The Seabourns

Archives for February 2009

The biggest sin in your church

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This Brian Proffit interview of Ed Stetzer (director or Lifeway) is very insightful.

Some of the thoughts that I found interesting:

The elephant in the evangelical room is that we’re not making disciples.

Churches need to recognize that ministry outside church is still ministry, and we need to recognize, empower and measure that.

As we move from having successful ministries to having dynamic movements, we’re working through many of these same issues outside the church.

Thanks to Geeks in Action for alerting me.

travel smarts

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Travel 2 days. Sleep 5 hours. Feel better.
Travel 2 days. Sleep 5 hours. Feel better.

Yeah. Some kind of world travelers we are.

One of the things we have learned over the years is to always travel with a carry-on bag. Our bag contains stuff to live for 2-3 days in case luggage is delayed.

So we DID have a carry on with a change of clothes. But we DID NOT carry any toiletries in it. This 3-1-1 security stuff (3 ounces, 1 clear plastic bag, 1 per passenger) tripped us up this time. We decided to put our toiletry kits in our checked baggage so we wouldn’t have to worry about the clear plastic bag rule.

It was a good plan…

…until we missed our connecting flight in Atlanta and spent a night in Atlanta. Then we actually had to LIVE out of the carry-on bag. Kay and I made a quick run to a local convenience store to buy deodorant, a comb for Keith, and a few other things. The thought of flying 10,000 miles without deodorant was more than I was ready for!

Then 30 hours later in Bangkok, no luggage arrived. So we lived out of our carry-on again. We weren’t really surprised. We were originally booked to fly Atlanta-Seoul-Bangkok. Then we were re-booked to fly Atlanta-Tokyo-Bangkok. The Seoul connection was on Korean Airlines all the way. The Tokyo connection was on Northwest Airlines all the way. We didn’t know what to expect would happen to our bags.

At 2 am in the morning in Bangkok, no bags for the Seabourns. Filling out a lost luggage form is never fun, but especially at 2 am after traveling for 27 hours.

This morning, I had a hilarious telephone conversation with the local Northwest ground agent about our missing baggage.

Northwest agent: Sir, your baggage arrived last night from Seoul on Korean Airlines. [Recall that Kay and I had arrived on Northwest Airlines from Japan.]

Keith: That is good news. So do we pick it up and check in for our Bangkok to Chiangmai flight?

Northwest: No, it will be sent directly to Chiangmai. You don’t have to worry with it.

Keith: So, Korean airlines will check our bags onto the Thai Air flight to Chiangmai in Bangkok?

Northwest: No, Korean Airlines flew it directly from Seoul to Chiangmai.

Keith: So, where do we pick up the bags in Chiangmai?

Northwest: They will be on the conveyor belt. They will be on your Thai Air flight with you.

Keith: So did Korean Air fly them to Bangkok?

Northwest: No, Korean Air will fly them to Chiangmai.

Keith: How will they get onto the Thai Air 110 flight conveyor belt if they are not coming through Bangkok.

Northwest: Korean Air will fly them to Chiangmai.

One of the things Kay and I have learned about cross-cultural encounters: You must live with a lot of ambiguity. Ambiguity becomes your friend. At least, ambiguity becomes your close associate.

So, we are in the Bangkok airport about to depart on Thai Air and have no idea when we’ll see our bags. We’ve been chasing these bags, or they have been chasing us for 10,000 miles.

It will be nice to use my own deodorant again.

Update: The bags arrived with us in Chiangmai. I have no idea what happened on the human side, but I’m pretty sure about the spiritual side.

Runway time

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Kay and I sat on the runway in Orlando for an hour then entered a holding pattern near Atlanta. We missed our Seoul flight. We tried standby on a later flight but failed to get on. We are trying to get to Thailand.

Kay and I sat next to P_____. God gave us extra runway time today so we could have a good conversation with him. I gave him a Four Spiritual Laws booklet (a version appropriate for young professionals). I gave him a business card. Perhaps he’ll contact me to talk further. I’ve always appreciated the description of an effective witness: “Success in witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results with God.”

God had a plan for us to be a blessing to two hard-working Delta ticket agents in Atlanta who together spent about 3 hours re-ticketing us and trying to find our bags. B____ and K____ commented on how relaxed Kay and I seemed even though we’d missed our flight. I was reminded of a Henry Brandt story and said, “Well, we’re going to be standing here at this ticket counter while you re-ticket us. We have no choice about that. The only choice we have is whether we stand here mad and fuming or calm and peaceful. We think calm is better.”

So we are over-nighting in Atlanta and flying tomorrow. We pray that our bags get found wherever they are in the Atlanta airport and re-tagged Atlanta-Tokyo-Bangkok tomorrow rather than Atlanta-Inchon-Bangkok today!

I had asked friends to pray these things for us. I thought it was a prayer request focused on Thailand and India. But God is giving us a chance to reap the benefit of prayers here in Atlanta.

  • Pray that our hearts will be spiritual hearts.
  • Please pray for all of us to lift our eyes to see things from God’s perspective, in the light of eternity.
  • Pray that we will be adventurous believers, stepping out if faith to trust God to do far beyond what we think we are able to do.

I’ve added two more prayer requests:

  • Oumar from Mali wrote today that he has a visa, but he does not have a seat on the plane to Thailand until after the conference begins. He will try again tomorrow to get a seat to arrive in time for the start of the conference. Please pray for Oumar’s plane seat.
  • Kay and I have a plane seat but no confirmation that they have located our luggage. Pray that overnight the luggage will be found and re-tagged. It contains conference materials as well as clothes (and deodorant!).

And Atlanta is having tornados tonight! Ahh, the joys of travel. The privileges of trusting God.

First Date

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Our first date
Our first date

Forty years ago on Valentine’s Day weekend, two nervous teenagers had our first date together. We even have a photo of that first date. Mesquite High School All-Stars Drill Team banquet, Royal Coach Inn, Dallas, Texas. February 15, 1969. Remember the all polyester days?

Several years ago, I had the bright idea of taking Kay back to the Royal Coach Inn to celebrate. I drove back and forth along Northwest Highway but couldn’t find the hotel. It had been destroyed to make room for apartments.

I’m glad our life together has outlasted the hotel building! Kay is the love of my life, God’s gift.

Thoughts on the economy

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A friend sent this message. I thought it was worthy of sharing with you also. So, with permission of Bob MacLeod, here is some very appropriate thoughts from God’s word about our economy today.

As I read the newspaper and all of the economic ‘highlights’ every day, I thought of headlines I don’t think we’ll ever see…

  • Fed Adopts Biblical Prinicples; Pays Off National Debt
  • President Leads Nation in Fasting and Prayer / Calls on People To Change Their Wrong Habits
  • IRS Agent Confesses to Bilking Taxpayers / Promises to Pay Back Every Dollar Fourfold.

That may seem humorous at this moment, but all three of those are direct from the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 28, God promised that if the nation followed him, they would be debt free and lend to other nations.

In Jonah 3, the king of Nineveh heard Jonah’s proclamation of doom and immediately fell to his knees in prayer and repentance, calling on all the people to do the same.

And in Luke 19:8, Zaccheus-a tax collector-met Christ personally and promised to restore 4x over anyone he defrauded.

It can be hard to filter out truth from the news, especially because the news media seems to thrive on the bad news more than the good news.

In light of that, here’s another headline:

  • God announces global stimulus package: Follow Me and have all you need.

The great news is that God is still in charge. His portfolio has not changed. The challenge with following God is that He doesn’t always provide what we want, and He doesn’t always provide what we think we need-on our timetable.

In the last week four Campus Crusade staff members have come to me with personal financial questions on debt, budgets, and taxes. Two by-products I have seen of this economic uncertainty are:

1. People are looking to God for answers. People are praying more, like they do in any times of uncertainty. The Bible recommends praying always-but more so when we’re in distress.

2. People are re-evaluating their spending and changing their habits. I love chocolate, and I’d eat a lot of it everyday-if my body would let me. But even when I cut back, I sometimes find myself eating too much. So periodically I have to step back and change my habits… again.

As a financial counselor, I encourage you to re-evaluate your spending and savings. You should do this often, but now especially.

And if you are struggling with economic uncertainty, or worse-actual job loss, I encourage you to bring that before the Lord. Just pour your heart out to Him and wait on Him.

Here’s a final word of encouragement from Habakkuk 3:17-19 regardless of your financial situation:

Though the fig tree should not blossom
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

God is sovereign. His goodness and mercy never goes into recession!