Hi all,
As you can see above, we are hosting our first national house church conference in Tulsa in October! We wanted to have the feel of home rather than the feel of a big cold hotel conference, so we chose the Post Oak Lodge & Retreat (http://www.postoaklodge.com) which is just a 15 minute drive from Tulsa International Airport, yet in the country among the rolling hills and post oaks of eastern Oklahoma.
And just a note on the cost for the Thursday – Sunday conference: The fees charged are just what we are being charged, with only a very few dollars additional so we can take care of incidental expenses we have for the event – this is not a money maker, lol, and an offering will be received during the conference as well to help.
This is serving you, and imparting into you, getting to know you and providing a place for everyone to get to know everyone else. It is for those in our network and those interested in house church and CWOWI, and supporters of CWOWI. We anticipate a time rich in the Lord and getting to know others on the same spiritual page.
We have not even posted it on our web site yet, wanting to have a month of just letting those who know us, know about it first. Our space is very limited, and even at the very first announcement we had an instant response to about 25% full and we still have 4 months to go before the deadline. Remaining spaces will fill up fast once we go fully public with it in June.
What Chris said
Most will remember from previous things shared that Chris is our oldest son, born with the umbilical cord around his neck resulting in brain damage. Physically as of this writing he is 38, but mentally about 4 years old. He is in a wheelchair, talkative, never met a stranger, and funny. Every therapist and doctor has observed what we realized years ago, that he takes in things at a more adult level, but due to brain damage it isn’t processed normally resulting in that functioning capacity of a 4 year old.
They had mentioned at the group home they had taken the residents for a drive, and along the way were flagged down by a rancher who recognized the bus. Some time back he had a handicapped son in that group home, and when he saw the familiar bus flagged them down and invited them to see his cows. All the aides had said to me about it was they saw some milking cows and a 5 legged cow – it was deformed and had an extra leg growing out of its shoulder, and other farm related animals and equipment. But Chris told me about it non-stop, he was very excited at all he saw!
He was home for his normal Friday/Saturday overnight stay. (Friday/Saturday when we aren’t traveling, other days when we are gone on weekends), He asked as we were getting ready for breakfast: “Dad; know where milk comes from?” I replied rather nonchalantly as this was an old question he knew the answer to, so I said, “Milk comes from cows Chris”, to which he said, “Nope. Milk comes from teats. You squeeze it and shhhhhhh out comes the milk!”
I chuckled at that, and he laughed a bit too at his farm discovery, and a few minutes later he was seated, ready for breakfast. Barb had a Danish* pastry to go with his breakfast, which Chris knows simply as a donut. *A Danish is a multi-layered pastry rich in butter and in the US often has fruit in it, which this one did.
As I had just learned milk comes from teats, I was wondering where he was going when I sat his breakfast down in front of him and told him, “…and mom has this donut for you because she thought you’d like it” and he responded with: “Dad, know where donuts come from?”
I sort of chuckled to myself and replied, “No. Where do donuts come from Chris?”
With an eager matter of fact tone he said as he raised it to his mouth, “The Lord!”
Attitude
While many of us might agree with Chris that donuts come from the Lord, I was thinking how he immediately and automatically acknowledged the ultimate source of the donut he enjoyed so much. He cut right to the core and acknowledged the Lord.
Chris was at home for his first 24 years, but has been in a group home these last 14 years. At the group home as with any situation like that, he is told when to wake up, when to shower and dress, when to eat with no choice of what he will eat. He is told when to get on the bus to go to the workshop, eat the lunch someone else prepared without asking him what he wanted, when to get back on the bus, when to take his medicines, when it is convenient to go to the bathroom, when to eat dinner with no choice in menu, and when to go to bed.
He is allowed 60 nights per year away from the group home, which amounts to 5 nights per month. We use every night every year. When I pick him up on a typical Friday he is usually still in bed when I arrive around 8am. He prefers dad to give him his shower and shave (they don’t shave him at the group home as he doesn’t like them to do so; so he waits for his once a week shave from me). Once in the car I ask him where he wants to eat breakfast…and then we are off for the day running errands, in and out of stores as Barb and I have saved errands during the week to do them with Chris.
By 4pm (16:00) we arrive back at home where he can sit in his recliner, watch some of his favorite shows or movies, play with his tablet or ‘drawing board’ or leaf through pages of car magazines. The lady who cuts our hair subscribes to “Car and Driver” magazine just so that Chris can take an issue home with him after each hair cut, which he always thanks her for profusely.
At home, Barb has fixed a favorite meal, and he knows the next morning, usually Saturday, he can sleep in and awaken at his pace, and then spend the morning doing whatever he would like – watching TV, playing on the floor with his cars, or whatever. By around 1-2pm (13:00-14:00) he is ready to get going in the car for a few more errands, a quick meal, and back to the group home in time for their dinner.
In between all that I work. Once Chris is in bed around 8pm (20:00) I usually write or study until close to midnight. Saturday morning I will get up and usually by 6am I am writing until he wakes up for the day around 8 or 9am. We work around him on those days, the only time during his week he can choose his schedule, what food he wants to eat, and where to go and what to see and do.
All of that to say in the midst of a life otherwise scheduled for him, when he saw that ‘donut’ on his plate, he first thought of the Lord and how He provided that for him. I find that child-like faith amazing, refreshing, humbling. I want to emulate Chris’ attitude of thankfulness. He always gives Barb and me kisses and ‘thank you for taking me to the store’ or ‘thank you for my spaghetti’ accompanied by a hug that would break ribs on a more frail person, lol.
Over the years my email in box gets filled with people who want to argue points of doctrine. Usually they want to correct me in something I wrote, and they aren’t always nice about it. Some are what Paul described as someone who opposes themselves; in strife not realizing strife and picking on the small stuff is not only immature, but it causes a person to work against themselves and against the greater work the Lord is trying to do in them.
It is not uncommon for me to receive an email from someone saying they want to talk to me, give me their phone number, then the rest of the 4 page email is correcting me on some doctrinal thing they think I said. Inevitably they have jumped to conclusions trying to add point A with point B and coming up with point Z they think I said, without actually reading in context what I wrote. Or they filter it through their bias or they read it with the intent of finding something wrong, lol…Needless to say they don’t get a call, lol.
And then Chris says something simple like his donut came from the Lord, and all the rest fades into the meaningless background once again, bringing me back to what is really important – finding the goodness of the Father God in the little things, ever thankful for what we DO have rather than what we want but don’t yet have.
When Paul told the Galatians in 2:10 that Peter, James, and John had extended the ‘hand of fellowship’ to he and Barnabas because they had ‘perceived the grace’ in them, it was one of those ‘donut’ moments. The 3 were called to the Jewish population while Paul and Barnabas were called to the non-Jewish peoples. But they perceived the grace of God in each other though mentally they didn’t understand each other’s call in life. That’s okay, we don’t have to understand, we just have to look for and perceive the grace in one another. Keep it simple, live in the core of your faith and the rest just falls into proper perspective and order.
We thank you for your gifts and prayers. Summer often sees a drop in donations as people are rightfully busy with family and holiday times and such, so we appreciate your faithfulness.
Blessings,
John & Barb, and Chris!
