My Bucket List

I (Jana) had a birthday this month!  Last year was my "big 4-0" and the other day I was reading over something I wrote on my birthday last year.  I never posted it because I didn't want to sound like I was bragging or anything.  But I reread it this year and decided I should post it.  And just to remain humble, I will tell you that this year I got my hair highlighted and here I am getting it done! Enjoy the photo, I'm sure I'll regret this later...

So, I have never actually seen the movie, but this year (well, TODAY actually!) I (Jana) turn 40 years old!  I think I want to make my own "reverse" bucket list!  I keep thinking of how full my life has been.  If 40 years was all I had, I'd have no regrets.  I'd have done so many things already.  So I decided, instead of trying at 40 to do 40 more things, why not celebrate 40 things the Lord has already allowed me to do?  Besides, "done" lists are so much less stressful than "to do" lists!  So,

40 AWESOME THINGS I HAVE DONE IN THE PAST 40 YEARS
(but in my mind it will always be "My Bucket List"!)

1.  Saved and baptized on the slopes of the volcano Mount Merapi 

2.  Lived in 6 different countries 

3.  Visited 27 different countries 

4.  Seen some "wonders of the world" like Borobudur, Giza Pyramids and Sphinx 

5.  Went on a cruise 

6.  Got a SCUBA license (and a Ham Radio license) 

7.  Got married! 

8.  Have 3 awesome kids! 

9.  Studied 4 languages (2 with other scripts) 

10. Wrote a book! (ok, sort of) 

11. Led some folks to Christ 

12. Lived almost on the Nile River 

13. Went to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jericho 

14. Graduated from college 

15. Went to a Thai cooking class 

16. Studied Balinese dancing 

17. Learned to embroider on a treadle machine in Eritrea 

18. Went snow skiing 

19. Went water skiing 

20. Camped in the Sahara desert 

21. Boogie boarded in the Indian Ocean 

22. Rode a dogsled on the highest point in Europe (Jung Frau) 

23. Camped in New Zealand (in a camper) 

24. Para-sailed in Mexico 

25. Had an ALMOST lead role in a musical! ha!  (Mikado) 

26. Watched all three of my kids ask Jesus into their hearts and watched 2 of them get baptized in the Nile River (since then our third was baptized in a swimming pool in Thailand)

27. Visited the castle of the MacLeod clan (my ancestors) on the Isle of Skye in Scotland 
28. Watched Phantom of the Opera in London 

29. Seen at least 14 states of the United States 

30. Trained in spiritual disciplines by my parents! 

31. Watched a hernia operation 

32. Personally met many persecuted believers 

33. Proud of my parents and siblings (not everyone can say that you know!) 

34. Enjoyed a fabulous relationship with my grandmother, Betsy Crane

35. Bought a clam in Hawaii that had 2 pearls in it 

36. Spent the night at the circus 

37. Floated in the Dead Sea 

38. Rode an elephant in Thailand 

39. Rode a camel at the Red Sea 

40. Continue to watch my kids have similar awesome TCK experiences

Thank You, Lord, for 40 fantastic years.  They haven't always been easy, and they haven't always been happy.  But You have led me and have been faithful and today I am a stronger and better person because You have taught me so much.

Adventure in Singapore

Last week we took a quick trip to Singapore.  First things first:  dinner at Subway!

A Fantastic Mother's Day at the Science Center, we had a blast!

There were TONS of things to see.  One whole area was focused on Optical Illusions.

And one day we enjoyed Singaporean Chicken Rice with a friend and his cute little boy.

We had lots of fun riding buses and trains and doing LOTS of walking.  We enjoyed yummy food, a great bookstore, outings and restful times too.  But, of course, it's always good to go home at the end!

Puzzling Pictures: Swiss Signs

I was looking through old pictures the other day and found some more "Puzzling Pictures" for the collection.
This was a sign in a beautiful garden area in Switzerland.  We couldn't figure out what it meant.  Presumably "don't pick the flowers," but where on earth does the elephant come from?  And why is a giant hand pinching his ear?

Here is some Funny Toilet paper...  Literally.

The Plight of the Spaghetti Sauce

Yesterday a friend of mine went to the grocery store.  She had her eye on a jar of imported spaghetti sauce.  Yum!  Actually, she had seen the jar sitting on the shelf for several weeks and had tried several times to buy it.  But when she got to the check out line, the jar was not registered in the computer and therefore could not be purchased.  As the expiry date on the jar approached, my friend continued to try to buy it.  Into the shopping cart the jar would go.  Up to the cash register it would ride.  Across the scanner it would skim.  No beep.  The cashier would key in the number on the bar code.  No beep.  The cashier would tell my friend she couldn't buy it.  The jar would be returned to the shelf.

So yesterday my friend had a new idea.  After the usual trip to the cashier where the jar of spaghetti sauce did not register, she smiled sweetly and said to the cashier, "I would really like to buy this jar of spaghetti sauce.  How might I purchase it?"

"It's not in the computer, so you can't," replied the cashier.

"Yes, but it is on the shelf.  Surely there is some way I can buy it?"

"We don't have permission from the home office to sell it yet, so we don't have the price."

Anger and frustration doesn't work well here, you understand.  It only scratches your own itch and accomplishes nothing.  Everything should be addressed with a smile and politeness.

"Do you have a manager on duty today?"  asked my friend, in her sweetest voice and with a pleasant smile.

"Yes," replied the cashier, confused.

"May I speak with him?"

Baffled as to why this lady would want to speak to the manager, the cashier agreed and called for him.  My friend explained to the manager the plight of the jar of spaghetti sauce.  "I am a foreigner living here in your city.  You have this nice brand of imported spaghetti sauce that I would like to buy."

"Oh, you cannot buy that sauce because we don't have permission from the home office to sell it."

"Can you call the home office to find out the price?  Because I am willing to buy all the jars you have on the shelf."

"Oh no, we can't do that."

"But then you will never sell the ones you have and then the home office will never send more sauce because it did not sell well..." nothing... "So how could I purchase this sauce?"

"You can't."

"But it's on your shelf."

"But we don't have permission to sell it."

"So this means that, even though your store carries this nice brand of imported spaghetti sauce and I can see it on the shelf, in order to purchase it, I would need to fly to the capital city and buy it there..." smile... "So why do you even have it on your shelves if I can't buy it?"

Within minutes the manager had a a group of employees go to the pasta aisle and remove the yummy jars of imported spaghetti sauce!  There!  Problem fixed!

So, today I began to think about a spiritual lesson to take from this funny situation (or frustrating?).  Are there things in my life that I put on display, but never access?  Like faith.  Do I have faith?  Well of course I do.  But are there situations in my life that require faith, and even though I say, "Well of course I have faith!"  have I been in touch with the Lord so closely that I am ready to use it when the situation calls for it?  Or do I carry a bunch of great attributes to show off on the shelf, but don't know how to use them when the rubber meets the road (or should I say when the bar code hits the scanner?).   But if you discover this is true in your own life, don't pull it off the shelf for pete's sake!  Learn how to use it!

Have I stretched the analogy too far?  Maybe.  But I'll tell you, next time I walk down that aisle of the grocery store and see that empty spot where the imported jars used to be, not only will I giggle to myself, I'll also re-evaluate myself and make sure I am in touch with the "Home Office"!

Mud Pie Ministry

Mark 1:32 "That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed."

I think I have watched so many well-meaning Bible movies and as a child seen so many flannel-graph stories that the scene in my mind, as I read Bible stories, is often this sterile picture where Jesus wears that pristine white robe with the blue sash slung across his shoulder and his long curly hair and beard are brushed and shiny.  He looks well rested and peaceful and there is a lovely tree scene in the background (that definitely comes from the flannel graph!)  But this morning, I read Mark 1:32 and banished the peaceful scene from my mind.  Ministry is messy.  Discipleship is messy.  Life is messy.

Have you ever been around sick people?  How about all the sick people in town (Mark 1:33)?  Sick people cough and wheeze, they blow their noses, the really sick ones grown and the feverish ones sweat.  I have been in several hospitals overseas and seen them so full of sick people that patients are lying on mats in the hallways. Even in our own home, when one or two of us get sick, I feel the need to wash the sheets and spray disinfectant everywhere.  Sickness is just gross.  Jesus was surrounded by sick people.

Have you been around demon-possessed people?  While overseas, we have seen "crazy" people and demon-possessed people, and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.  Just the other day we were going to a shop downtown and there was a man lying on the sidewalk in front of the display window.  The few clothes he had on were dirty and torn.  They were so filthy, in fact, that they were the same color as his dirt covered brown skin.  His pants were not pulled up far enough to cover himself decently.  He just lay there on the filth of a trashy ground.  I was uncomfortable when we passed him by to go into the store.  When we left the store he was gone, and I was relieved.  Why?  Was it because I felt bad for him?  Was it because I felt helpless to know what to do?  Did I not want a dirty crazy man to get my life messy?  Jesus was surrounded by crazy demon-possessed people.  I bet most of them were filthy.  All of them in town came to Jesus that night.

Flannel graph cutouts just do not capture the chaos that must have been the scene that night.  I just don't think Jesus' snow white robe and royal blue sash escaped without germs, smudges, maybe even a rip or two, and definitely sweat, both his and others'.  I bet Jesus' shiny curly hair and beard were tangly and filthy at the end of the evening.  Ministry is messy.

I wonder how long into the evening Jesus healed the sick and drove out demons?  Mark doesn't say.  But he does say that before the sun had even risen the next day, Jesus was awake and praying.  Personally, I think I would have taken a day off!  Obviously that would have been the wrong choice.  At any rate, my thought here is that Jesus was not afraid to get dirty.  He touched the sick, He let hurting people surround Him.  His ministry was messy because people are messy.

It's OK not to have a flannel graph ministry.  If we are loving people, then it's probably more of a mud pie ministry.  And if we are trying to follow Christ but our ministry feels more like a mud pie ministry than a flannel graph one, we are blessed, because Christ just so happens to have a mud pie ministry too!