Comments on: 1ST WORLD RE-EVANGELIZATION: Chaplaincy

By: Wayne Park

Wayne Park — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:56:01 +0000

Hey Teresa! Thanks for stopping by – been a while since I saw you last.
As I drive to these support officer calls those two things are in my thoughts. I don’t work myself up in prayer or try to get “in the zone” – I just prepare myself. To encounter Christ. To see him there ahead of me, oftentimes in the victims themselves.
Hope you’re well

By: Teresa

Teresa — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:20:41 +0000

Thank you for your profoundly moving description of this…what you said about “watch and pray” … that’s we’re watching for God, even though we can’t remove the suffering or go in their place, we can be present and watch for God. And that “Christ is the 1st responder” – already present before the first call….I will carry these images with me as I approach situations that are at times challenging to know what to do. Missional? Having recently watched a couple of pastoring friends literally standing in the gap at the door of the church to protect a woman and her children from a domestic violence threat, I see pastors and soldiers/warriors as a lot more similar….

By: Wayne Park

Wayne Park — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:55:45 +0000

Anytime.
I see and hear the incarnate Sufferer in him and in you, and I’m sorry for your sadness.

Let me know if there’s anyway we can be there for you.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:08:49 +0000

Yes, it is Malcolm. My beloved first born. Things are going ok. I have so much for which to be thankful. But, still struggle a lot with tenuous emotions and sense of security. Intriguing how I can look back over my life (or even just the last 5 years, say) and clearly see how God has been more than sufficient to get me through any challenge, and yet I still doubt deep inside of me that He will be enough for the next hurdle. For now things are relatively calm. It is almost a relief to stress about fairly irrelevant things, like kids’ schooling, cluttered house, daily tasks….

One thing that grieves me (premature grief) is that when Malcolm does pass on people won’t have taken the opportunity to get to know him. When a parent loses a child one of the main comforts seems to be people surrounding them with stories of how remarkable their child was. I DO know that Malcolm has touched many, many lives, but I also know that most of the people in our life, including 99.9 percent in our church, have never even looked at Malcolm closely, let alone taken the opportunity to get to know him, and this makes me sad. We went up to Vancouver yesterday to spend Father’s Day with my dad and we went to University Chapel, out near Regent. Malcolm slept through the sermon on Revelations, but he was so precious during the worship, before and after. He was positively radiant with happiness as he listened the music and even joined in with a few coos. Maybe it is enough that he ministers to the small circle around him? Who knows. Anyway, thanks for asking and for being a safe place for me to put down some thoughts. Blessings to you, A, A, and Z.

By: Wayne Park

Wayne Park — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:42:55 +0000

@Juan – thanks for reading anyway – I appreciate your input as one who is thrust into the transcultural context. And careerism – is perhaps the biggest temptation I am fighting right now.

@Jennifer – I’m so sorry to hear that… is this Malcolm we’re talking about? How are things lately?

@Jay – hang on.. the next in this series is going to talk about the labor of love that YOU do – at the nursing homes.

By: Jay Johnson

Jay Johnson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:58:15 +0000

Your experience and your reponse to it reminds me of John 13:34, 35 “Little children I give you a new commandment that you love one another, as I have loved you; as I have loved you, so you also love one another. By this shall all men know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The 4-5 hours you spent just being there spoke more volumns that cannot be communicated in a sermon of words. Blessings as you go on as 2nd Responder to those in need of love.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:45:19 +0000

I was told I was losing my eldest son a couple of months ago. God spared him. I can’t even put my grief in to words from that time. I just wanted to say that I hope someone like you is able to be there when the time comes. Thank you for lending your heart and your time to be there.

By: Juan Arvelo

Juan Arvelo — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:36:53 +0000

Although, sometimes I cannot fully understand what are you writing, because of the English level it is written, I am very interesting in the things you blog about: Church planting, transcultural evangelization, etc…
I agree with you about Pastors being susceptible to careerisms. But I wonder If I, as a missionary am susceptible to the same sort of phenomena, when I get to the mission field and I don´t preach the Gospel, because of the persecution or the restrictions of the country, or simply because I get use to live in that country without affecting anybody´s lives.