Monday, July 1, 2002

In the house where I grew up, we drank a lot of milk. In the house where my wife grew up, they tried to get her to drink a lot of milk. But there was one glass of milk she had when she was a little girl that sort of ruined milk for her from then on. It had this really bitter taste - and her parents, not knowing how it tasted, forced her to finish drinking it. Well, as Farm Girl explained it to City Boy here, their cows had apparently been eating something called bitterweed - which turns what they produce into something bitter. Just ask my wife.

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Our three-year-old grandson was talking with his grandmother on the phone. And all was well. Then he handed the phone over to his Mom and took off across the room to play. Suddenly, Grandma heard him crying in the background. He had tripped over something and actually he had fallen pretty hard. Nothing serious, but he was hurting. Well, he walked back over to Mom and he cried through his tears – “I want to rewind and talk to Grandma!”

Tuesday, May 28, 2002

We're speeding down the Interstate when suddenly we come upon this RV, pulling a small car behind him. It looked like the little car was actually pushing this big recreational vehicle, but, of course, I knew that couldn't be. The car's license plate was clearly visible - it said, "Me also." That didn't make any sense until I managed to get a glimpse of the license plate on the RV that was pulling that car. It said, "I'm happy." Cute.

Wednesday, April 24, 2002

In his Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis created a magical land called Narnia where the animals talked - and which he used to illustrate allegorically some important Biblical truths. The Christ-figure in the Chronicles is a majestic lion named Aslan. And, there's a little girl named Lucy, who's one of the children who discovers Narnia. Now, in the Narnia book, Prince Caspian, Lewis relates a reunion between Lucy and Aslan, whom she has not seen for some time. And, it's a tender reunion. What follows is a short, but very insightful, conversation. Lewis says that Lucy "gazed up into that large, wise face. 'Welcome, child,' he said. 'Aslan,' said Lucy, 'you're bigger.' 'That is because you are older, little one,' answered he. 'Oh, not because you are?' 'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'"

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

I'm glad they didn't tell me until it was over. It was my first time landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York City - an airport whose runways jut right out into Jamaica Bay. When I arrived, my friends told me that I had just landed on the garbage of New York City. Now, that is a very exciting thought. It turns out that much of the airport was actually built on landfill - yes, it was made from Big Apple garbage. That's not bad for piles of trash.

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Our friends recently got a new horse - number five of the little herd they have in their barn and pasture. This one is the biggest of the lot - half Morgan, half Belgian, for those to whom that means anything. As soon as she was let out of her corral for the first time, it was interesting to watch the social interaction in the Pasture Club. The smallest horse - a strong-minded Arabian horse came up real close to the new girl on the block, pushing to see who would be in charge. The answer: a swift kick in the hindquarters. The next couple of hours was an equine soap opera as each horse asserted their claim to their turf and maneuvered for dominance - and to be sure who was the herd boss in this new arrangement.

Monday, March 4, 2002

Anniversaries can throw another log on the old romantic fire. Our kids watch the video of their wedding. They didn't have video in those primitive days when my wife and I were married, but we do have an audio tape of our wedding. And it's great to revisit the day that our marriage began and to hear what we promised each other, and to remember the passion of our first love.

Thursday, January 24, 2002

City Boy here is a lot of fun to watch when he's trying to be Farm Boy. My wife and I were helping out in someone's barn the other night when it happened - the large shadow of something flying over our heads. I hadn't seen the creatures yet - all I could see was this massive shadow on the wall. I knew my responsibility as a man - that's right, run for help. Well, no, there was actually no reason to run. When we looked up we saw what was casting those huge, unsettling shadows - some little moths, flying around the little light overhead. The shadow was scary - the reality behind the shadow wasn't very scary at all.

Monday, January 21, 2002

The idea of building a Headquarters as a base for our ministry's mission sounded exciting - and very overwhelming. It took amazing financial miracles and the help of people who know so much more than I do. I did some building with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs when I was little, but that experience did not prepare me adequately for the first real building project of my life. An architect drew the blueprint for what we needed the Headquarters to be, and that was great. But there I stood with this very big and detailed drawing - having no idea of where to start with what was on that paper. Thank God for the contractor that He brought into our lives! He knew what to do!

My friend Nathan was on the 61st floor of Tower Two that September day when a hijacked jetliner flew into the World Trade Center. I interviewed him recently for our youth broadcast, RealTime, and I was deeply moved by the story Nathan told. He was coming out of the restroom when he remembers seeing a piece of burning paper float by the window. That was his first hint of the horror that was to follow. As people began to realize they might be in danger, they did what my friend did - they headed for the stairwell. Nathan's account took me into those stairwells, ultimately jammed with screaming people -- through the terror of first the smoke starting to fill the stairwell and then the quake when a plane hit their building.

Our friend finally made it to the soot-covered lobby - and that's where he saw the faces he says he'll never forget. He told me, "I started seeing some of the rescue workers for the first time heading toward the stairwells and directing us out. You can still remember the looks on some of those people's faces - looking just as scared as I was, I'm sure. They are some of the people that helped save my life - and never made it out themselves."