April 2007 – Made for Eternity

“You were horizontally strapped to a car via duct tape in 30 degree weather!”

Day 84

As my former roommate so dramatically stated above, yes, I was. Like the cartoon below, it seemed like a good idea at the time . . .

It was all part of a “Survivor-like” team contest in which one of the elements included each of the two teams duct-taping a member (me) of the group to a side of and old beat up car. Whoever fell off first lost that round.

Unfortunately, Bible college students tend not to be the greatest at the whole physics thing. They decided to attach the strips of duct tape on to a horizontal surface (i.e. the roof), rather than vertical surfaces (i.e. the sides of the car) ensuring that neither one of us on either side would be able to fall off at all. This would not have been problematic if it had been, say, mid-June. But it was not. It was April. And April in Chicago can get downright chilly. And they forgot to tape my head up, so . . .

I was like that for an hour and twenty minutes. I think they figured they should call off the idea and just give both sides the points when I started turning gray, became incoherent and was shivering uncontrollably. I’ve never been so cold in my life, which makes sense considering the Chicago wind, the metal car, and my inability to, you know, move and circulate blood.

I still don’t think my roommate has forgiven me for going through with the whole ridiculous fiasco. As she said, “Where were all the grown-ups?”

A sad side note to this story is that the young man in the picture, Clark, died tragically a couple years later. When I heard about his death, I immediately went and found the photo. I hardly knew Clark, but somehow looking at this goofy picture was comforting to me after the shock of the news.

Onward.

Spiritual Vitamins for Believers, Part 20:

I am kept by the power of God (1 Pet. 1:5).
I am preserved in Jesus Christ (Jude 1).
I am kept from falling (Jude 24).
I have a building of God eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).
My name is forever written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
I am more than a conqueror, even a super-conqueror (Rom. 8:37).
I have victory through Christ (1 Cor. 15:57).
I have overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5).
I always triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14).
I am indwelt by the victorious Christ who is greater than Satan (1 John 4:4).

Em

Day 87

Sometime in 1988, a seven year old girl wrapped herself in the drapes in the family room of her home in Stroudsburg, PA, and secretly whispered a prayer to God for a little sister.

Why I wrapped myself in the drapes, I don’t know – maybe it felt safe and hidden. What I do know is that at that time, unbeknownst to me, the God who hears had already answered my prayer. A baby was on the way. The morning our parents told my two brothers and I about the impending arrival of “Babykins” (our family’s name for our unborn little ones – it comes from a Richard Scaary book), we went downstairs and set the table for six, much to Dad and Mom’s amusement.

Saturday, 22 April 1989 was a spring day not unlike today – warm and sunny. And that day, after months of waiting, Emily June made her appearance into the world. I ran around the house with a sense of elation that I’ve rarely felt since. I finally had a sister!

Today, my little sister turns eighteen. “Little” no longer, of course – she’s 4 inches taller than me, but still. I guess she’ll always be my little sister.

Today she is a beautiful, intelligent, kind young woman with a knack for caring for kids, strong academic and leadership records, a talent for drama, high school graduation in a couple of months, and college on the horizon. Where’d those eighteen years go?

Today I remember the sweetness of years gone by, of sisterhood, of sticking together as “the girls” with our four brothers. I remember the typical sisterly friction, the inside jokes, the giggling, the games. I remember our relationship growing as she grew older, so that now we are close friends who share a love for the Lord, a sense of humor, and similar tastes in books and music. We mainly communicate through email and instant messenger. Oh, and Facebook, of course.

Today I miss you, Em. I wish I could give you a hug, kiddo. But shouting HAPPY EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY across the wide world web will have to do until 87 days from now.

Nakupenda, dada yangu. Sana.

The pressing Virginia Tech questions: “How could someone do this?” and “Were they ready?”

Day 92

I’ve heard the first question dozens of times in the last two days. Once again, tragic events have caused millions to ask “why?” The first thing that popped into my head when I first heard the question was:

The world is dark. “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)

Does this fully answer the question? No. But Mr. Cho Seung-Hui was a sinner. He, like all of us, had a sin nature, a heart of darkness. He gave more rein to that nature than most of us do. What’s more surprising is that this doesn’t happen more often considering how much sin we are all capable of.

The question fewer are asking – but the one that stabs my heart far more – is the latter.

I go to class 5 days a week, and until yesterday I never considered the possibility that I could die in the middle of a lecture on stuttering or vocal nodules. I can guarantee that those students in Norris Hall did not imagine that that class would be their last, that their life would end in that room. So the question that haunts me is the one of their readiness. If that had been my classroom and I had been a victim, I know with absolute certainty where I would have ended up – in heaven with my Savior.

I am ready to die. Were they? Are you?

People don’t like to talk about death. They’ll talk about nearly anything else, but when it comes to the most inevitable thing in life, people become ostriches, sticking their heads in the sand. They put their fingers in their ears: “La la la – I can’t hear you.” But ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away.

If yesterday proved anything, it’s this: death will come, somewhere, somehow, sometime. Perhaps it will come in the most unexpected of places, like a mid-morning German class. But it will come.

And then it’s eternity. Forever. Are you going to heaven or hell? You need to get that settled before death arrives.

Do you realize you are a hopeless helpless hellbound sinner? Have you transferred your trust from your good works or your church or anything else to get you to heaven and placed that faith solely in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who died in your place on the cross and rose again? He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Clearly there’s no other way to get to God, to attain heaven.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

Don’t wait. Simply rest in his work, and you too can be ready to die. Whenever that may be.

Planes, mud, marching bands, and presidential motorcades, oh my!

Day 94

Today, I have a guest blogger – my wonderful mother, who tells in a stream-of-consciousness style the story of my family’s trek back from a visit in northern Kenya to their home in Kijabe. It happened last year. It’s all true. I think it’s quite hilarious.

Honest – this is what happened…. this morning when we were still in Ngurunit we got a text message from the airline people about our flight back to Kijabe- “it’s off because of the weather”… so we put our luggage back into our room … we wrote back to Kijabe to cancel a bunch of plans til we could fly out on the next flight on Friday … the airlines called right after we sent the email and said, “it’s back on again” … we grabbed a quick lunch, heard the plane approaching – went down to the airstrip– the plane had just arrived and was stuck in the mud (in the middle of the desert)… (it had rained for the week)… we had a wonderful flight- only 1 hour long… arrived to a huge crowd at the airport because earlier in the week there was a plane crash up north involving 6 Parliament members and their bodies were arriving at the Nairobi airport just as we arrived… and then we got left by the airline rep with all of our luggage.. in the middle of this crowd of well dressed politicians with their Mercedes- while we just came straggling in from a safari all dirty (from the sand blasting off the plane turning around after we dug him out of the runway)…and then a marching band arrived in uniform… and we were trying to get to our car at the other end of the airport.. carrying 9 pieces of assorted luggage and as we waited with our luggage we were asked by two different police and then a soldier to move because the President’s motorcade was coming… (I’m not making this up)… and I kept explaining why we couldn’t carry all of our luggage by hand… blah blah blah.. and finally Phil [editor’s note: that’s my dad] came with the car, but it was at the same moment as the Vice President’s motorcade arrived, from the other direction so he had to stop and by then a bunch of men had overheard our story and were laughing with usas I kept saying- we’re just trying to get home… and we didn’t actually get into trouble, which could have happened very easily in that type of situation.. and I couldn’t even take pictures of these moments as that is also highly illegal but … we’re home. WHAT A DAY!!

Onward.

May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.

May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.

May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.

The most surreal day I have ever lived. Or somewhere close to it.

Day 97

11 April 2007. A day that will live in . . .well, let’s put it this way: I’ll remember it.

Yesterday, my day started out like this at 4 AM (note especially call number eight):

It progessed to this:

and this:

And ended with this:

I went to bed on Tuesday thinking it’d be a normal Wednesday: full and long, yes, but normal. Then I woke up at 4 AM to a loud crash and banging. A girl upstairs started screaming, “Somebody help me! Somebody please help me!” I scrambled for my phone and called 911 for the first time in my life. I’m glad I’ve reached the age of 26 without having to do that.

It turned out to be a domestic dispute, not a burglar, ala last October. (But that’s a whole nother story.) The police came, things calmed down, and I lay in bed wide awake waiting for my hands to stop shaking and the adrenalin to wash out of my bloodstream. Does adrenalin wash out of your bloodstream? Anyway, I was awake for a long time, but must’ve fallen asleep at some point because I slept right through my alarm and was nearly late for class. I really had to hurry through the falling snow to get there on time.

Oh, and fall the snow did, fast and heavy through the morning and afternoon hours, eventually piling 7 inches on Milwaukee. There’s some sort of unwritten rule that you are supposed to be upset with snow in mid-April, but just look at it. It’s spectacular. I was delighted with the wintry intrusion, to be perfectly honest. ‘Course, I don’t have to be driving anywhere; that colors my perspective a bit.

When I hiked my way home for lunch, I found I had a phone message from Pastor informing me that the Wednesday night service was cancelled due to the uncertain weather. I figured I could stay home, catch some of the Brewers’ game, do some studying for my voice disorders test. A cozy snowbound evening, perfect for this time of year . . . hmm.

A little later, I checked my email. One of my supervisors had sent an email to a bunch of us saying she had an extra ticket to the Angels-Indians game (baseball, in case you, you know, didn’t know) at 6:05 PM. So much for the quiet evening poring over notes on dysphonia while listening to the Brewers. I didn’t think twice. “I’d LOVE to go!” I shot back in an email.

Side note: For those of you who are wondering what in the world the Cleveland Indians and L.A. Angels are doing playing a game in Milwaukee, it’s pretty simple. Cleveland plays in a baseball stadium with no roof. It snowed in Cleveland. A lot. They had to cancel four games. The snow wouldn’t leave. They had to play. The Brewers who are from Milwaukee play at home in Miller Park, which has a roof. The Brewers were playing the Marlins down in Florida. The Indians needed a place to play. Miller Park is empty for a few days. So . . . the Indians and the Angels came to Milwaukee for a three game series. Cleveland decided to bring their snow with them. That didn’t matter. You see, we have a roof.

Tickets were $10 for everywhere. We sat in the 2nd level, which was pretty amazing. And for this one night, I was unashamedly an Indians’ fan, as were the majority of the 16,375 other undeterred-by-a-little-snow people crammed into the two lower levels with me. It was a good-natured crowd, mostly baseball fans out to enjoy this game in a once-in-a-lifetime series. (You tell me, when do you think the next time will be that the Indians will take on the Angels in Milwaukee?) And as if we could forget the biting chill, blowing snow and slush seeping into our shoes, the organist felt compelled to play in cheery baseball style, “Let it Snow” and “Winter Wonderland”.

Some pictures of the occasion:

First pitch:

Vladimir Guererro, swinging away:

Nice li’l crowd:

The “Milwaukee Indians” lost the game 4-1, but it was quite an adventure.

Truthfully, all of life is an adventure.

Yesterday had a lot of unexpected twists and turns which reminded me of the Author of my life. He comforted me after that scary awakening. He sent an exquisite white snow to coat the trees I pass by on the way to work and school. He orchestrated events so I could go to a special baseball game, which I had REALLY wanted to do, but hadn’t even thought to pray about. And yesterday, I got an email letting me know that he had provided a scholarship that I hadn’t even applied for yet (but desperately needed).

What a wonderful way believers can live – seeing his hand in it all, from 4 AM to 4-1.

And then, she said “hi”.

Day 98

I generally enjoy sessions with my clients here at the MU Speech & Hearing Clinic. With my older clients, I joke around a little. With the younger kids, therapy resembles play, complete with puppets and Candyland or Chutes and Ladders. That’s not to say that it’s not a grind sometimes, that it’s not hard work.

With “Maggie” it’s always hard work. She’s pretty severely cognitively disabled and non-verbal. She is learning to use a device that “talks” for her, i.e. she pushes a specific button to produce a pre-recorded message. Our hour and a half together once a week consists of me drilling her on the different messages on her device. She gets tired. I get tired. It’s not fun, but we’re making progress.

Maggie used to talk. She doesn’t any more. From what I understand, she went through some traumatic experience a while back and just stopped talking. She didn’t utter a sound with the clinician all last semester. I never heard her voice. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, Maggie was doing great. She was smiling and getting some of the more abstract messages correct with little or no cuing. After our little walk break, I decided to try something new. Putting aside her device, I said, “Maggie, can you say ‘hi’?”

She mouthed “hi”. She always frames words with her lips. I was looking for vocal cord vibration. But how to get that across?

“Maggie, can you use your mouth to say ‘hi’?” That was a little nonsensical, but . . .

“Hhhhhhhuuh”. There it was. She had said it. I nearly jumped out of my chair. I asked her to do it again. And again. It was a little rough, but she was saying “hi” on cue. Despite the fact that the effort seemed exhausting, she had the biggest smile on her face. I did too.

It’s a simple word, a throw-away word. We use it all the time and never think twice. But when Maggie said it, “hi” became beautiful.

Onward.

Spiritual Vitamins for Believers, Part 16

Christ has given me an understanding (1 John 5:20).
I have the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
I have all sufficiency in all things (2 Cor. 9:8).
I have all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).
I can ever be content for I have Christ (Heb. 13:5).
I have all the armor and weapons I need (2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:10-17).
I have God’s all-sufficient grace (2 Cor. 12:9).
I have grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).
I have God’s power (Eph. 1:19; 3:20).
I have access to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Heb. 4:16).