Category: Updates

The Pope and the Jew

A long time ago the Pope wanted all the Jewish people to leave Rome, so he gave them three days to evacuate the city. You can imagine they were shocked and outraged, so the Pope said that he would allow them to stay if they could produce a person who could beat the Pope in a silent debate. Well, nobody wanted to face the Pope and risk losing, but one old man who lived on the streets said he would do it. The Jewish people were totally dejected because they knew this old man could never win, but no one else would volunteer so they let him go to the debate.

 

Looking at each other the Pope began.

He held up three fingers. The old man held up one.   

 

Then the Pope swung his hand around the top of his head

The old man pointed to the ground.

 

Exasperated the Pope took out the bread and the wine

the old man took out an apple.

 

In utter disbelief the Pope through up his hands and said, this man is too good, the people can stay!

 

When the bishops surrounded the Pope after the old man had left, they asked him what had happened. The Pope replied, "I held up three fingers to represent God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, he held up one finger to remind me that God is still one and common between us. Then I swung my hand around my head to demonstrate that God is everywhere, and he pointed to the ground to say that God is here with us too. Finally I reminded Him of the death of Jesus with the bread and the wine, and he held up an apple showing me original sin. What else could I do, he had an answer for everything!"

 

Meanwhile, the Jewish people were celebrating but they couldn’t believe what had happened. They surrounded the old man and asked him what had happened. He said, "To begin the Pope held up three fingers to say we had to leave in 3 days,  but I held up 1 finger to say not one of us was leaving. Then he swung his hand around his head to say we could go anywhere but Rome, I pointed to the ground to say we were staying right here…"

 

The people prodded him and begged, "Yes, yes, then what happened?"

 

The old man replied, "I really don’t know, he pulled out his lunch and I pulled out mine."

"The last time I saw her on planet Earth was at one of those aseptic parties. We were sitting there on eggshells, when she walked in and said, ‘Well Hendricks, I haven’t seen you for a long time. What are the five best books you’ve read in the past year?’

She had a way of changing a group’s dynamics. Her philosophy was, Let’s not bore each other with each other; let’s get into a discussion. She was eighty three on her last trip to Israel. She went there with a group of NFL football players. One of my most vivid memories of her is seeing her out front yelling back to them, ‘Come on, men, get with it!"

She died in her sleep at her daughter’s home in Dallas. Her daughter told me that just before she died, she had written out her goals for the next ten years."

"Imagine huddling under a tree with dozens of others, your back flayed open by the whipping leaves and branches in the water, and there’s no medication; the wind is severe and it’s raining hard, you’re hungry and there’s no food, and the only water to drink is the floodwater that surrounds you, which is polluted by the corpses of humans and animals bobbing around you. Your children are crying and the old people are sick. And you look into the sky for planes or across the water for rescue boats, and they both stretch to the horizon and are empty. That’s the situation described by aid officials who are frustrated beyond comprehension at the obstructive response of the Myanmar government.

To see article http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/12/1010557.aspx 

Wow! This morning we spent two hours surrounded by many friends and family. Well, of course, we’re in Taiwan and most of them are in Canada but by using Skype Video we were able to chat with and see most of our female relatives and friends living in Winnipeg. Why female? Well, the reason is that our church put on a very special baby shower for us. We received many wonderful gifts which we are thankful for, but far more touching was being able to spend a few minutes chatting with everyone. I think that nearly everyone of us shed a tear or two!

You’ll notice that the title today is ‘Refreshing’ – why? Quite simply because the love that you have poured out for us has refreshed us in a way that nothing else can! Thank you!

Everyday we get questions like:

"So does your doctor speak English?"

"What is the hospital like?"

"Are there rats running in the halls?" (okay well, maybe this one doesn’t get asked, but we know that people wonder!)

Today we went to the doctor and took a video of the whole experience. Hopefully this will put everyone’s minds at ease. It may in fact make our pregnant friends a little jealous :) 

And yes, our doctor does speak English.

Enjoy a few pictures and a quick update of our week.

We spent three days in the office, getting acquainted with all the gadgets and gizmos. We continued to finish closing the last Titus and we started prepping for the upcoming one – those two things will compose most of our life for the next two months – not including having a baby. Angela has started into her 37th week – so the baby can come at any time!

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude …  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our Attitude."  – Chuck Swindoll

The hospital serves a very important place in our lives. The Greek guy who started it all had a great idea (you’ve heard the motto) – "to always do the best for our patients". (Hippocratic Oath)

Angela had her first appt in a long time and it went well – the baby is getting big, about 2.5 kg and the head is sitting down. The spine runs up from the head along the left side of her belly and the feet kick her ribs on the right side. To enjoy a similar feeling, simply place something belly (or rib) height around a corner, then have a friend phone you so that you are preoccupied, finally walk around the corner at full speed. How did you enjoy it?

Benjamin also made an appt for the doctor – a gastro something something -ologist. Parasite meet probe – actually, I really hope not. But I’m not quite sure what to expect. I’m really hoping it goes ok, otherwise many of you will get a surprising phone call – "pray for Ben, he’s stuck in quarantine – they think he’s got …". In all seriousness, its not that serious, so don’t go getting worried now.

A wiseguy (um, wise man) once mentioned that whether one was rich or poor, they would give everything to be healthy. Lets give a hand (or say a prayer) to those who day in and day out work overtime to restore our health. Much love, B & A.

As I sit down to write this blog entry it is really hard to know where to start- how do I summarize 2 months of amazing and difficult experiences? I’ll break it down into four areas:

Team: We had a team of six people 2 Americans, 2 Koreans and us. We actually had great team unity which is amazing considering we were together every day, all day, for 2 months. Our team was very diverse as far as personalities go, with some being extremely introverted and others extremely extroverted. We had a few small bumps along the way, but they were good for building character. Four of the six of us will continue to work with Titus Project leading teams in the future- so exciting! 

Teaching & Preaching: Our main goal coming here was to train people HOW to study the Bible. In lots of the 9 villages we were able to do this, but in a few we focused on teaching them the big picture of the Bible using a story telling method. Of course, in every village the pastor would have us preach on the Sunday morning and usually another service during the week. They are used to having DTS teams come through here so we always had to explain that we didn’t do dances or skits but we were bible teachers :) Actually we did end up doing lots of skits with our teaching because the people loved it, but no dancing (Thankfully! Have you ever seen Ben dance???). One of the highlights was just this last week. YWAM Borneo was having a staff conference and asked us to train all the staff how to study their bibles. So for 25 hours we trained 30 full time workers that go out into the villages all the time. We went through the books of Titus and Ephesians and by the end of the seminar they REALLY seemed to get it. A great way to end.

Health and Pregnancy: This was probably the biggest challenge for us. We aren’t sure why, but Ben was often sick. Between the heat and the food, he often had no energy and his stomach was constantly bothering him. He threw up a few times too. The amazing thing is that whenever he had to teach or preach he had the energy and strength to get through and never missed one because of sickness. I was blessed with good health, only once or twice feeling a little sick. My tummy got bigger and bigger throughout the two months, and little Beaner kept getting more active. But God has really been so faithful and kept me healthy with no scares or fears. Being pregnant was also a great conversation starter with people everywhere we went.

Marriage: This was one of the unexpected surprises of this time in Indonesia. I thought that because of the lack of privacy and the uncomfortable conditions that it would be a challenge for our relationship, but actually it was the opposite. We’ve grown even closer, love each other even more and had some really fun times together. 

There is so much more to write, but you will all just have to come to Taiwan and have coffee with us :) Hope you enjoy the short video (sorry mac users) and pictures! The video should be a little higher quality than usual but this also means it will take longer to load. We will be back in Taiwan by the 9th. Once we get home we will do our best to get back to writing emails and updating the web page regularly. Until then, please be patient with us :)