The Fam... and Dan Franklin

They came, they saw, dad took copious notes, mom asked many questions, they were an absolute pleasure to be around, then they left again. It was so good. I was blessed by my parents coming to visit. They both caught me off guard. My dad was nervy before he came here. In phone calls and emails, I thought he may not enjoy his time. But once he hit the ground, you couldn’t stop him. He would venture off by foot to nearby villages and towns marveling at the culture taking only Enoch with him at times. He helped to fortify a church that had been destroyed last rainy season. He checked out several of our programs here. Here is a list of the programs he got to see, in case his journal didn’t cover them:
Rehabilitation: Helping returning refugees, widows, and orphans to build their houses
Goat project: Giving goats to the poorest people in the world to help them survive.
VST: teaching formal rebels, and children how to work with wood, metal, cement, or teaching sowing, and bread making, so that they can get work now the war is ending.

All our programs are run in conjunction with the local churches here.

He also did a building inspection for our Child Survival program that will be used to estimate costs for repairs, so we can fix up the houses in order to get our program running. Mom was with us the whole way as well. She took pics, and she mingled really well with the locals. The kids loved her, and she was a great negotiator in the markets. The poverty was hard on her, and she had a soft heart. She wasn’t afraid to swim in the lake where, often times fifty percent of our visitors opt out of swimming do to crocs and hippos, and the occasional snake. Mom spent the most time in the lake, and dad enjoyed several dips as well. Trina and I were truly blessed by their visit. “They were rain,” as we would say here. Rain is seen as a blessing that gives life. That was my experience with my folks, a blessing that gave life.

Speaking of rain… there has been cases of torrential downpours a couple months back that caused some problems with flooding and destroyed crops etc in many villages. I visited several of these villages and was talking to a Burundian about all the damage to his town and how it was a bummer. Then he said: “Yes, for so long we prayed to God for rain, and we prayed and prayed. God decided to answer our prayers in one day but it was too much rain at one time.” I asked follow up questions because I was fascinated by his statement… I asked things like, “so if you prayed more specifically for appropriate rain quantity spaced out over a period of time, would God have responded to such specific requests.” He responded with a resounding yes, so I kept digging. He is a pastor at a local church, and I was fascinated about how different a view we had concerning weather. Note that I said fascinated… not shocked. I’m really not shocked by much anymore, especially not “The-weather-ology” which I consider to be the study of God and weather patterns. Both of us possessing incomplete biblical world views, and both of us having completely different views on “The-weather-ology” which I consider to be the study of God and weather patterns (the more you repeat the new big word, the more likely it will end up in a seminary program somewhere), I realized that if I went to his church, and he was giving a sermon on weather, I might lean over to Trina and say something like: “Trina, I really don’t agree with his guys thoughts on God and weather,” Trina would then shake her head in annoyance, and I would feel proud and stupid. Then when I went to tithe, I might stick a note in with my money, telling the leadership of that church not to use my tithe money for any of their weather ministries.
I don’t know who is more right, and it didn’t matter to me at the time, and it still doesn’t. We both gave our view, and we still love each other. Of course I think I’m more right. But I’m smart enough now to know that I’m not all that right about stuff… but I think I am. But deep down I know that really, Dan Franklin is the one who is right most of the time. Also, Doug Hebert is right, and so is Dan Brose… and between the three of them, I can triangulate. Triangulation is useful for all sorts of things. You can ask my dad about that.

So, like I was saying. I was so blessed by my parents visit. It was really difficult to see them go. I was the saddest I’ve been in a long time, so I immediately shot home, and edited a short video to get my mind on something else. I really love my parents, and I love who they are, and who they are becoming. I love that they put up with me, and my short temper at times. I truly can’t thank them enough for coming out.

Separately, but related to Dan Franklin. One of his many great posts was on dreams. His question was something to the effect of: “what nightmare would wake you up out of a deep sleep causing you to vocally express that nightmarish fear.” When I was a child a little older than Matthew, I woke up saying over and over again: “I don’t want to go to camp, I don’t want to go to camp.” My dad then said, “okay, seth you don’t have to go to camp.” I guess I went right back to sleep after he said that… but he was never going to send me to camp… he was really confused as to why I was worried about that. At that time I had never been to any youth camp so he was wondering how I even knew what camps were. To this day one of my least favorite activities are camps and retreats of any kind. Especially church related camps and retreats.” I simply dread them. But nowadays a phrase I would be likely to scream out of a deep sleep would be: “What do you mean you have to take out all my teeth!” I also might scream something like: “We can’t run out of sea food. We must always have New England clam chowder!” I read in a article a few years back that we’re pretty much eating all our seafood from earth’s oceans, and I remember having a few nightmares about that after I got home. Scary stuff... completely different from my parents visit.