What's your theological worldview?
You scored as a Neo orthodox
You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.
Neo orthodox 68%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64%
Emergent/Postmodern 61%
Roman Catholic 39%
Classical Liberal 39%
Modern Liberal 39%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 36%
Reformed Evangelical 11%
Fundamentalist 4%
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Monday, November 05, 2007
Bay St. Louis & Waveland, MS
it's been an incredible day. we arrived yesterday afternoon -- early. went through a small stack of work requests from different folks ... narrowed it down to a few we thought we could handle, and then called them to see if they were in and to see if we could swing by and take a look at their needs to have a clearer idea of what actually needed to happen. we visited three homes. the first is the home and place of business of an RN who is also a Tarot card reader ... Don and Tom and Billy worked there ... the other was a woman who works for Medicaid, has two daughters in college, and the third is a family who's trailer was completely underwater. we are going to focus on THEM tomorrow and probably the next day as well, and maybe even Thursday.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sheesh ... it's been a while ... it's not that nothing's been happening ... it's that SO MUCH has been happening ... we ended up handing out over 220 backpacks. God supplied. And we will be able to send backpacks to several families in Mexico, through workers that are returning here in the next few days. Leslie found school supplies on clearance at Target for INCREDIBLE prices, and was able to stock us up on notebooks and rulers and a bunch of other stuff.
Sayde is doing well --- her arm was almost sliced off in a de-barking machine at he wood mill where she works. she's still in the hospital ... the kids are doing great in school... REALLY good. Caleb ran/jogged the fastest mile in the entire elementary school -- 8 minutes and 26 seconds ... he decided that, although he COULD, he didn't WANT to slow to a walk at any point in the test ... and when the PE teacher told him what his time was at the beginning of his last time around the track, he took off running and didn't stop until he finished. Even the PE teacher was astounded. He said that 8:26 is unheard of for a fourth grader.
cool. :-)
Hannah turned 12 last Monday. We're hoping and planning on getting out of town for a couple of days beginning Thursday -- coming back on Saturday evening. We have a guest speaker coming next Sunday, a former Pastor, so i won't have to prepare a message for Sunday morning. :-)
I volunteered to be on an associational steering committee to come up with recommendations to bring to the association as a whole on what to do with Kirkland Grove campground. It was used for evangelistic camp meetings back in the last decade of the 19th century and the first 4 decades or so of the 20th. It is a beautiful, historic landmark ... but it is begging to be put to use -- we just need to decide HOW, or do something WITH it.
Otherwise, things are going well. Pretty much.
Sayde is doing well --- her arm was almost sliced off in a de-barking machine at he wood mill where she works. she's still in the hospital ... the kids are doing great in school... REALLY good. Caleb ran/jogged the fastest mile in the entire elementary school -- 8 minutes and 26 seconds ... he decided that, although he COULD, he didn't WANT to slow to a walk at any point in the test ... and when the PE teacher told him what his time was at the beginning of his last time around the track, he took off running and didn't stop until he finished. Even the PE teacher was astounded. He said that 8:26 is unheard of for a fourth grader.
cool. :-)
Hannah turned 12 last Monday. We're hoping and planning on getting out of town for a couple of days beginning Thursday -- coming back on Saturday evening. We have a guest speaker coming next Sunday, a former Pastor, so i won't have to prepare a message for Sunday morning. :-)
I volunteered to be on an associational steering committee to come up with recommendations to bring to the association as a whole on what to do with Kirkland Grove campground. It was used for evangelistic camp meetings back in the last decade of the 19th century and the first 4 decades or so of the 20th. It is a beautiful, historic landmark ... but it is begging to be put to use -- we just need to decide HOW, or do something WITH it.
Otherwise, things are going well. Pretty much.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
A Start
Here we go! We've received somehwere just over 40 backpacks, and Tacha and Maria, bless their hearts, buzzed through checking those that had already been packed and those that needed packing and put them together in just a short while. We started getting calls from folks to check and see if we would be distributing again this year, and are compiling the list. We've got a few backpacks left that are almost ready to go except for one or two items. We'll continue to collect this coming week, will be going to a retreat for Pastors and families from Thursday through Saturday, then will begin distribution Monday the 20th. Leslie and the kids will go to Virginia Beach on Monday, to celebrate Angela's birthday on Tuesday, and will be picking up those backpacks collected at Thalia Lynn to bring back with them on Wednesday. Tacha and Maria fly back to Spain on Tuesday the 21st, so we'll be taking the day to take them to the airport, but then come back and dive into the distribution full force. :-) should be fun!
Peace
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
So here it is! We knew we were going to have to do this this year, and it happened pretty quickly once we decided that we were GOING to do it. It's a 2007 Grand Caravan, stow and go seating (the middle two captains chairs and the rear bench seat fold down into the floor, flush, so we can have a full length flat area if we need to transport anything massive. or spend the night in the car somewhere. :-)it's got way more bells and whistles on it than we've ever had on a car, which is nice, but will take some getting used to -- except for the cruise control -- the cruise control we REALLY locked into, knowing we were going to be making these long trips throughout the year -- we are currently in Frisco, Texas, at Craig and Janet's, came here from Louisville last Saturday, and will be travelling to Memphis to be with Becky and Bill and the kids on Thursday. We'll leave from there on Sunday after church ... and lunch, i imagine, and stop somewhere on the road to spend the night with ourselves as a family before diving into the remainder of July and August back on the Northern Neck.
Peace!
Saturday, June 09, 2007
This picture was from opening night for little league, back on the 30th of March. It was COLD, but that didn't stop the crowd from showing up, or the players from playing. I think the more time I spend around it, the more I may actually be 'getting' this game ... but not just the game, the whole aura of it. The sounds, the smells, the food and the dust. There's also the atmosphere at the ballpark. And the Little League ballpark is different ... especially here in the country. Everybody knows everybody. People work together, shop next to each other in the aisle at the supermarket, go to church together ... so there's sometimes a tension that develops when teams go at each other and emotions run high.
I'm writing this almost two and a half months into the season -- it's almost over. At today's game, Caleb's team won. They are apparently in first place. The game ended roughly. It was well played, and hard played, but there were moments when the kids were ... more angry kids than they were athletes. So it goes. I don't know all the ins and outs of the game enough to understand exactly what happened, but I came away a little more aware of the subtext involved in the competition between two teams facing off. It's not just the teams. It is also the coaches, and the umpires, and the assistant coaches, and the parents.
There was a little drama that played itself out after the end of the game. The pitcher for the other team (who started yelling and calling the boy who hit the winning run in -- and hit an inside-the-park homerun at the same time - a cheater -- and was promptly picked up and carried away from the direction of the stands by the assistant coach) came around to our side of the field just brimming with anger ... (he ran off the field in tears) and he got a hold of a tennis ball, and was tossing it - hard - between his hands ... kind of like he was getting ready to haul off and throw it at one of our players. We stayed around, kept our distance, from both him AND our team and their coach as he was going through some debriefing with them ... and finally one of the mothers from the other team walked over to him and started talking to him ... it seemed like she was his mother, but I couldn't say for sure. The parking area was there as well, so everyone associated with both teams was starting to mingle as they went to their cars. I think one of the younger brothers of one of the other players (who was not, as near as I can remember, watching the game, but rather was playing with the other boys who were accompanying the families) started yelling 'cheaters' at our players, and several of the players from the other team picked it up and started yelling as well. The coaches were there, and they did nothing to stop them from doing it. Our son's coach I think probably told his team members to ignore them or at least to not respond, and they didn't. I was proud of them for that.
All that to say, it was an interesting glimpse into the dynamics in small-town little league ball. The coaches know the umps and the parents and the kids ... our coach in fact coached the parents of some of the kids that are now on his team. So there's a lesson there. Just trying to get my brain around just what it was.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
RBA Hispanic Ministry Report
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Four years ago tomorrow WE held the first Hispanic Gathering that WE were involved with at Coan Church. I remember being excited and somewhat terrified all at the same time. Leslie and I had been working on the choruses that we were going to sing. I had done some searching online and got the sense that some of the choruses I’d grown up singing were known across denominational lines throughout Latin America. It ended up being, for the most part, a duet on Leslie’s and my part.
There were one or two songs that the folks that came recognized, but for the most part they were not familiar with the ones I’d chosen. Over the next couple of weeks and months, in talking to Cecilia and some of the other folks, we learned several choruses that were familiar to them, and the volume of voices that joined together in singing at the beginning of the worship services grew.
Over the last four years, we’ve had opportunities to learn more of the songs THEY know and have also been able to share some of our most meaningful hymns with them. We still sing “At The Cross” almost every gathering, and have taught them “He Leadeth Me”, “Because He Lives”, and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.
Just a couple of stories from the ministry: on Valentine’s day four of our friends were involved in a car accident caused by ice on the road. Two of the women who were riding in the car were seriously injured. They were not life-threatening injuries, but they WERE such that they will not be able to work for at least another couple of months, and probably more. Their names are Antonia Diaz and Clemencia Orozco.
About the same time, a woman who is a citizen, called and asked me to help her with her situation – she and her husband have 8 children, four of whom are not yet school age. The youngest is coming up on 3 months old. He is their sole means of support, and he was detained by the department of homeland security and taken to Portsmouth, where he’s been for the last two months. His court hearing to determine if he will be allowed to remain here and feed and take care of his family while working out his legal status will be sometime over the next couple of weeks. Their names are Vrenda and Ramiro Espinoza.
At the end of February I drove Fidela Corona and Tobias Rojas to Mary Washington Hospital to deliver their son. We got there in plenty of time. In Fact, it was the second time in as many weeks that I’d taken her there with the intention of having her induced. She had developed preeclampsia in the last few weeks of the pregnancy, and the symptoms had finally gotten to the point where they were going to HAVE to take the baby. Thankfully, everything turned out fine. Larry Rojas is doing fine.
Lastly, there’s Guillermo and Felicitas Mercado Sarmiento and their daughters America and Casandra. Guillermo works at one of the local plants making a little over eight dollars an hour. Their stay so far – they moved here about a year ago – has been almost a continual struggle. They decided early on that he would be the only one to work outside the home, and Felicitas would stay home and care for the girls. They have had a terrible time finding a place to live, but they finally DID find a place up on Newland Road, across the corner from where Pea Ridge Rd comes out onto Newland Rd. Their rent is $650.00 a month, plus utilities. The owner, who is also Mexican, has told them that they can have at most 2 other tenants living with them, either a couple or individuals. Guillermo is a careful man. He is a hard worker, a caring father and husband, and he is being very careful about who they end up sharing the house with. He told me last night that if he doesn’t find anyone that HE is comfortable and secure in sharing the house with, he is perfectly willing to just let it be them. As hard as that would be for them to make ends meet, he would still rather do that then have to deal with the fallout from folks who weren’t as diligent as he is in taking care of where they live.
There’ve been a couple of other families with baby issues – one three day old boy developed a urinary tract infection and had to be taken to MCV, another toddler with down’s syndrome developed yet another case of pneumonia and had to be treated in the emergency room, another girl has had recurring problems that required a trip to MCV …
It’s been a particularly busy few weeks. When I worked up the mileage to date that I’ve put on the car just since the second week of February, I was stunned. I realized why I’d been feeling so tired lately, why I had the flare-up with my back week before last.
As I was getting ready for tonight, a scripture came to mind, Galatians 6:9; let me read a couple of the surrounding verses just to give you an idea of what Paul was in the middle of saying:
We’ve been doing this for four years. YOU’VE been doing it longer – I think we ALL need to hear the word of the Lord when he tells us to not get tired of doing what is right.
Multiple individuals have told me to slow down. Of late, my body has joined that number and is telling me the same thing in no uncertain terms. In that vein, I think there may be some (here’s that word) changes that will be seen in the way the Hispanic Ministry is being carried out. What is happening now is good and right, and holy. The worship times at gatherings, as I’ve shared before, have become truly worshipful, the Bible Studies can get seriously interactive. Most of that will continue. There comes a point where the running may need to turn to walking for a while, still pressing toward that goal, but being careful to not burn out. I would like to ask you to pray as an association for what that will look like. The idea has been floated to settle the gathering at a single location, to have a shared facility, ideally. Please pray for that vision. The ministry continues, people are recognizing the full implication of what it means when they call themselves Christians, and are beginning to live into that knowledge.
In the worship services, the words that are being sung are not only going out from our mouths, they are going into our heads and into our hearts. The scripture that is read is going out and inward as well, and I stand firmly on the promise that it will not return to us empty.
Thank you. For your continued prayer, and support, and love, and encouragement.
Kenny
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Four years ago tomorrow WE held the first Hispanic Gathering that WE were involved with at Coan Church. I remember being excited and somewhat terrified all at the same time. Leslie and I had been working on the choruses that we were going to sing. I had done some searching online and got the sense that some of the choruses I’d grown up singing were known across denominational lines throughout Latin America. It ended up being, for the most part, a duet on Leslie’s and my part.
There were one or two songs that the folks that came recognized, but for the most part they were not familiar with the ones I’d chosen. Over the next couple of weeks and months, in talking to Cecilia and some of the other folks, we learned several choruses that were familiar to them, and the volume of voices that joined together in singing at the beginning of the worship services grew.
Over the last four years, we’ve had opportunities to learn more of the songs THEY know and have also been able to share some of our most meaningful hymns with them. We still sing “At The Cross” almost every gathering, and have taught them “He Leadeth Me”, “Because He Lives”, and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.
Just a couple of stories from the ministry: on Valentine’s day four of our friends were involved in a car accident caused by ice on the road. Two of the women who were riding in the car were seriously injured. They were not life-threatening injuries, but they WERE such that they will not be able to work for at least another couple of months, and probably more. Their names are Antonia Diaz and Clemencia Orozco.
About the same time, a woman who is a citizen, called and asked me to help her with her situation – she and her husband have 8 children, four of whom are not yet school age. The youngest is coming up on 3 months old. He is their sole means of support, and he was detained by the department of homeland security and taken to Portsmouth, where he’s been for the last two months. His court hearing to determine if he will be allowed to remain here and feed and take care of his family while working out his legal status will be sometime over the next couple of weeks. Their names are Vrenda and Ramiro Espinoza.
At the end of February I drove Fidela Corona and Tobias Rojas to Mary Washington Hospital to deliver their son. We got there in plenty of time. In Fact, it was the second time in as many weeks that I’d taken her there with the intention of having her induced. She had developed preeclampsia in the last few weeks of the pregnancy, and the symptoms had finally gotten to the point where they were going to HAVE to take the baby. Thankfully, everything turned out fine. Larry Rojas is doing fine.
Lastly, there’s Guillermo and Felicitas Mercado Sarmiento and their daughters America and Casandra. Guillermo works at one of the local plants making a little over eight dollars an hour. Their stay so far – they moved here about a year ago – has been almost a continual struggle. They decided early on that he would be the only one to work outside the home, and Felicitas would stay home and care for the girls. They have had a terrible time finding a place to live, but they finally DID find a place up on Newland Road, across the corner from where Pea Ridge Rd comes out onto Newland Rd. Their rent is $650.00 a month, plus utilities. The owner, who is also Mexican, has told them that they can have at most 2 other tenants living with them, either a couple or individuals. Guillermo is a careful man. He is a hard worker, a caring father and husband, and he is being very careful about who they end up sharing the house with. He told me last night that if he doesn’t find anyone that HE is comfortable and secure in sharing the house with, he is perfectly willing to just let it be them. As hard as that would be for them to make ends meet, he would still rather do that then have to deal with the fallout from folks who weren’t as diligent as he is in taking care of where they live.
There’ve been a couple of other families with baby issues – one three day old boy developed a urinary tract infection and had to be taken to MCV, another toddler with down’s syndrome developed yet another case of pneumonia and had to be treated in the emergency room, another girl has had recurring problems that required a trip to MCV …
It’s been a particularly busy few weeks. When I worked up the mileage to date that I’ve put on the car just since the second week of February, I was stunned. I realized why I’d been feeling so tired lately, why I had the flare-up with my back week before last.
As I was getting ready for tonight, a scripture came to mind, Galatians 6:9; let me read a couple of the surrounding verses just to give you an idea of what Paul was in the middle of saying:
8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
We’ve been doing this for four years. YOU’VE been doing it longer – I think we ALL need to hear the word of the Lord when he tells us to not get tired of doing what is right.
Multiple individuals have told me to slow down. Of late, my body has joined that number and is telling me the same thing in no uncertain terms. In that vein, I think there may be some (here’s that word) changes that will be seen in the way the Hispanic Ministry is being carried out. What is happening now is good and right, and holy. The worship times at gatherings, as I’ve shared before, have become truly worshipful, the Bible Studies can get seriously interactive. Most of that will continue. There comes a point where the running may need to turn to walking for a while, still pressing toward that goal, but being careful to not burn out. I would like to ask you to pray as an association for what that will look like. The idea has been floated to settle the gathering at a single location, to have a shared facility, ideally. Please pray for that vision. The ministry continues, people are recognizing the full implication of what it means when they call themselves Christians, and are beginning to live into that knowledge.
In the worship services, the words that are being sung are not only going out from our mouths, they are going into our heads and into our hearts. The scripture that is read is going out and inward as well, and I stand firmly on the promise that it will not return to us empty.
Thank you. For your continued prayer, and support, and love, and encouragement.
Kenny
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
i need to apologize.
i feel like i'm doing too much.
which is odd, because at the end of the day, it doesn't seem like enough.
it's not that i'm actually trying to WORK my way into heaven (see God? how many miles i put on the car in the last 6 weeks? if THAT don't get me into heaven, i don't know what ELSE you expect me to do!) it's that i get so tired from DOING that i don't have the energy or the presence of mind to just BE.
BEING is as important as doing. i can get lost in the doing, and forget what it's like to BE.
end of the existential crisis. (not that it's over, i'm just going to drop that part now)
i visited with Gladys this afternoon, and then with Vrenda. two extreme situations. Gladys is just over 80. her children are grown adults. she has GREAT grandkids, not just grandkids.
Vrenda has 8 children, the oldest of which is 12. great kids. they were bouncing around the living room. the oldest daughter offered me lemonade.
Glady's husband is home with her or out in the yard or the workshop putting something together or just puttering around.
Vrenda's husband is somewhere in Portsmouth at a detention center awaiting a court date for a stay of deportation hearing.
the thing is, this SYSTEM of ours, what we proclaim to the world as the fairest and most impartial judicial branch in the world, won't tell either Vrenda or the immigration attorney who is helping her pro-bono, OR the lawyer who is helping her on the FEDERAL level where they have him, when his court date will be, or where. all things they were supposed to have communicated BEFORE beginning the process. we're in the 20 days he has between being released from homeland security custody and being remanded to ... i suppose INS (i know the initials have changed) custody ... so how are folks supposed to take the appropriate steps TO follow the rules if the rules are not explained ... or worse, not FOLLOWED by the very people who REPRESENT the rules???
!!!Dios mio!!! ??A que ha llegado a ser mi pais??
i feel like i'm doing too much.
which is odd, because at the end of the day, it doesn't seem like enough.
it's not that i'm actually trying to WORK my way into heaven (see God? how many miles i put on the car in the last 6 weeks? if THAT don't get me into heaven, i don't know what ELSE you expect me to do!) it's that i get so tired from DOING that i don't have the energy or the presence of mind to just BE.
BEING is as important as doing. i can get lost in the doing, and forget what it's like to BE.
end of the existential crisis. (not that it's over, i'm just going to drop that part now)
i visited with Gladys this afternoon, and then with Vrenda. two extreme situations. Gladys is just over 80. her children are grown adults. she has GREAT grandkids, not just grandkids.
Vrenda has 8 children, the oldest of which is 12. great kids. they were bouncing around the living room. the oldest daughter offered me lemonade.
Glady's husband is home with her or out in the yard or the workshop putting something together or just puttering around.
Vrenda's husband is somewhere in Portsmouth at a detention center awaiting a court date for a stay of deportation hearing.
the thing is, this SYSTEM of ours, what we proclaim to the world as the fairest and most impartial judicial branch in the world, won't tell either Vrenda or the immigration attorney who is helping her pro-bono, OR the lawyer who is helping her on the FEDERAL level where they have him, when his court date will be, or where. all things they were supposed to have communicated BEFORE beginning the process. we're in the 20 days he has between being released from homeland security custody and being remanded to ... i suppose INS (i know the initials have changed) custody ... so how are folks supposed to take the appropriate steps TO follow the rules if the rules are not explained ... or worse, not FOLLOWED by the very people who REPRESENT the rules???
!!!Dios mio!!! ??A que ha llegado a ser mi pais??
Monday, March 12, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
Mom & Daddy, K-K -
We got the package of Christmas presents day before yesterday -- the kids really love the books and dinosaur & clothes you got them, but the hit of the package were the EXTREMELY COOL HATS!!!! We LOVE all having the same thing to wear!
WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Kenny, Leslie, Marie, Clavel, and Chapeu!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
First of the Season
Here it is, three weeks into January, and we finally got the first snow of the season. The forecasts are all saying it's going to turn to freezing rain tonight, with little or no accumulation, but we're planning on eating lunch in Gloucester tomorrow to celebrate Donald's birthday -- if we started ANYTHING back at the beginning of September, it set the precedent to combine drastic or catastrophic weather with a family celebration (ie: Ernesto blowing outside while we celebrated Judson's birthday at Olivia's on the Square in downtown Gloucester -- the only place that had electricity -- before heading up to what ended up being Harrisonburg for the weekend). So we're expecting either a good bit of accumulation if not icy conditions for the drive down. It would only seem FAIR, don't you think?? ;-) Tuesday, January 09, 2007
This is "before" ... it brings to mind the Dennis the Menace cartoon where he's just had a bath and is all dressed up for church, and in the very next frame he's ...
well ...
Like this!Finally! What arms, elbows, knees, feet, and various and sundry flying objects (and a couple of stationary ones! :-)) were not able to do, nature and development took care of on their own!
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