Live from Manila

Greetings, friends. I am writing to you from the Philippines where I have been attending some meetings outside of Manila with OC leaders representing 12 different countries. This is my first time to Asia and I have really enjoyed my time here.

I have been amazed by the wonderful hospitality of the Filipino people. I have also been deeply impacted by the level of commitment to the Kingdom on the part of my colleagues in OC as we move forward with plans to internationalize the mission giving greater freedom for expansion.

I have made some new friends this week from places such as India, Canada, Singapore, and of course, the Philippines!

I have also really enjoyed the food, which is no surprise. One night our hosts took us out to seafood and we had our fill of shrimp (with the heads still on!) along with crab and mussels.

Today, the seafood of the day actually looked like it was still moving until I got a better look at it. I normally don't like squid but this was extra fresh! For those of you who have a weak stomach, you may not want to look at the last picture.

Please pray for the remaining Internationalization meetings and our time in Filipino churches tomorrow. I leave for home on Monday. Thanks for praying for me!

Download Coldplay's free live album today!

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Happy Mother's Day, Nell!

We love you!

White as Snow

I have never celebrated Easter in snow. Someone said, "Yeah, that's why they color the eggs, so the kids can find them!" The snow that literally covers everything outside right now, has prompted me to think how the act of love and forgiveness that Jesus accomplished on the cross blots out my sin and washes my dirty heart "white as snow".

U2 says it this way in their new song called White as Snow:

"Once I knew there was a love divine

Then came a time I thought it knew me not

Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not

Only the lamb as white as snow"

David meditates on this image in Psalm 51:1-10, which he wrote when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This Easter I am thankful for the One who blots out my transgressions and washes me white as snow.

Happy 10th Birthday, Mikayla!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!
We love you, Mom and Dad.

Magnificent by U2

"Only love, only love can leave such a mark, Only love, only love can heal such a scar, Justified till we die, you and I will magnify, The Magnificent" Lyrics by Bono and The Edge

Spring Cleaning, Confessing Sins and Flying Kites

This week Lent will begin and I have decided to follow it more closely.

On my Gmail calendar this morning the words popped up: Clean Monday

I decided to do a wikipedia search to find out about it. Here are some interesting tidbits that reminded me to search my heart, ask for forgiveness, and enjoy my child-like walk with my Father in Heaven:

Clean Monday (Greek: Καθαρά Δευτέρα), also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday, Monday of Lent or (in Cyprus only) Green Monday (actually translated as such), is the first day of the Eastern Orthodox Christian and Eastern Catholic Great Lent.

The common term for this day, "Clean Monday," refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods.

Liturgically, Clean Monday—and thus Lent itself—begins on the preceding (Sunday) night, at a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which culminates with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, at which all present will bow down before one another and ask forgiveness. In this way, the faithful begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love. The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as "Clean Week," and it is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean the house thoroughly.

The theme of Clean Monday is set by the Old Testament reading appointed to be read at the Sixth Hour on this day (Isaiah 1:1-20), which says in part:

Wash yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool (v. 16-18).

Clean Monday is a public holiday in Greece and Cyprus, where it is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting food, and the widespread custom of flying kites.

The happy, springtime atmosphere of Clean Monday may seem at odds with the Lenten spirit of repentance and self-control, but this seeming contradiction is a marked aspect of the Orthodox approach to fasting, in accordance with the Gospel lesson (Matthew 6:14-21) read on the morning before, which admonishes:

When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret... (v. 16-18).

In this manner, the Orthodox celebrate the fact that "The springtime of the Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open..."