Concrete And Clay

As I mentioned before, I'm supposed to be in Honduras right now but circumstances intervened. Each of my eleven trips has been different but I always come home feeling a difference has been made through the work the Lord has allowed us to do. The biggest difference, however, is always in the attitudes of our group as we return to our lives of opulence. This entry, from July 27, 2006, is about one of my favorite journeys to Honduras.

They never made it big but they had my favorite name ever for a rock group: The Unit Four Plus Two. A pop combo from England, they started as Unit Four but required a different moniker with the addition of more musicians. Like many groups from that era, they achieved success with only one record. Theirs was the smash hit Concrete And Clay, one song I'd love to sing along with on the Houston oldies' station, but they never play it. Since you are unlikely to hear it if you live in the nation's fourth largest city, I can at least provide a few lines from the chorus of this British invasion classic:
The sidewalks in the street,
The concrete and the clay beneath my feet begins to crumble:
But love will never die
And we'll see the mountains tumble, before we say goodbye.
I guess you'll just have to imagine the tune yourself (or watch the youtube video at the bottom!) but it had sort of a bossa nova beat. The lyrics might be a little corny but love was portrayed as a permanent commitment. Concrete represents stability, something solid to stand on. In an unstable world, stability is a precious commodity.

During the past several years, I have become thoroughly acquainted with concrete. On a mission trip to Haiti, I discovered that for much of the world, concrete does not magically stream out of the back of a cement truck and land wherever it is directed. I found that in poor countries, it is mixed on the ground and carried in buckets or wheelbarrows to its desired destination. I also have come to the belief that every adult male in Haiti and Honduras has expertise in making concrete the old fashioned way. Since we do alot of construction work to aid local Christians on our Honduras missions AND since the Lord blessed me with no other discernible construction skills, I spend most of my time preparing concrete for floors, walls, and bridges. Here is the Honduran recipe we followed this summer:
A. Take 2 wheelbarrows of sand, heaped up and sifted.
B. Add one eighty pound bag of Portland cement, dry.
C. Mix with shovels; remix.
D. Hollow out the center of the pile like mashed potatoes.
E. Add water and mix with shovels for several minutes.
F. Add water, sand, or powdered cement to achieve desired texture.
G. Shovel into wheelbarrows or five gallon buckets.
H. Repeat process continuously for hours.
I. When in doubt, mimic the Hondurans.
I love making concrete. At the end of the day, I am filthy, covered with a combination of the various ingredients which comprise my favorite building material. Over the past nine years, I have spent roughly one hundred days in Honduras. Last Tuesday was one of my two or three favorite of the hundred. A group of our Shine Mission team, mostly young and heavily female and with the valuable assistance of several local men, put down a concrete floor in a church building in one day. I have never witnessed such teamwork from such a diverse collection of Christians. Isolated in the wooded hills above San Marcos de Colon, this house of worship occupies the most beautiful location I know of any structure set aside for the praising of God... and now it has a solid floor to rest on. The work was difficult, the rain was soaking, the forty-five minute ride back on a flat bed truck was numbingly cold....and the memories will last a lifetime. And Lord willing, so will the concrete.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Concrete is, essentially, the color of bad weather."
William Hamilton

To watch a music video of Concrete And Clay by The Unit Four Plus Two, click here. (This is primitive by modern standards!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBVq6bag9z8

Shoutout to our El Rodeo Concrete Crew, July 18, 2006:
Tim McDonald (our fearless leader for the day),Callie, Katie, Casey, Allie, Molly, April, Larry, Casey, Ben, and Macy.
"But as for you, be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded."
II Chronicles 15:7

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

By Their Fruits...

I have to tell you, I have a soft spot in my heart for berries. My father was raised in Michigan and his folks raised blueberries to sell. With the profits from their produce, my grandparents were able to send Dad to Harding College, a world away in Arkansas, where he met the red headed young lady who would become my mom. I could make the argument that my conception depended on blueberries. That might be a stretch but I can truthfully state that blue has always been my favorite color.

On the Friday morning of our family reunion, Uncle Jack announced that we were going berry picking. I drove the pickup truck with my cousins Emma and Walker while Uncle Jack cruised ahead on his John Deere mower. On two roadside fence rows separated by a half mile, the four of us picked wild berries in the early morning Arkansas heat. Uncle Jack told us their names which I didn't recognize- I would have thought they were mulberries. An hour worth of picking yielded two large Styrofoam cups full of fruit which graced the breakfast table the next two mornings. (One is shown above in a shot wonderfully framed by the nine year old camera prodigy, Emma.)

I don't know how Uncle Jack spotted those berry patches. I could have driven by those fences forever and never discovered anything edible entwined with the barbed wire. Uncle Jack knew where to look...and he was looking. Jesus used numerous illustrations and parables using fruit as the context. The Savior compared fruit to recognition of leaders, to the harvest of souls, to the reward for hard work. His only miracle of destruction concerned a fig tree that was acting like it should be producing fruit, but was not. It's easy to see how Jesus could come up with so many applications from such uncomplicated subject matter. Picking berries for only an hour sheds light on so many things. It was hot the day we went out and there were thorns. Emma and Walker had to overcome fatigue, discomfort, fear of high grass, and bugs if they wanted success, no easy task at ages nine and seven, respectively. The newness wore off quickly with the realization that it takes a considerable number of berries to fill a cup. Sometimes, you had to reach way back to find the better berries and sometimes, it wasn't evident which berries were the better ones. But, time and persistence- and Uncle Jack's encouraging- produced a nice gathering for the benefit of the whole family. As Christians, without calculating obstacles into the equation, we expect instant gratification in our spiritual harvests. Nature has never worked that way and the Lord never promised easy results. He did promise, however, that the harvest was plentiful. Sometimes, we just have to overcome a few thorns.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.”
Wendell Berry

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

Shoes R Us

I was supposed to wake up in Honduras this morning. Instead, I rolled out of bed at Scott and Karen's home in Wichita. This morning, was Missions Sunday at their congregation and the theme of the Bible class was work in Africa. The pictures and videos reminded me of the poverty seen in my missions to Haiti and Honduras. The following is from November 27, 2005 and centers on what we take for granted, shoes.

I broke a vow this morning. Today is the one they call 'Black Friday,' the day after Thanksgiving dedicated to sales and Christmas shopping. Apparently, the 'Black Friday' tag comes from retailers' hope their bottom line will change from debt to profitability. Consumers are deluged with ads and the network morning shows do remotes from malls that can't fit one more car into the parking lots. I hate shopping anyway so why go on the worst day of the season? Kohl's got to me. The Kohl's circular with the bargains we have all been waiting for arrived in my parents' driveway on Wednesday along with Penney's, Target, Famous-Barr, etc. In spite of myself, I peeked and there it was: New Balance 470 running shoes for only $29.99! It was an Early Bird Special, only valid from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. I live in running shoes and New Balance usually run between $40-50 so I really had no choice. I woke up at 4:15, drank enough coffee to keep me awake, took a quick shower, and headed out the door to Kohl's which is only several miles from my folks' residence. I thought I would be the only one there. Instead, the store was already crowded at 5:10, the moment I entered. It only took five minutes to get the shoes; standing in line took longer. I was the only person who was only after one item. It was a family affair, with well coordinated attacks on different departments. Kohl's is smart. They give shoppers a great reason to get there early and to justify their presence, they buy alot of stuff. It's brilliant! The customers in Kohl's were calm and friendly, not like the people I saw fighting on news clips over gifts that always seemed to be toys or electronic devices. I feel good about the whole experience, except not being able to get back to sleep at 5:45 when my shopping safari concluded, almost before it began.

For years, I only wore Nike shoes. Nike sponsored the basketball camp my players put on at Friendship Christian School and I would have felt disloyal to wear anything else. Now, I go with the best deals whether the brand is Nike, New Balance, or Adidas. Two years ago, I discovered my feet were growing! I've always worn size 10 but I found myself needing 11's and I even purchased a pair of 11 1/2's! A second growth spurt- I would probably also shoot up three more inches to 6'4"! I was crestfallen when Casey Farris, one of our coaches, told me Nike changed its sizing system. What used to be a 10 is now an 11, etc. He thinks it's so boys can say they wear bigger sizes. My illusions of catching my brother Dave in height went up in canvas. I never appreciated the luxury of shoes until I went on mission trips to Haiti and Honduras where footwear is ragged at best. We worked with men in Haiti who drove metal into rock with sledge hammers, wearing no shoes. Children in Honduran villages run barefoot through streets littered with broken bottles and jagged tin can lids. I rotate my shoes to keep them fresh. The rest of the world should be so lucky. Society kids American women about shoe obsessions but many boys in my classes have 20 plus pairs themselves. Both genders in the US are shoe gluttons. We want the latest styles and colors while the world wants only warm and protected feet.

We don't consider feet objects of beauty. One of my former basketball players, Angie Tucker, was a model for L'Eggs hose and sent me a catalog using her pictures. She included Russell Athletics advertisements which used photos of her hands and feet. Angie was a beautiful young lady and apparently possessed very lovely feet but we don't really notice feet. The Bible had different standards than we do. Romans 10:15 quotes Isaiah 52 when it states "how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Paul also speaks of feet in Ephesians 6:15 when describing the armor of God. The apostle tells us to have our "feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." I don't think my New Balance have that feature. I am more concerned about comfort/style than those shoes taking me where I can be a blessing in the kingdom. I was willing to get up very early and inconvenience myself for physical shoes. Would I be as eager for a sale on the footwear Paul mentions in Ephesians? Angie had beautiful feet in the eyes of the fashion world. Would anyone think my feet are beautiful in the spiritual realm? As they always do, the scriptures have a way of taking ordinary things and making me take a hard look at myself. As I often do, I come up short. My New Balances are 11's but my religious shoes are about a 5 1/2. I'm not giving up hope! By this time next year, I plan to be wearing a 6 1/2 or 7 and that without some Nike sizing hocus-pocus! If Kohl's can get to me with a 1/4 page ad, think what the Lord can do with the 66 books of his catalog of catalogs, the Bible. Now, I just have to get ready for the after Christmas sales!

Applicable quote of the day:
"I buy shoes for women and they use them to walk away from me."
Mickey Rooney

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

Life From Death

Michaela Leigh Thomas
Melbourne, Florida resident, 21

Michaela Leigh Thomas, 21, of Melbourne, Fla., died at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, June 28, 2009. She was born March 1, 1987 in Lansthul, Gemany. Her parents are Mike and Pellie Thomas and Kathy and William Yockey. She was a May graduate of Florida State University with a Bachelor of Science degree. She was active in Calvary Chapel and Relay For Life. Surviving are her parents, Mike and Pellie Thomas and William and Kathy Yockey; brother, David Thomas; grandparents, Al and Judy Thomas. Funeral services were held July 3, 2009 at Davis-Seawinds Funeral Home in Melbourne, Fla., with Cleave S. Frink officiating.

From the Ashes:
Michaela Thomas was a 21-year-old woman who had just graduated from Florida State University in May. If she was laughing, you were laughing too, an infectious smile and a personality that allowed her to comfort people she didn’t even know. Michaela was set to start her masters degree at the University of Central Florida in August, but she died after being in a car accident on June 28. I am her father. She always took the outcast and unpopular and befriended them. She was the light in a dark room and had incredible talent, tireless work ethic and limitless potential. She was adamant about being an organ donor, her body was in perfect condition after the accident, her organs and tissues helped over 40 people to live even as she died. As my wife and I sat on the hotel patio watching the helicopters coming and going, whisking my little girl’s organs to people in desperate need, tears were rolling down our faces. I imagine there were 40 people with tears of joy rolling down their faces as their prayers for life giving organs were answered. My baby girl found a way to give comfort in life and life from death. Please become an organ donor . . . the life you save may be somebody you can’t live without.

The obituary above was in my hometown newspaper on Thursday. I could not find any connection between the young lady and York, Nebraska but there must have been one. I was struck by several things. The first was a remarkable likeness to one of my former students. Another would be the brevity of life for this wonderful young lady. The third was the heartfelt plea by her father for any reader to become like his little girl and declare themselves to be an organ donor. In her death, she brought life to others. Many families are eternally grateful she did. I can't comfort her family in their grief but I can do this: I can pass on the example of Michaela. The rest is up to us.

God bless,

Steve

Luke 18:1

www.hawleybooks.com

E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

The Loss

Now that the memorial service and funeral for Michael Jackson are completed, the dividing of his estate begins. At the time of his death, he was apparently deeply in debt but the sales of his music have skyrocketed in the past two weeks. Jackson made one of the shrewdest business decisions of all-time in the 1980's when he, at the suggestion of Paul McCartney, bought the copyrights to the Beatles' songs, outbidding McCartney in the process. No one doubts his children will be well taken care of when the issues are settled but it will take more than one lawyer to sort it out.

My will is less complicated; I don't have one. There is a $100,000 life insurance policy but my folks are the beneficiaries which makes no sense as they are deceased. (You can read more on that in my 3-7-07 post if you like!) That doesn't mean I've never made provision for the transfer of my precious assets. Thirteen years ago, I baptized one of my students in Tennessee, Leigh Leftwich. To commemorate the occasion, Leigh gave me a silver cross inscribed with JESUS CHRIST IS LORD on one side in English and the same on the opposite side in Braille. I was so touched, I took it to a jeweler and put the cross on a silver chain, promising Leigh I would never take it off as long as I live. It became my most valued possession, so much that I had to decide who should inherit it when I pass away. I chose Kathryn Thomas, a young lady on my high school basketball team who my book was dedicated to. I put my wishes on paper and sent copies to my folks and Kathryn. No notary and no lawyers were utilized although I think I used a sheet of legal paper. If you look at the picture above taken two summers ago in Honduras, you can see the cross around my neck. (You can also see that wearing a baseball hat for hours leads to bad hair days!)

You know, it's a funny thing about jewelry- after time, you forget you have it on. It becomes part of your body in a sense. One day in May, I looked in the mirror....and no cross. I spun the chain as sometimes the cross got caught in the back but it had vanished. I couldn't remember the last time I'd noticed it but it might have been several days. I searched my apartment- nothing. My gut feeling was it came off when I was running in the pool and was long gone down the drain. It would be honest to say I mourned. As I mentioned, I considered it the most cherished thing I owned. The hardest part for me was calling Kathryn, which I did last week. She was more than sympathetic and understanding and knows as well as anyone my penchant for losing everything. It was great touching base with Kathryn, now more properly Mrs. Phillips. We have not seen each other since I helped perform her wedding six years ago this month. She and Andrew are parents now and while Kathryn is an elementary teacher, she is presently employed as a stay-at-home mom. She's a good one.

I'm careless. I try not to be and I attempt to pay attention but my thoughts wander so easily that I misplace whatever is not nailed down. Have you ever been out on a boat and found yourself drifting? It happens when you're unaware and you find yourself turned around, maybe even lost. Hebrews 2:1 tells us that, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." How can we be so careless as to drift away from the best thing in our existence? Believe me, it was hard to tell Kathryn I was careless and had lost what I had promised her. How could I possibly face the Lord and admit I was careless with my soul? I hope I pay closer heed to my salvation than to a piece of silver on a chain, sentimental as it may have been. I don't want to lose another inheritance.

Applicable quote of the day:
"If you want to really know what your friends and family think of you, die broke, and then see who shows up for the funeral."
Gregory Nunn

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

Leap Of Faith

Our mid week Bible classes are looking at answered prayer. In our study last night, Dave Yasko mentioned the incident on the Sea of Galilee where Peter walked on the water...for a little while. Dave was making the point that before Peter came, Jesus summoned him. That first step out of the boat- that would have been a struggle for any of us. I hate deep water where you can't see the bottom and I want something solid on which to rest my weight. I'm not sure what is more scary sometimes; the ability to see what's at the bottom or having no idea how far down the bottom is. As Christians, we hesitate to take that first step on a journey of faith. We want the assurance that everything will be safe and the outcome will be predictably good. We sing Blessed Assurance but I think we just want a preponderance of assurance before we do anything. The Sears Tower in Chicago, the tallest American skyscraper, has just opened four small observation decks on the 103rd floor, one quarter of a mile above the street. What is unique about these ledges is that they extend past the side of the building and the only thing separating the tourist and the pavement is a 1 1/2 sheet of glass. Would you trust the very human architects and construction workers? Click on this link and watch this clip from the TODAY Show... if you aren't queasy!
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/31680930#31680930

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

Bass Master

One of the highlights of our family reunion for me was fishing in the same farm pond my mother probably fished in as a little girl. Most of my time on the shore was spent with my Uncle Jack and two of my young cousins, Emma, who is nine and her seven year old brother, Walker. There is so much you can learn from fishing, like patience and learning to do things which make you squeamish. (Think worms.) The following, from March 27, 2006 is one of the best fish stories I have ever heard.

When I was in college and for the first six years of my teaching career, I fished constantly. It was never something I excelled at but it was outdoors and I always fished with friends. A class I sponsored at Georgia Christian School bought me a VERY expensive rod and reel. The reel was an Ambassadeur, complicated for the non-proficient angler. It was the equivalent of giving a Ferrari to a sixteen year old boy. I spent more time untangling the line than I did fishing! It's been years since I fished, not counting family reunions where the purpose is being together while letting the little ones have fun. My attention was captured by a fishing story last week. It centered on a world record bass caught in California. On March 2o, Mac Weakley pulled in a bass in Dixon Lake that weighed in at a whopping 25.1 pounds. (The heaviest bass on record was netted in Georgia seventy-four years ago, tipping the scale at 22 1/4 pounds.) Weakley had witnesses, weighed the bass on land (as rules stipulate), and had video/pictures taken of himself and his monster haul. Sounds like Weakley has a cut-and-dried record, doesn't it? Not so fast! Some are not quite as quick to crown Weakley's bass as the Greatest Ever. To begin with, some believe a bass could never attain a size of 25 pounds. Another problem focuses on the scale used to weigh the catch: it was not certified. Lastly, Weakley released the bass back into the 70 acre body of water. Taken as a group, these points make some suspicious of this effort which would shatter a record considered as untouchable as Joe DiMaggio's fifty-six game hitting streak in baseball. Will Mac Weakley and his fish be sanctioned by the International Game Fish Association? The jury is out but it's believed had Weakley kept the fish and it met the necessary criterion, it would have meant a million dollar payday for the California fisherman.

We've been discussing the miracles of Jesus in my sophomore Bible classes. The Gospel accounts don't sugarcoat the fact that not everyone in the first century was convinced of the validity of these signs. Sometimes the evidence was denied- a blind man who was healed only looked the same man. Sometimes alternative explanations were given- Jesus was driving out demons by the power of Satan. Sometimes miracles were treated with contempt- healing on the Sabbath could not please God! There was no guarantee that witnessing a miracle produced belief in the one who performed it. It seems incredulous that someone could watch the dead being raised, the lepers being cleansed, the lame walking, the deaf hearing, etc and not fall down in worship but many today read those accounts and aren't touched. It comes down to faith. The fish story is a poor illustration but it's the best I have. Some will never believe the world record bass report and some will accept the feat with zero skepticism. I take no stance: my faith is not in fish!

"Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
John 20:30, 31

Applicable quote of the day:
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing poles."
Doug Larson

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com