bus through this country and we talked about the culture and the people and the churches that I would be visiting. 

I spent my first three weeks in this beautiful, tiny country living in the parsonage with Norberto. We talked about the Bible, our faith, the differences and difficulties, bot of living in Paraguay and of living in the States. He talked about Julie! He told me of how much he cared for her and how deeply he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this beautiful young woman that had captivated his heart, and we prayed. All to quickly, my time had come to an end, and as I boarded the plane, my heart broke knowing that I may never see my dear friend again.

Fast Forward

A short time later, as Norberto was studying at Anderson, he and I once again rekindled our friendship and I had the honor of attending the wedding of Norberto and Julie in Indiana. I could immediately see that there was something truly special about Julie. The way she and Norb complimented each other, and how the interacted was truly  blessing to a single man still searching for his soul-mate. Julie and Norberto were truly soul-mates! Many years had passed since I last saw Norberto and Julie and I often wondered how they were doing and how their ministry was going at the radio and in their other ventures. Through the miracles of Facebook, I was able to "friend" them and to follow their life and their adventures and to see Timi grow before the eyes of their facebook friends. How I longed to see my friends again!

God is amazing!

March of 2010, while attending the Virginia State Youth convention, Mark Shaner and I were talking and sharing about some of our missionary trips and I mentioned that I had been to Paraguay twice. He looked at me and said that there was a group going in October and invited my wife and I to be part of that team that would represent Spread the Word Ministries.

 I knew instantly that I would be going, and then my heart sunk, because I was unsure that my wife would go. A couple of weeks later, she came to me and said, "I'm in." I said into what? Her response; the trip to Paraguay. I was so excited! I sent a message to Julie and Norberto saying that we were coming and that I was looking forward to she and Emily meeting and to meet Timi as well.What a trip! Emily fell in love with Julie and Timi instantly and Timi helped her with the pain of being away from our son for so long. 

Several of the team stayed at Julie and Norb's house while we were in Obligado, and Julie asked me to re-attach some hooks so she could hang up her curtains in their bedroom and to fix a shelf that had fallen. I was more than happy to oblige and I asked if there was anything else I could do. She was worried about being an inconvenience! I was there to serve and to help and she wanted me to spend time with the rest of the group and to rest. She was always thinking of others. Timi was a ball of energy that night. Wanting to show us his pet toad, which by the way slept in the room where my wife and I were sleeping, and to show us his books and toys and asked a million questions about our little boy! We went to tour the radio station and to have dinner with the youth ministry team for Paraguay. On our way home, Timi and I walked hand in hand, back to their home and he would tell me all the things he learned in school and ask more questions about whatever popped in to his head at that moment. What a beautiful little boy! 

Planning Ahead

When we returned home, we showed all of the pictures to our son Caleb and he looked at us and asked if he too could go to Paraguay some day, because he wanted to play with Timi. We assured him that we would go, that they could play together and that we would do it soon. Then we made the decision to go the North American Convention of the Church of God, in Anderson In. I asked Julie if they would be there and much to my delight, they were to be home this summer. I was excited at the prospect of our sons meeting and on catching up with my friends. Then the news that broke my heart. 

I cannot imagine the pain of losing a spouse, but to intensify that with the loss of a child as well. I cannot grasp what that must feel like and I pray that I never do. My heart is heavy, some days I am ok, others I hurt so intensely that I feel like my heart is being ripped from my body. I know that God is good and that His ways are not ours, but I wish that he could help me understand why? I hurt for my friend and for the beautiful family that was left behind. I grieve for their loss and I pray that they find comfort in their faith and in their support of one another.

Julie and Timi, you are missed and we cannot wait to see you again. This time will pass by quickly and then there will be a great reunion in Heaven.

Until then, 

The Potters 

Slacker

I have been so lax in keeping up with this blog! So much has happened and so many crazy things have taken place since I last posted. Shortly after our mission trip, we found out that Emily was pregnant! We were pretty nervous since we had to have so many immunizations for out trip, we wondered if there was any danger to the fetus! We prayed and prayed some more for this wonderful miracle to be just as God wanted him to be and on August 29th, we welcomed Declan Michael to our family.

This picture was taken shortly after delivery and I am so thankful that both baby and mother did wonderfully! Our oldest son Caleb, is loving being a big brother and is constantly kissing and wanting to hold "his brother." God has truly blessed us and now I am trying to adjust to being the father of two! I look forward to the Nerf wars, the hide and seek games and wrestling matches, but mostly I'm excited about loving my sons and teaching them about Jesus.

Still absorbing Paraguay!

     The last couple of weeks since we've been home has been "weird." Transitioning back into our schedule and getting back into the daily routine seems out of the ordinary. Emily and I have had many discussions about how we can help Itapaso, a children's ministry, and how can we do something more for this ministry, with us being located in Southwest Virginia. We had several people ask about sending clothes to the kids and we checked with FedEx about sending a package to Asuncion Paraguay, and having the pastor there pick it up. It would cost over 800.00 to send a 50 lbs. package! Itapaso is a relatively new church outside of Encarnacion Py. and the church feeds between 150-200 children every Monday through Friday and we thought that with all of the young children in our church, that we could surely come up with a bunch of nice, used clothes and get them to these young children. However the shipping price was mind numbing. Yet, the faces of those little chidren will forever be in our memory and in our hearts! There was one little boy that Emily and I called the hugger. He went from person to person, with this huge smile plastered across his face, with his arms outstretched asking for hugs.

    The pastor told us that these little children had been waiting for us to show up! We had no idea what we were going into or what we would see once we were there, and I'm not sure if we were truly ready either. As we were helping hand out food to the children, they were playing music and the song "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" started playing in Spanish. So there we were, some of us singing along, in english of course and others stood there with tears streaming down our faces, with the words of that song impacting us in a way they had not before. These words of Jesus rang out so true to me in this moment; Matthew 25: 34-36: "Then the King shall say to those on His right hand, Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me." Something as simple as a bowl of rice and beans, to me, meant that I was a part of this teaching for this moment in time! God is so good!

     Please join me in prayer for this young ministry that is feeding not just bodies but souls, and is living out this teaching of our Lord, everyday!

To Paraguay and back!

I am still reeling from the whirlwind trip through Paraguay! We were in six different churches in one day and taught a conference that evening. I'd like to say that I've rested since I've been home, but that is not the case. There are so many things that happened and so many stories to tell, but I don't want to bore anyone.

This one I have to share though, because it affected me deeply. The day that we visited the six churches is a day I will never forget. We were all really tired, doing our final preperations on our lessons and trying to decompress for a few minutes. Gnats were swarming around us and we had the prospect of sleeping in a church ahead of us. I don't know about the rest of the team, but I was a little apprehensive about this part of the trip. We were at the church in Ciudad del Este and from what I remembered this was not a very safe city. So, sleeping in a room with four other guys, seperated from my wife, in a place that I did not feel comfortable in was not putting me in a very servant like attitude. Anyways, back to the gnats! They were everywhere, flying in our ears, eyes, trying to go up my nose and they were driving me crazy! So, I go and get the 100% deet out of my bag, thinking surely this will take care of these stinking bugs. Emily was being swarmed as well, so I began to spray the Deet on her pants and the back of her shirt. What I did not realize was the nozzle rotated while you were squirting it. In my haste, I did not check the nozzle to see where it was pointed and took a full shot right to the eyes! I do not recommend that to anyone. If pepper spray hurts a tenth of what the Deet did, then I feel bad for Police Officers who get shot with that while training. So, Mark Shaner guides me to the restroom where I flush my eyes, they get to feeling better, so I go and sit down. About five minutes later they start burning again, so Emily takes me to flush out my eyes again. What I was unaware of was that one of the sisters form the church had been watching this go on for a few minutes. I came back from the restroom after flushing the eyes and sat down, well this lady comes over and starts rubbing her hands over my eyes. Little strange I thought, but if it helps, Praise God. Well, she did this for a few minutes and then went back to sit down. The eyes started burning again, and my thought was more on, how am I going to teach my part of the conference if I can't see? Emily and Vickie Shaner take me outside and start pouring water over my eyes. Here I sit, head tilted back, in a plastic chair, them pouring water over my eyes, when this lady comes walking out to where we are. She puts her hands over my eyes and begins to pray. I don't mean casually either. She is cryinng and it feels like she is experiencing the pain tht I was in, she was living the fear that I had in that moment. The thought of going to a Paraguayan hospital was not very comforting to me, so i was really hoping for God's intervention. So, this lady is praying, deep, intercessory prayer stuff and she is praying in Guarani, which is the native language of Paraguay, and God moved in an amazing way. The burning stopped, my eyes began to clear up and I felt a piece wash over me. I will forever be linked to this sister in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, because of her willingness to pray for an impatient, tired gringo.

That's just one of the many encounters that we had and I would like to encourage you to pray for our Missionaries and pastor's, not just in Paraguay, but all over the world. They NEED our prayer support and coverage.

This picture is of a soccer program that Planeta Joven operates in Asuncion, Paraguay every Saturday morning. They use this as an outreach to the kids in their communities. Pray for Marcos and his leaders as they reach out to the young people that surround them.
God Bless!

Provision

I am writing this in the "aftermath" of our spaghetti dinner fund raiser. I was blown away by the response and by the amount of people that turned out to support us. We served over 100 people and received almost $1,100.00 towards our trip. When I told emily how much was there, she didn't believe me and counted it again! I am reminded over and over again that we CANNOT out give God, and when He calls us to do something, the way will be provided! So, we are Paraguay bound with "Spread the Word" Ministries and I am so excited to be serving with my peers in ministry as well as my beautiful wife. I can't wait to see what God has for us next. Continue to pray for the team as we travel and minister in the name of the Lord.