From the Field

Miles is going to be a big brother soon and so his family is going to move into a bigger house on station tomorrow.  Unfortunately, that house will no longer be 2 houses from mine.  So I will miss talking to him through his door on my way to and from work, the stops in his yard to play with him when he is outside as I am walking home, his running away to Aunt Erin’s house to play and more.  Today he came to play so his mom could finish packing up.  We played with balls, talked on the phone, had a snack, read some stories, scavenged in the garden, fed the guinea pigs and swung on the porch swing looking at the beautiful valley around us.  I will miss those times.  I am happy for his family’s chance to move into a bigger house, but I will sure miss the closeness of this little boy to my house.   I guess I will need to take some longer walks to visit him.
Source: Miles is Moving from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific

I recently saw that Asbury offers a Masters degree in Church Planting.  Most days, as a church planter, I think, “What I wouldn’t give to have received more training and theological education specifically in the area of church planting!”   Often church planting has felt like this; (see picture of our sweet daughter hesitating before heading to school one day) like I’m standing at the top of the stairs, hesitating – waiting – praying – learning – observing – learning and praying some more, and all the while feeling a bit un-prepared.  Oh, I have my “Theological” back pack on, filled with all the things I learned from seminary, and in that backpack I’ve added things I’ve learned about this culture and learned about living cross culturally for over 5 years now.  We were at the top of the stairs for years, and it can be confusing and frustrating up there, when you are not “doing”, what you feel are, tangible things toward your goal.  I’m speaking as a person who likes to see and take tangible steps moving myself forward.  But I’ve realized, among many things, that church planting isn’t about me moving forward – it is about God moving, that God has been moving and is moving, and church planting is about following his leading!  This past summer we received clarity on how to move forward.  First came church planting coaching sessions, and we are still eating those up!  Then came opportunities to walk through doors that God…
Source: on the steps of Church planting from Scotts – Eurasia

He is 5 years old, has 2 older sisters and a younger brother and he lives in the Jimi Valley.  The information isn’t much, but knowing it attached me even more to the little person laying on the table. His mom brought him in because of left sided abdominal pain, which he has had on and off for a number of years.  This time, it has been there for 2 days and he hasn’t really wanted to eat.  When I looked at him, I saw a cute kid, who looked a little thin and whose belly was protruding a bit.  When I examined him, he didn’t cry nor did he seem afraid, but laid perfectly still while I pushed and poked him.   His belly was soft, not very noisy, and had a mass on the left side, which I thought most likely was a big spleen because he lives in the Jimi Valley.  I got an X-ray and blood test, which didn’t help me much, so then I told them to the ultrasound room to look at the abdominal mass.  Instead of the normal architecture of the spleen, I found a big fluid filled mass instead.  I never identified anything that looked like spleen, but Bill helped me find a very squished kidney under the mass.  So most likely this is a huge splenic cyst of some sort.  Hopefully we will find out in the next few weeks when Jim and/or Ben cuts it out. Please pray for this…
Source: Getting attached from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific