I’ll be doing a lot of posting in the next week or two about Haiti. To start it off I would like to share the video that Michael Stoebner did for our mission trip with KTIS and Healing Haiti.
Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. The hands and feet of Christ.
Please take a few minutes to watch and I’ll be back with some more about Haiti in the coming days.
I’ve often written about the love and admiration I get from children in my visits as Santa. There is another side to that coin – loss.
I never understood Jerry Lewis’ calling all of those children “My kids” when I was younger. But as I’ve gotten older and formed a paternal relationship with children in need I have grown to understand his possesive feelings about the children he was trying to help. I feel that way as well. They are “my kids” whether they are in an orphanage in Haiti or visiting me at a mall in Minneapolis.
Honored to wear the Red Suit.
I lost one of those kids today. His name is Jacob. He passed after a long illness. I’d gotten to know Jacob through Hope Kids and our annual “Cookies with Santa” event. It’s where we (the children and I) get together for photos, making cards, decorating cookies, eating snacks, and playing games in a controlled setting just for them. No long lines, no fees, everybody involved is cool with special needs, and they can just have a good time with Santa. We do it early in November so that they can have the pictures with them by Thanksgiving.
Jacob loved Santa. And Hope Kids reminded me of that when they let me know he had gone on ahead to Heaven. I cried. I prayed for his family. I was overjoyed that I had that little bit of time with him and that he found our visit to be the highlight of 2012.
Me. Santa. Honored as only a child could do it. It is humbling.
I’m not bragging. I’m just letting you know that children hold that kind of love in a special place. And I’m trying to remind my fellow Santa’s that we might only wear the Red Suit for a few months of the year but that memory and that love carries on 365 in many children’s hearts. I want to remind myself to be worthy of that love and emulate Nicholas of Myra in my actions.
And I want to thank Jacob and all the children who repose that trust and honor in Santa. You make an old man feel special.
Is there a Santa in your life? Are you Santa to someone else? Do you treat children with the love and respect that they deserve?
This is my friend Jason Sharp, station manager at KTIS. He was one of the leaders on our recent mission trip to Haiti with Helping Haiti.
Impromptu shower on water truck day.
It cannot be easy to take a bunch of listeners to Haiti on your mission trip. Nor can it be easy to leave the station behind during a transition of talent on the morning show and an upgrade of the website. This is not to mention leaving your wife and kids behind while you lug water through some of the poorest slums in the world.
But Jason did just that. I debated writing this post, or any posts, about my fellow missionaries on the trip, but decided that there were some stories that needed to be told. Jason is a public figure so he gets the full Monte with the last name and all. The others will just be a first name and a picture that shows them from behind or at an angle. Unless I can’t find one of those. (My wife brought the disks home last night from our dinner with the mission team and darned if I know where she put them. So, more pictures tomorrow – I promise.)
Jason is a man with a lot of responsibilities. He won’t brag on himself so let me do it for him:
He’s helped to grow the listening audience at KTIS during his time at the station.
He takes a personal interest in the station’s relationships with the listeners.
He is a man who cares deeply about the ministry of his Christian radio station.
And, he’s a very deep man with a silly streak.
I won’t go into any funny stories about Jason and what we did on the trip. They wouldn’t translate all that well unless you were there, and I won’t violate the privacy of those moments. I will say that it was a pleasure to spend a week with a man so dedicated to living a life following Christ.
Jason is very serious about his faith. He might mug and cut up when we all sat around the dinner table, but when the topic turned to the deeper things in our existence it was clear that he not only cared about his own soul, but he cared about those around him.
Haiti is not an easy place to do mission work. It takes a bite out of your soul and slams you to the ground before you even know what’s going on. It takes some time to process the experience and put it into your life when you leave. I watched Jason struggle with that every day. It wasn’t the struggle of a man going under for the third time, but the struggle of a man trying to incorporate the lessons and pain of that nation into his Christian identity.
I think KTIS will be a better place for the listeners as a result of Jason going on this trip. Not many leaders would humble themselves to sleep in a bunk bed above Papa Noel and carry buckets of water with 6 year old child slaves. But Jason did.
And that makes me proud to know him.
Is there an inspirational leader in your life like Jason? Have you shared your admiration with them? What can you do in your life to be a leader and disciple of Jesus at the same time?
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Today’s random search engine goose is Bob Woodward!
I’m not going to do this very often (I hope) but this morning I’d like you to say some prayers for my friend Steven.
I’ve known Steven since we suffered our way through the freshman year of NROTC in 1977. I lost track of him in 1978. We hooked up again in 2012. 34 years is a long time to put a friendship on hold, but it was the pre-internet era and stuff like that just happened.
He’s in the hospital, very ill, and in need of your prayers. God knows which Steven we’re talking about and He’ll take it under advisement if we all get on a knee and pray.
Please take a few minutes to pray for him and his wife Holly. This is a tough time for his family.
Thank you.
Jesus used Peter to found the church. I as privileged to make my trip to Haiti with a man named Peter as well. He didn’t sling a sword and cut off any ears, but he was a rock to build a foundation on if you took the time to know him.
Peter is a man of substance who gave his heart to Haiti. He is the quiet one of the group, the one who does his heavy thinking while doing the heavy lifting. The picture below is a good one of him. I’d often catch him in the “down” moments just writing in his journal or giving quiet thought to something a little way off from the group. I cannot know a man’s thoughts, but it seemed that Haiti had a larger impact on him than anyone else in the group.
Peter
Each night we’d spend time in a group we called “sharing.” I personally was glad when Peter went last (or, hopefully, after I went) because he is learned in scripture and so Christ focused that I felt like a 12 year old nitwit without a clue by comparison. I’m a snob and a pseudo intellectual in many ways. No shame about it, I work against it, but it keeps cropping up. I’m often the smartest one in the room – just ask me. But each night Peter would read his “word of the day” and then give a 5-10 minute explanation that would make 95% of the pastors and priests I’ve ever heard speak look like new kids fresh from seminary.
His heart brimmed with love. His eyes saw what we had but instead of random snapshots throughout the day he had recorded it all and played the movie for us, using our hearts as his screens. I was stunned and in love with the brilliance of what he gave of himself. I wasn’t jealous but I pray that God will give me a gift of clarity like he has Peter. A gift of love and understanding through the lens of the Holy Spirit. I thank Peter for five of the most profound insights rendered on our trip to Haiti. That would be all five nights where we shared our thoughts. I know that Peter will continue to inspire me. I’m counting on it. He’s that kind of rock. Who is your Peter? Have you acknowledged them and their importance in your life? Will you strive to be more like them in the future?
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And now for today’s totally random keyword booster. (I’m doing this as a traffic experiment, no relation to the post above.) Van Cliburn. Yeah, pop reference but still classic.
