Readings: Ezekiel 37, 12-14; Psalm 130, With the Lord there is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption; Romans 8, 8-11; John 11, 1-45.

The Fifth Sunday in Lent – Reflection on Readings

 

The first reading today from Isaiah comes from what scholars now refer to as Deutero-Isaiah, namely Isaiah part two, the time when the Israelites are in Exile in Babylon.  The mood is totally different from first Isaiah where the prophet is railing against the people living in Jerusalem for their wicked ways.  Jerusalem has been destroyed and the people are captives in Babylon.  Before the exile, Israel was relatively prosperous, overly self-confident and very material minded.  In second Isaiah, the prophet sees a people who must be consoled, not punished.  This is the tone of today’s first reading.  The prophet tells them basically to forget the past and look forward to the great things God will do for his people.

 

 

 

Just a few words about the second reading from the Letter to the Philippians.  Paul is writing from prison.  This letter is a very practical letter with advice on how the community needs to continue to stay focused on Christ.  There is personal news about various people the community would know of and some very specific words about those who continue to insist in circumcision for the gentiles who convert.  Again in today’s reading we have Paul also say “forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead” the same theme which we found in Isaiah, and will also see in the gospel when Jesus tells the woman “Go, and from now on do not sin any more”

 

  

The Fifth Sunday in Lent – Homily

  

 

Our gospel today is really not from St. John but most likely Luke.  For whatever reason this incident was dropped into the middle of the section of John’s Gospel dealing with Jesus in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.  This feast is one of three in the year when Jews were expected to go up to Jerusalem.  The interesting thing about the feast was that the people erected tent like structures and lived in them for the week of the festival.  This put all of the people on an equal footing, as rich and poor alike lived in very similar structures. 

  

The feast was a celebration of the harvest and usually occurred in September or October.  It would have been equivalent to our Thanksgiving.  What I find interesting is the following from the book of Leviticus “On the first day you shall gather foliage from majestic trees, branches of palms and boughs of myrtles and of valley poplars, and then for a week you shall make merry before the LORD, your God.” Since next Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday. 

 

But back to today’s reading.  Remember a common theme running through the gospels is the attempt by the scribes and Pharisee’s to trap Jesus into either breaking the Roman Law or the Torah Law.  This is what is really behind today’s reading.  It has very little to do with the woman and her situation.  But of course, I want to focus on the woman. 

 

 

Did you ever get caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing?  I remember as a kid helping myself to some apples in a neighbor’s back garden.  I was caught just as I was getting back over the wall to escape.  I can still remember the fear and my reaction.  Now can we imagine how this woman must have felt?  Not only was she caught in a very embarrassing situation, now she is made to stand in the middle of this group of "holy men".  She is very aware of what fate awaits her; she is to be put to death. 

 

There has been much wondering about what Jesus was writing in the sand.  I think I know.  Nothing.  He was just doodling so that he didn’t have to look at the woman and add to her shame and embarrassment.  He didn’t want to add to it!

   

 

Coming as this reading does as part of our Lenten readings, and so close to Easter, I see in this reading a better understanding of what Easter is all about.  Just as the woman’s past is put behind her and she is set free, so too the Resurrection puts our past behind us and sets us free.  It is the ultimate “I love you” from God.  I remember the cover of a book by Dom Eugene Boylan from years ago, which had a picture of the crucified Christ on the cover; the title of the book was “This Tremendous Lover”.  This is Easter; this is what we are getting ready for.

 

Picture 1:  Mass beginning with Tony & Kevin

 

Picture 2:  Bill Hammond

 

Picture 3:  Penny Morrow

 

Picture 4:  Coffee Shoppe, Mary Ellen Charlie, Warren, and Tony

 

 

Sunday, 12-26-10, Holy Family: Sirach 3, 2-14; Psalm 128, Blessed are Those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways; Colossians 3, 12-21; Matthew 2, 13-23.

 

Intro to readings

 We could easily believe that political correctness is a recent development, but I want to show you how it existed in the first century of the Church. 

 Our second reading today from the letter to the Colossians is a great example of “spin”.  Lets take a moment to consider the setting. 

 There are 13 letters which have Paul’s name associated with them.  Modern scripture scholarship has determined that seven are indeed written by Paul, there are three, which he definitely did not write, and there are three where there is doubt about his authorship. 

 

 Understand that when Paul wrote for instance to the Romans, he was writing to a small Christian community within Rome, something not unlike our little community here.  Society in the Roman Empire at that time was strongly patriarchal, namely it all centered on the man! Women, children and slaves were considered similar to possessions, namely they had no rights! 

 Now the extraordinary thing about Paul’s preaching was that he saw all people, by virtue of their baptism being equal, all belonging to the body of Christ.  Recall one of his familiar lines: “in Christ all are equal, there is no male or female, no slave or free”.  

 

 In the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7 we meet the “radicalism of Christianity”, – just as Jesus shocked the authorities by dining with sinners, Paul sees all as God’s children and equal.  So in his letter to the Corinthians he says husbands and wives are equal.  He is very careful to make sure that both have the same rights – they are equal! 

 Now take a look at the extended section of today’s second reading and we will see the spin put there by someone after Paul’s death.  In an attempt to make Christianity “fit” better into Roman society we have the phrase ‘wives be submissive to your husbands’.  Paul would have never said such a thing!  Yet he gets the blame for it today!! 

 

Feast of the Holy Family – Homily

 Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, that of Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus, whose birth we celebrated yesterday.  I would like to reflect a little on the images we have of the Holy Family and how we are part of that family by our Baptism. 

 In the gospel we read today, this family experienced what many families today have to go through, namely living in a strange land.  Matthew doesn’t tell us how things were for them in Egypt, but at least they stayed there a few years, they were not killed.  When they returned, it was to settle in a different region, to Nazareth.

 

 Thanks to a global economy, unlawful governments, wars, or the plague of drugs, many people today are forced to move, either within their own country or to foreign lands.  They come as strangers into our midst.  But we don’t have to be from somewhere else to feel like a stranger.  Sometimes due to misunderstandings, or fear or hurts we can just as easily feel like a stranger in our own family.

 The Feast of the Holy Family gives us time to reflect on our actions.  By our baptism we are part of that Holy Family.  Jesus is our brother. 

 The challenge, which the gospel puts before us today as Christians, is how well do we welcome our brothers and sisters.  Remember the words of Jesus, when I was hungry, or lonely or sick, you did it to me.  Out of fear we too quickly can build walls to keep others out, either out of our country, or out of our lives.

 

 At St Vines, we do reach out.  Over the past year we certainly have helped the sick, through our participation both by volunteering and financial aid to the CCAC.  We have served meals at Thanksgiving; we have helped build the houses with Habitat for Humanity, given toys to kids who might otherwise not have them, and food to the Food Pantry.  These are great things and we need to continue to do them.  But we can too easily miss opportunities to tear down walls within our own family.

 As we begin a New Year, a time when we make all kinds of resolutions to do better, lets not forget to see how we may become more conscious of the Family of God and those who are lonely, from another place, struggling. 

Picture 1:    Jack

Picture 2:    Ryan with cookie

Picture 3:    The Reads, Teresa, Taylor, Doug, & Zack

Picture 4:    Emma, one of the 5 Bambini

 Picture 5:    Santa arrives

Picture 6:    All the Good Kids awaiting Santa 

 

 

Readings: Wisdom 2, 12-20; Psalm 54, The Lord upholds My Life; James 5, 1-6; Mark 9, 38-48.

Wisdom:   One of the 14-15 books of the deutero-canonical books of the bible.  Not OT nor NT, but in between and the subject of controversy over the centuries.  Were they really part of the bible or not?  How do you know?  Catholic church accepts the books.

Subject matter: the book collects traditional Jewish material, as well as ideas borrowed from Greek philosophy, in order to teach that God rewards those who are faithful to him.

Author: not Solomon, but a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt who spoke and wrote excellent Greek.

Date: ca. 100-200 BCE.  How do we know these facts?  Because of text analysis.  For example, while the author wrote in Greek, he uses phrases and expressions that have a Hebrew flavor.  Also, he mentions rulers and places that reveal date and locale. 

Our Selection: what a wicked person thinks should be done with a good person–beat & kill.  This links up with the suffering servant poem from 2 Isaiah last week.  Jews think the good person getting beaten is the Jewish race/nation.  Christians think the person is Christ.

James:  presents a pretty negative image of people.  What would be a compassionate image? 

 

Every Person is a Child

 

Ever hear of a guy named Bear Bryant?  Like in Coach Bear Bryant?  Bear Bryant was football coach of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa for 25 years, up to 1982, when he retired.  He won 6 national championships and I was living in Mobile when he won his second in ’64.  At his retirement he was asked by a reporter what he was going to do next.  He quipped, “I’ll probably croak in a week.”  8 days later he died of a heart attack.  After having just received a positive report on a physical check up.  

The story goes that in his first year as coach at Alabama he was driving around the rural south of the state looking for a player he had heard about and whom he wanted to invite to the university.  He could not find the kid’s house and he was getting hungry because it was after his lunch hour.  He sees a little ramshackle joint with a tattered sign, ‘restaurant,’ and decides to give it a try.  He walks in, the place goes dead silent, and the head of every person turns to look at this white guy.  A big black guy behind a home made bar asks, “What can I do for you, sir?”  

Bryant says he is the new coach at Tuscaloosa, can’t find a boy he is looking for, and has an appetite.  The black guy says he is welcome to eat what they got, but he may not like it because they are serving that day corn bread, beans, and chitlin.

Bryant says, “I’m from Moro Bottom, AK, I’ve eaten probably a mile of chitlin (pig intestines), and the menu sounds great.”  Everybody smiles and he eats his lunch at the bar.  A while later, leaving the restaurant with the information he wanted on the boy’s house, he pays and gives the man a tip, not flashy, but generous.  The black man asks him if he has a photo of himself.  Bryant says he has not been coach long enough to have a photo, but he writes down the guy’s name & address, and promises to send him one.  Back at Tuscaloosa, although disappointed in the recruit he went to find, he remembers to send the picture, signed with, “Thanks for one of the best lunches ever.”

 

Time passes.  Years later another boy has developed a reputation in that region and Bryant wants him for Tuscaloosa.  A black athlete.  The university has integrated.  He calls the boy and invites him to the university.  The boy is polite but says his two best friends are going to Auburn and he hopes to team with them.  Auburn is to Alabama as the Giants are to the Cowboys.  So Bryant figures he has lost the kid. Not so.  About a week later the kid calls the coach and asks if he still would like him at Alabama.  Bryant says sure and asks him what made him change his mind.  The kid says his grandfather knew him and has great respect for him.  Not that he would remember his grandfather.  Bryant had once eaten in his little restaurant and promised him a picture.  

 

His grandfather respected him because he not only ate chitlins at the restaurant, but he honored his promise and sent him a picture, which has place of honor to that day in the restaurant.

 

Moral of the story?

Picture 1:  The Mass with Kevin & Sabrina

 

Picture 2:  Brunch Time

 

Picture 3:  The Girls–Jackie Ritter, Jackie McGrath, & Beth

Readings:  2 Samuel 7, 1-16; Psalm 89; Romans 16, 25-27; Luke 1, 26-38. 

2 Samuel:

Date compiled:  650-600 BCE, probably in Jerusalem.  David lived ca. 1000 BCE

2 Samuel is part of a 4 book assembly: 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. 

Subject matter:      a)  Samuel as Judge

                              b)  Saul as King

                              c)  David as King

Sources:          a)  The court history of David written by Gad

                       b)  Samuel wrote chapters 1-24 of 1 Samuel

                       c)   Anti-monarchy source

                       d)  Pro-monarchy source 

                       e)  Redaction & editing by Nathan   

King David, Jesus' Ancestor   

 In the spirit of anticipating Christmas, I would like to tell you an Old Testament story this morning, a story about one of my most favorite O.T. characters, King David.  We Catholics do not have a tradition like Protestants do of hearing over & over the stories of the great ancestors of our religion and culture.  Today we can rectify this a bit.    

To get the scene you have to go back 1,000 years BCE.  David and two other great leaders are all living at the same time.  Samuel is the first of the three and he is the last ruler of Israel who is a judge.  Saul is the second person.  He follows Samuel as leader and is the first king of Israel.  

What is happening is that Saul is doing a bad job of being king.  If you know any psychology you will detect that he is bipolar or manic depressive.  He has big mood swings.  Yawheh has tired of him and has whispered to Samuel that Samuel needs to go find a new king.  Yehweh deconsecrates Saul as king.  He directs Samuel to go visit a man named Jesse with 8 sons in a special little town.  Name that town.  Bethlehem.  This is significant to N.T. writers like Luke and you will hear it mentioned in the Christmas readings. 

As each son is brought before Samuel Yahweh whispers in his ear, "No, not this one," even though Samuel thinks each one would make a good choice.  After the seventh son is rejected, Samuel prepares to leave, but asks Jesse if he has any other sons.  Jesse says that, as a matter of fact, he does have another son, his youngest, who is out in the fields tending the livestock.  When David comes before Samuel, Yahweh whispers, "This is The Man."  Samuel consecrates David then and there the future king of Israel.

With that David moves into King Saul's palace as a page and becomes a favorite to Saul.  David can interpret dreams and he can play a soothing guitar that calms Saul when he has some of his dark moods.  David pleases Saul so much that eventually David marries his daughter Micah.

Life goes on peacefully this way until one day the Philistines come to attack.  The Hebrews are terrified, in fact doubly terrified because of one giant guy who is killing everyone and challenging any & all Jews to come out and fight him.  Guess who this guy is.  The Famous Goliath.  Guess who volunteers to come out and fight.  David.

This part of the story we all know.  David dings Goliath with a stone from his sling shot, then whacks off his head with Goliath's own sword.  David becomes very popular with the people.  David becomes unpopular with Saul who begins to feel the poison seed of jealousy.  The jealousy expands so much that eventually Saul dedicates all his efforts to killing David.  David hides in the desert and ultimately Saul dies.

At this point David becomes the king and is successful in all he does.  At one point, in fact, after a successful military campaign against their enemies, David comes dancing joyfully into the city of Jerusalem leading the military parade.  From a nearby window his wife Micah is watching and as the Bible says, she is disgusted.  When David returns home and is greeted with the derision of Micah, he defends himself and declares that he will continue to dance his joy before the Lord.  Yahweh is not impressed with Micah' criticism and she never has any children.

Not all the time does David join his armies in the field.  On one occasion he is strolling on the roof of his house in the afternoon.  He looks over to a neighboring roof and discovers a woman bathing.  David is bitten.  He sends his servants to invite her to dinner at the king's palace.  A month or so later, guess what.  The lady sends word that she is pregnant.  Guess who this lady is.  The famous Bathsheba.

David decides that he can't let it be known that he is the father.  He sends for Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, who is one of his best soldiers.  He invites him for dinner, gets him drunk, then tells him to go home and sleep well.  Uriah, however, is a man loyal to his comrades and decides that he will not go into his house to sleep when his fellows are sleeping in the fields.

So the next morning David sends him back to the field with a note to the commander.  The note instructs the commander to put Uriah in the front of the fight and when they are all engaged to pull everybody back but Uriah.  Uriah gets killed. 

Shortly after this David is visited by a local prophet who has received a message from Yahweh.  Nathan tells David a story about a rich man who took a poor man's sole beloved sheep and slaughters it.  Nathan asks David what should happen to that rich man and David says he should be severely punished.  Nathan says, "You are that rich man."  So David acknowledges his failure and does penance. 

Meanwhile Bathsheba has a son.  The Great Solomon.  He who built the Jerusalem temple which the Jewish people are still lamenting since its destruction by the Romans.

You will see Luke make a big deal out of the lineage of Jesus, that he is of the house & family of David.  Solomon, the son of David & Bathsheba is his great, great grandfather.

There are so many lessons in this story.  I have just two observations.

1.  Jesus comes out of a lineage with a unique event.

2.  God forgives even some big sinners.  We can take consolation from this & know that we are accepted.

What about David do you like the best? 

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-12-21.mp3

Picture 1:  Our Father

Picture 2:  Maggie McGrath & Tom (dad)

Picture 3:  Cliff Wright

            

Readings: Exodus 20, 1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1, 22-25; John 2, 13-25

Exodus: 2nd book of the Bible & of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible.

Date of Composition: put together ca 450-400 BCE, though elements come from 1000 BCE at least.

Author(s):  Moses, no.  At least 3 sources, maybe 4, e.g., the Yahweh (J) source, the Elohim (E) source, the Priestly (P) source, and even the Deuteronomy Source. 

Subject Matter Today:  The 10 Commandments–2 observations:

1. Academics see 3 maybe 4 versions of the 10 commandments, Exodus 34 (the oldest), Exodus 20 (our selection), Deuteronomy 5 (the last)

2. The versions come from the sources composing at different times, for example,

  

• The Yahweh Source, 10th Century BCE, therefore, Exodus 34    

• The Elohim Source, 9th Century BCE, therefore Exodus 20

•  The Deuteronomy Source, 7th Century BCE, therefore Deuteronomy 5    

• The Priestly Source, edited all the sources in 6th Century BCE (450-400 BCE, at the end of the Babylonian Captivity).  The 7 Day Creation Story comes from this source at this time.

Source:  Bishop (Episcopal) John Shelby Spong

 

Anger Management

I think it was October last year when Rosemary & I were at DFW taking a flight to Philadelphia (probably departing out of the international terminal) to celebrate Jean Kovatis' wedding.  It was a morning flight so we bought a couple of lattes to take on board. 

We end up at the middle of the pack and head for our double seats in the middle of the plane on the right side facing forward.  Since I like the window & Rosemary doesn't, I squeezed in first, seated myself, opened the table, and put my latte on the table.  Then Rosemary begins to squeeze in.

At some point in this process her purse or arm or something hits my latte.  It flips over to the right, hits the wall and my leg, tumbles down, and finally lands on the floor below the seat in front of me.  I cannot see it. As fast as I can, I lock up my table, get my book out of the way, and squeeze down to pick up the paper cup, hoping that the top was still on.  The top was not still on.  My half gallon of latte spilled all over the carpet creating a lake of coffee with milk under the double seats in front of us.

Rosemary is still standing so she piles into the line of people waiting in the aisle and heads to the rear restrooms to scavenge paper towels.  With these finally we begin to sop up the lake, apologizing to the people in front of us because of the latte lake at their feet.  We succeeded pretty well under the circumstances.  You could hardly tell there had been an accident.

When it was all over, finally seated and buckled in, me without my latte, Rosemary says to me, "I don't know what you got so mad about."  I confess I had been steamed.  "You know I do this frequently," she adds.  True enough.  There had been other special occasions. 

I mention this little event (with Her permission) because it came to mind when I see the story of Jesus getting all steamed up at the vendors in the temple.   I have to laugh.  Lucky he never got married.  What is he so hyped up about?  Was he having a bad mood day?  Can he have bad moods?  Was he getting old and cranky?  He apparently was about 30 at this time, which would make him a pretty old geezer for those days when most people checked out in their mid-twenties.  If you look at the scene with amusement and detachment, you might want to laugh.

On the other hand, there might have been some significant reasons for anger, like:

    1.  he was angry because the vendors were supposed to remain in the outer courtyard and they were inching into the inner sanctum, the holy place.

    2.  he was angry because he was watching the vendors cheat a little bit here, a little bit there.  Maybe his mom had been cheated by one of these guys 20 years ago and he still was angry about that.

    3.  he was angry because he saw the obsession of some of these people with money.  He was seeing the Bernie Madoffs, the Stanfords, and the Ken Lays of his day.

But, note that

    1.  it was customary for animals to be sold at the temple.  These animals were destined to be bought by people, taken to the priestly cast inside the temple, and given as a sacrifice.  These people were heavy into sacrifice.  The idea: I give something to Yahweh, I get something from Yahweh.  Maybe it was gratitude for already getting something.  The rich bought larger animals, like sheep & goats, the poor bought small critters, like a dove or a pigeon.  So animals were always expected around the temple.

    2.  it was customary that the temple was a center for all sorts of trade.  People went there for sacrifice, giving thanks, and socializing.  The market naturally set up near, in, and around the temple.  The markets I saw in Tanzania when I lived there were probably similar and were fascinating events.  Take our farmers market and multiply, then add bushels of women chatting, snooping around for deals, and bargaining.  Men are drifting around and some are running the meat market.  Both men & women are selling.  You tell the butcher, "I would like a kilo of that beef."  It is hanging from a hook and the butcher uses a sharp knife to slice off a kilo.  It gets wrapped in newspaper you bring or a piece of material you bring with you.

So why was Jesus so angry, why was I angry?  We did not read about it in Exodus, but when Moses came down the mountain and found that his son Aron had built some kind of little idol and all the people were worshiping it, Moses broke the stone tablets of the 10 commandments.  I don't know about Jesus & Moses, but I would suggest that I got caught off guard.  I have a little trick that helps with this craziness.  I would call it expectation adjustment.  The idea comes not from my head, but from a man named Albert Ellis (American Psychologist, developed RET, Rational-emotive Therapy, d. 2007, 93). 

The idea is that I have an expectation about how a person should behave & how things should be.  If I  get obsessive compulsive or as Rosemary might gently describe it, I get anal, then I can go off when the person behaves in a way contrary to my expectation.  What do you think is the dynamic behind road rage?  For example, I expect that truckers will drive in the lanes other than the left lane.  I see trucker in left lane.  I go off. 

Want to fix it?  Adjust my expectation.  Trucker is in left lane.  So what.  Moses comes down the mountain and the people are messing up.  Expectation.  Jesus seems to have done some expectation adjustment, because faced with condemnation by the Pharisees at the end of his life he does not fight back. 

How do you manage your anger? 

Sources:  Center for Liturgy, St. Louis U.; Alfred Ellis

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-03-15.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with Noah & Rosemary

Picture 2:  Birthdays–Jzckie, Shiela, & JoJo

Picture 3:  Wedding begins, Fred & Martha, her daughter April & best man Manuel

Picture 4:  Fred & Martha share their vows

 

Could we be looking at Santa or Kevin??  Welcome in, Whoever you may be.

 

 

Readings:

Genesis15, 1-6; 21, 1-3    Look up at the sky and count the stars.  Just so shall your descendants be.

Psalm, 105,  the Lord remembers his covenant forever.

Hebrews 11, 8, 11-12, 17-19  By faith Abraham obeyed.

Luke 2, 22-40,   Simeon & Anna meet Jesus

 

 

 

Thanks, Dearest Harper, for bringing along you grandmother Cathy.

 

Genesis obserevations :

What : the very first book of the bible beginning with Adam & Eve, the two creation myths, Cain & Abel, Noah and the flood, the Tower of Babylon, and then the big 3 patriarchs of the Jewish nation.  They are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The book is a fun read.  It is not history, but speculation and tribal myth. 

Date: contemporary scholarship thinks that the work was composed either before or during the B.C., the all important Babylonian Captivity. Why?  Give the Jewish people a sense of historical identity and tribal cohesion.  

 

 

 

The "A" Team, complete with lights.

 

Today’s selection: all about Abraham, the first of the 3 Great Patriarchs.  Abraham is crying and lamenting the fact that he has no children.  Why?  Sarah was childless and Abraham was 99 years old.  A “we have a problem, Houston” situation.  The Lord hears Abraham and uses a beautiful metaphor to show Abraham what is going to happen. 

Because the editor of this reading has so taken the fun out of it, I want to read a bit more.  Sit back and enjoy the story of how Abraham and Sarah had a baby.   I'm including parts of three other chapters between chapters 15 and 21.

 

 

 

 

Ben, our Candle Lighter of The Week, in action.

 

David Vanderpool

This morning, the last of the year 2017, I have a New Years story for you. Actually, it comes from the front page of last Sunday’s Dallas Morning News.  Mike Carrell saw it and gave me a heads up.

There is a guy named David Vanderpool.  His dad was a surgeon and David attended St. Mark’s Boys’ School.  When David was 15, he made a trip to Israel.  In the town of Nazareth he happened to get into a conversation with another 15 year old, a girl from Nazareth and a Christian. 

 

 

 

Cheryl reading The Blessing of the Candles.

 

 

At some point the girl asked David what he planned to do when he grew up.  David had not thought a lot about it, but assumed he would become a doctor like his dad.  David was impressed by the girl.  She had taught herself English.  He asked her what she would do.

“I will carry water and have babies,” she responded.  There were no other options.  David was stunned and embarrassed by his affluent and free life.

 

 

 

Even after the spectacular Christmas Eve (200 plus), Shonda, Ben, and David sing and play on.  

 

So, David did go to college at TX Tech and became a surgeon, but the girl’s response stayed with him.  He married Lauri and they had two sons and a daughter.  During this time two things took place. 

First, they made a number of medical relief trips to countries in Africa and South America where there were crises.  Secondly, David and Laurie made a promise to themselves that when their last child, Jacklyn went off to college, they would move to a third world country in need.

So, all went well for some probably 15 years, until 2013.  Jacklyn was going off to college.  Decision time.

 

 

 

John & Alison bringing up the Offertory of Bread (baked by Alison) and Wine.   What??  No wine, not even grape juice for everybody?   Too cold, slippery, and dangerous to have Jan bring the communion cups.  Thanks, Jan for staying home.

 

What did they do?  Yep, they sold their house and all their belongs, including a $20,000 pet guitar, set up a foundation called LiveBeyond, and moved to Haiti.  Haiti was chosen because they had already spent some time there after the 2010 earthquake.  They had to go back.

In the four years since their move to Haiti, the couple have set up a 60 acre complex with a hospital and school.  There was no clean water, no sewage process, no electricity in the village they chose because of its poverty, a town called Thomazeau.

 

 

 

The Great Father & Son Team, Cody & Ben.

 

A special joy came this year in the person of Jacklyn.  She finished college at A&M and decided she wants to live and work with her parents.

How are you going to emulate the Vanderpools in your village and in your neighborhood this New Year of 2018?    

Happy New Year.

 

 

 

Who wears these light up shoes?    Hint: he's an altar server.