My Wheaton Story

When I arrived at the airport, all the "aliens" were greeted with a good old fashioned American welcome of over two hours in a passport control queue of around 600 people, being tackled by 3 surly customs guards, while watching 6 empty booths for the trickle of Americans passing straight through. So I apologised profusely to Tony, my host, who was very gracious when I finally emerged.
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Just then he had a chance encounter with two other good friends of his plus wives, who had also just arrived. One was Michael Quicke, one-time Principal of Spurgeon's College and author of a ground-breaking book on preaching called, "360 Degree Preaching"; and the other was Bob Wiseheart, a retired pastor of various American Baptist Churches. It seemed a good opportunity for everyone and a personal privilege for me to meet the man behind a book I had studied during my training for ministry and we decided to meet for lunch the following day.

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On the way back Tony was really buzzing about this felicitous meeting and we chatted about how the Lord leads and talked about how in Acts the Holy Spirit led Philip to even witness to an Ethiopian Government Official. We were both very encouraged about our encounter at the airport.

The following day was very precious. I got on really well with Bob who had just the loveliest spirit and was so gracious towards me. He decided to take me around Chicago and poured his life & wisdom into me during my trip. We talked about every single aspect of pastoral ministry you could imagine and he gently mentored me with a real father's heart. I thank the Lord for his kindness and ministry to me. I will NEVER forget it.

While I was at Wheaton, I spent quite a bit of time in the library. One day I returned to my computer and there was a guy sat at the next station to mine who was just leaving. We got chatting briefly and he asked what I was doing in Wheaton. Then he said, "You know, I just feel I should invite you to a banquet at the Hilton I am organising. It is usually $75 for a ticket, but I want you to come as my guest. It's an Ethiopian-American banquet." I thought this a bit unusual and fobbed him off. Later at Tony and Marion's I asked them if it was normal for a total stranger to invite you to a banquet at a top hotel. They counselled caution.

The next morning though I was lying in bed and remembered that passage in Acts where Philip went to witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch and I started to read...

Ac 8:26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians...

That was all I needed to read. Ethiopian Official. Ethiopian Banquet! Maybe the Lord was directing me to go to this thing! So that's how I ended up being at the Hilton in my jeans and hoodie at a banquet of 500 very well-dressed people, sitting next to one of the four organisers (the friend in the library) and finding out about Christians who had been granted the most amazing open door into Ethiopia: a country, incidentally, called the Gateway to Africa.

The Ethiopian Ambassador to the United Nations, His Excellency Kassahun Ayele

But here's the craziest part. What I didn't know was that the honoured guest at this event was the Ethiopian Ambassador to the United Nations, His Excellency Kassahun Ayele, an important government official. As I sat there, I felt the Lord telling me I was to go pray for him and give him a prophetic word. After the banquet I had opportunity to meet him and he listened intently as I shared the word I sensed the Lord had given me; he then graciously allowed me to pray for him and asked if I would keep in touch by email.

I used to preach about the verse where Philip is told to go to the chariot. 'The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Then Philip ran...' as a beautiful illustration of a willingness to be led by the Spirit. I thank the Lord for the encounter he gave me and the way he arranged for me to end up in that special place. I am always praying that I will keep in step with the Spirit, that the Lord would open doors and give me divine appointments; that I will move and operate in the gifts and anointing of the Holy Spirit. And I am so grateful that the Lord is still teaching me.

And I am learning.

Back. Up. Your. Data.

In my first year at LST I got to know a dissertation student who was running her bibliography off a floppy disk and had no copy on a hard disk anywhere. I didn't feel I ought to keep nagging this particular acquaintance, so I didn't labour the point about always having multiple copies in different places.

A few days later, the inevitable happened. The floppy corrupted. She lost every single reference of the hundreds she had, and had to go through the entire library making up her bibliography all over again. It took her days and she was as MISERABLE as sin. I empathised passionately. I wrung my hands in concert with hers. But what could I do?

Now read the story below, digest and learn. And the moral of the tale is, if you don't want to find yourself screaming in a massive trash dumper in the back of beyond, then back up your data in multiple places.

Now I've told you. And if you are doing a dissertation I wish you well. Happy New Year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102311.html

Narnia books. Christian?

Well, as I have been taught for many years, when looking for the author's intent, you should always go to the author and see what they intended. (I love my expensive education. You can get a degree in it.)

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Here is C S Lewis' view (straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak) set out in a letter recently discovered in an archive, written in 1961 from Magdalen College, Oxford to a child fan.

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"The whole Narnian story is about Christ . . . Supposing there really was a world like Narnia . . . and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened?

“The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called ‘the lion of Judah’ in the Bible.”

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So that settles it? Probably not.

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But as for C S Lewis's intention? It would dishonour him not to allow him to speak for himself. Here we are, Jack. Here's your moment.

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"The whole Narnian story is about Christ."

Creative Justice. Brilliant.

The Times December 08, 2005

Who says the law is an ass?
From David Charter in Painesville, Ohio
A maverick judge is making the punishment fit the crime

MICHELLE MURRAY anticipated a short jail term for abandoning 35 kittens in a forest. She never expected to be sentenced to spend a night in the woods.

In the event it was so cold that she spent just three hours in the open before being taken back to a warm prison cell, but Judge Mike Cicconetti had made his point. He wanted the 26-year-old Ohio housewife to feel the same pain as the animals she dumped, many of which later died.

“You don’t do that. You don’t leave these poor little animals out and, yes, I wanted to set an example for her future conduct or anybody else who was contemplating doing such a thing,” the plain-speaking 54-year-old judge said.

Judge Cicconetti’s unusual ruling was just the latest example of his unique brand of “creative justice” which has won him national acclaim. He was elected unopposed to serve another six years on the bench in Lake County, Ohio, last month, and this year won the presidency of the American Judges Association.

He sent a man caught with a loaded gun to the mortuary to view dead bodies, and ordered teenagers who let down tyres on school buses to throw a picnic for primary school children.

He has ordered noisy neighbours to spend a day of silence in the woods, or to listen to classical music instead of rock.

After heavy snowfall across northern Ohio this week he handed out sentences involving clearing snow instead of jail. “People will say that it is cruel and unusual punishment — I hear that all the time,” the judge told The Times yesterday. “But what is cruel and unusual punishment? Is it a little bit of embarrassment and humiliation? The old ducking chair they used to use in England, that’s cruel and unusual.

“But when you have people out there fulfilling these sentences, you are doing it for them and the victims and the community.”

The offenders have a choice: jail or a creative sentence. He said: “What could be better than shovelling snow for senior citizens? Do we serve the community better like that or by putting someone in jail at a cost of $70 (£45) a day?” He attributes his unusual approach to his tough background. He was the oldest of nine siblings who had to work part-time collecting rubbish to fund himself through college and studied law at night school.

“I didn’t go to a prestigious law firm. I had to gut it out. It makes you understand what the working man goes through,” he said. He admitted that not all of his creative sentences worked. He gave a drink-driver who tried to run away from police the chance to shorten his sentence if he completed a real running race. The finishing position would determine the time he would remain in jail. The man trained hard, came fifth and was let out five days later, only to use his new athletic skills to snatch a woman’s purse. He was sent to prison by another court.

A drawer in his cramped office in the Painesville Municipal Courthouse is full of thank-you letters from both victims and criminals. The other day he met the uncle of a teenager he ordered to sit outside a pornographic video store. “Part of the sentence, a condition of his probation, was that he finished high school and got a job. He did both and his uncle said he was doing great now.

“When you engage people and praise them for their good behaviour, not unlike children, it helps their self-esteem. My judicial philosophy is really not that much different from a parental philosophy,” he said.

“I have five children. You can paddle them or spank them but what do you gain? Most people want to be good but for little obstacles or habits. We have to change the habits and remove the obstacles. That’s our job.”

JUDGE CICCONETTI'S CREATIVE JUSTICE

A man who called a police officer a pig was sentenced to spend two hours standing in a pen with a hog in central Painesville with a sign saying: “This is not a police officer”

An 18-year-old who stole pornographic videos was ordered by Judge Cicconetti, below right, to sit outside the shop wearing a blindfold and a sign saying “See no evil”

A woman who dumped 35 kittens in the woods was told to spend the night in the same place in freezing conditions

Two teenagers who defaced a nativity statue of Jesus with the number 666 had to lead a donkey through the streets wearing a sign saying “Sorry for the jackass offence”

A couple caught having sex on the beach of Lake Erie were told to apologise in local newspapers

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.

I must say...

I think Marie looked particularly pretty today...

A Fitting Tribute to Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience sparked off major civil rights changes in the United States of America, recently passed away. The story of the bus where she made her stand - by staying seated - is a beautiful piece of history from a unique angle.

Now This Boy's Got Rhythm

This drummer, Tony Royster Jr is only twelve years old and you will see a virtuoso performance on the drums. It is just short of 8 minutes long and is incredibly good. Just wait until the last minute and your jaw will hit the floor. Stand by to be amazed.

I've always been a little bit suspicious of them

Matrix-style Table Tennis

Haka: Very Powerful

This very evocative video clip of the Haka (Maori War Chant) is just a little intimidating... The Kamate haka dates to 1810 when Chief Te Rauparaha of the Ngati Toa tribe was being chased by enemies. He hid in a food-storage pit. Climbing out he found someone standing over him, who, instead of killing him, turned out to be another friendly chief.

In relief Te Rauparaha performed a haka with the words—

It is death, it is death: it is life, it is life; this is the man who enabled me to live as I climb up step by step toward sunlight.

These words are still used today.

Now have a look at the all new "I want to tear you to pieces and slit your throat" haka that was one year in the making. Words below. And let battle commence.

Kapa o pango kia whakawhenua au i ahau! Hi aue, hi!
Let me become one with the land

Ko Aotearoa e ngunguru nei!
This is our land that rumbles

Au, au, aue ha!
And it's my time! It's my moment!

Ko Kapa o Pango e ngunguru nei!
This defines us as the All Blacks

Au, au, aue ha! I ahaha!
It's my time! It's my moment!

Ka tu te ihiihi
Our dominance

Ka tu te wanawana
Our supremacy will triumph

Ki runga ki te rangi e tu iho nei, tu iho nei, hi!
And will be placed on high

Ponga ra!
Silver fern!

Kapa o Pango, aue hi!
All Blacks!

Ponga ra!
Silver fern!

Kapa o Pango, aue hi, ha!
All Blacks!

The Pride Of A Nation

Extolling Protest

I went to a demo in London today to protest about a bill that threatens to undermine one's ability to speak freely on matters of faith & religion in the UK. Several thousand Christians were there of every kind of denominational persuasion and ethnicity. It was WONDERFUL, so special to be part of such incredible unity, fellowship with total strangers, real worshipfulness, deep intercession. I got there and was moved to tears with the sheer beauty of God's church around us in contrast to the grievous occasion of our gathering.

I met an old friend, Bernie who I had ministered with in the past. It was good to see him again. We prayed together with his friend and just as I was leaving, a Pakistani Catholic I had met a little earlier at the gathering introduced himself to Bernie and his friend Mike, saying he didn't know why he needed to speak to them both. So I told him that Mike has links with a Catholic parish out in Pakistan. I didn't know which of them was more surprised at the cooincidence! I slipped away and thanked the Lord for his incredible capacity to make things happen.

The singing was incredible. The presence of God evident. Thanks Lord.

http://www.religioushatredlaw.info/

Lost in TRANSLATION

Oh rats. I just was writing a long post of a story I heard from a fascinating African man I met when I accidentally deleted it. How DISAPPOINTING. I'm not going to retype it now.

What goes round, comes round

When pastoral visiting, you go to give but invariably end up just as encouraged yourself, especially when visiting older folk. I shall have to get used to tea and biscuits.

I heard tonight someone was minding their p's and q's around me because I was "like a vicar". That was a little odd: a total stranger changing their behaviour around me because I was 'in ministry.' That's something to get my head around. When did I change into a different person?

Someone once said, 'If you are called into the ministry, don't stoop to being President of the United States.' Quite right.

If I Wait Forever...

... I will never get motivated to write something. I wanted to write all about my trip, now that I have returned, but there is so much to write about, just starting becomes a massive event in itself.

So instead of that, I will put up a picture I took from the Hancock Tower in Chicago, which is just a breathtaking view.

The Sears Tower is in the distance. This photo was taken on the 95th floor, where you can have a delicious dinner. Your ears may pop while you take the elevator and ascend upwards.

I must go to sleep. I have meetings tomorrow.

What a Return

So now I am back. What a great feeling.

When I Return

I have some great stories for when I return from Wheaton to England. But there is something to be said for bringing a personal report of all that has happened in my time here. So that's why I haven't blogged some of the stories and pictures.

But after I return and have spoken with friends, then I may well blog about my trip. To be more accurate, the people that matter will be reading this and I don't want to tell them via this blog and show them the breathtaking photos, I want to share the time with a face to face meeting.

But I can't wait to blog it and also to see people I love dearly. I travel back into my new pastoral ministry position feeling so blessed, so privileged, so refreshed, so loved by God and those I have had the privilege to interact with. It's been so good. Praise God for Christian friendship and family all around the world.

Here endeth the lesson.

Who are you?

I've just completed my profile. How are you supposed to condense into 1200 characters what God gives you a whole lifetime to work out? Still, it is worth a try.

But I am feeling a little antsy and irritable today and I wonder how much of that has coloured my first attempt so here is an alternative.

I am a person created for relationship, of great destiny, promise, purpose and future. I need not apologise, criticise, defend or justify, just laugh, love and live. I am the only version of me there will ever be.

I have a shared context with other people, who are equally fascinating, valuable and worth knowing and interacting with. I share with them in the life that is uniquely theirs. I am in a world pregnant with opportunity and fraught with paradox, faultlines and vulnerability.

That's me. It's somewhat generic but hey ho. It's a trustworthy saying.

A whole new world

I’ve seen the promised land. At least, I went to its entrance. And I can report that there is a distinct possibility that C S Lewis’ wardrobe in the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College does indeed lead to Narnia.

I spoke to a friendly receptionist called Rachel, who was most solicitous for the entirety of my visit there. She informed me that I would be allowed to take a photograph of the very wardrobe that C S Lewis wrote about in the Narnia series. Not only that, being the only visitor there at that time, I was allowed to open the doors and have a good look inside. The fur coats were there, the wardrobe was as magical as it should be with little slivers of light at the back through cracks in the wooden boards. It was perfect.

And might I add, at the back of the wardrobe, there was indeed something of a surprise, which means it actually might be possible that there is something beyond those fur coats. I can only say that you should go and see. Or ask me for the photo. But, I'm not sure. I mean, it may not work for everyone...

All I can say is, take a visit. The magic is in being able to touch and feel and look inside. On a more serious note, the center houses almost every book written by and about C S Lewis, a lot about Tolkein too, also G K Chesterton and others. I spoke to the archivist there, who helped set up the system in 2001 and she is also most friendly. (We need a few people like that in the UK; it really cheers your day up! And boy do we need cheering up in England. I mean, the weather.)

She opened up a file of facsimiles of C S Lewis' correspondence and it fell open on a handwritten letter that Lewis had written to a young reader. He simply wrote that although he sometimes writes in his books about things that were horrid, he had been in the trenches in the 1st World War, and he had seen things that were he to write about them, they would be too horrid (underlined) for anyone to read. The underline said it all.

So go there, and if you ask Rachel nicely, she may even take a picture of you next to the wardrobe...

What? And in Word too?

So I am checking out how on earth I can blog via Word and bypass a browser completely. How cool is that? Now I can journal and upload within seconds. What would we do without computers? Probably read books and sharpen pencils.

I absolutely love it here at Wheaton. The theological resources they have here, just in this one section of the library alone, are just breathtaking.

I am preparing some sermon series on the book of Philippians for when I get back and start ministering, so I just helped myself to Chrysostom, Calvin (that left the other two sets of volumes + those in the original Greek and Latin versions for others), Spurgeon, Silva, O'Brien, Rogers&Rogers, Lightfoot, Interlinears (sorry Prof. Walton) etc, etc.. I piled them up on my desk and on a chair next to me, sighed in bliss and then got stuck in. It is theological heaven. And not only that, I made such good progress yesterday. I was hoovering it all up. I leave in five days. It's enough to bring you to tears. As I leave, there will be the sound of fingernails being dragged along the carpet. And screaming.

I'm not kidding, in the Billy Graham library (the other one, sheeesh!) there are rows upon rows of books on revival by Finney, Whitefield, Wesley, Baker, etc, etc, etc. I want to stay here and just hide in the library for about a year, WRAP myself up in curiosity and IMMERSE myself in the voices of the most dynamic people who have lived on earth. But I don't want to have to pay $130,000 to come here. Cos I don't have the cash.

Do these people know what they have here? I hope they do.

Today in Wheaton

Well I am in Wheaton, Illinois, right now, staying with some wonderful, new friends who have opened their home to me.

Today I was at a staff meeting at 1st Independent Baptist in Wheaton, sitting in and observing how they run their show. In the afternoon, I strolled round the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, on Wheaton College campus.

The photo below of me was taken right outside the historic Wheaton building. Once inside the Billy Graham Center, I discovered someone else had stood at almost exactly the same spot as me over 52 years ago.

Sloppy Joe's for supper this evening, followed by a home group meeting.

Wow. So I am here...

...into this strange new world. It feels like emerging into the light and not quite knowing what to do with all the space; I must be having an existential moment.

This blogging lark is introspective, isn't it? And slightly egotistical too. I better come up with something worth saying. I'll sleep on it.