To love a brother …

My family spends roughly a month each winter in the Bahamas. My grandmother has spent her winter's there for nearly 30 years and our family has created a community of wonderful friends. This year our stay was been bitter sweet as a dear family friend was in his final days after a long fight with cancer. Phil has no biological family on the island. He needed 24 hour care on an island with limited health care options. Sounds like a recipe for disaster huh? We can all take a guess at what his last days looked like, right? Poor Phil, alone in a second or third rate hospital, just waiting to die. If you have any experience with hospitals in second world countries, you know it's not a pretty picture. And this would indeed have been Phil's destiny if it were not for Christian brotherly love.

You see on our beautiful little island, the concept of the church family is deeply rooted in the culture. Your church is not somewhere you go for an hour on Sunday morning. Your church is who you are. It is your community, your friends, your home and your family. So thanks to the love of his church family, Phil did not die alone in a hospital. He was at home, cared for 24 hours a day by registered nurses whom his Pastor found to care for him. Phil's day time nurse was a lovely woman by the name of Mrs. Beckels. Mrs Beckels works the night shift at the hospital, and for the last month of Phil's life she took care of him from 8 -4, seven days a week. She bathed and feed Phil, and kept him company when he was coherent. She also put up with a lot. Phil was not a sweet little old man, appreciative for her help. He was a tough Englishman with the manners and mouth from his former days as a sailor. He just as frequently cursed Mrs. Beckels as he thanks her.

So far, you're probably thinking, what's so amazing about a nurse taking on a little side job and putting up with a grumpy old man? Well the thing is, this was not a job for Mrs. Beckels. She didn't take a dime from Phil. She said it was her honor to love a brother in his final hours. The even more amazing thing was that she didn't really know Phil while he was well. They went to the same church, but they were not friends. Mrs. Beckels' faith called her to love this grumpy dying man just as Christ loved us. It was beautiful to see. What was even more beautiful, was that Mrs. Beckels was not alone, there were other volunteers who took on eight hour blocks every day of the week or who just came to sit and visit with Phil.

Several of my Jewish and un-churched friends, who were on the island for the holidays, asked me if this was "normal". Was this what churches do? I desperately wanted to answer "yes!" For the Scriptures teaches, that you will know us by our love. But of course I had to answer a sad, "not really." I have the privilege to worship and work at a large suburban church. We have funding and members coming out of our ears. We build schools and clinics in Africa, we plant churches around Denver, we have programs and classes offered every day of the week. We do many great things as a church, but as a people, we don't love each other the way Phil's church does. We don't even come close. Why in a community that has so much, do we as a people give each other so little? I have been thinking a lot about this over the past few weeks. In a time in our country, when people are so desperately hurting; losing their jobs, their marriages and their health, I think it's really important to think about how we love people in Christ's name. So for the next week, I am going to share some thoughts about this. I hope that you too, will post a comment and share your ideas with everyone about how your family, or church, is caring for those around you.

Celebrating America at home

Just in case any of you have found yourself in the shocking situation of not being invited to one of Tuesday's ten inaugeral balls in Washington, I thought I would share what Pete and I are doing with the girls on Tuesday night. (Yes, I admit, that somehow we were not invited either.) Irregardless of how you voted back in November, Tuesday is a wonderful teaching opportunity to share with our children. After nearly two years of campaigning, debating and fighting, we have selected our next President and he will peacefully take office this week. We are blessed with our democratic process - it is something worth celebrating.

Monday, the girls will recieve invitations for our own inaugeral celebrations. They will be invited to don thier fanciest ball gowns for Tuesday's dinner. We will have a red, white and blue dinner of spagetti and meatballs with star shaped garlic bread and blue milk to drink (is there anything funner than blue milk!) For dessert we are having apple pie. Then we'll watch some of the inaugeration ceremony and parade from that morning. Last, we will turn into ABC's coverage of the Neighborhood Ball and the girls can dance thier little hearts out in the family room. I hope it will plant a memory in thier minds of this very historic day, as well as seeds of patriotism that I hope will grow throughout thier lives.

God Bless America!

Traveling tots ...

Happy New Year everyone. I apologize for the unplanned time away from blogging. Our family has been on our annual trip to the Bahamas for the holidays. Normally I stay connected and blog while we are away, but this year, I truly checked out for three weeks.

We came home on Friday. The girls are sporting cornrow braids and we all have some healthy tans, earning us a lot of questions about where we have been. When I tell people we have been in the Bahamas for three weeks, I get a lot of questions about traveling with the kids for so long.

Pete and I love to travel, there was frankly never a question about not traveling once the girls came along. In Sarah's first year of life she was on 26 flights. In her second year she visited seven countries. As I said, we love to travel.

Pete and I talked a lot this past trip about positive things we see the girls gaining from our trips. We appreciate that the girls learn to:

1. Be flexible - schedules and routine are great for kids, but the ability to be flexible is critical in life.

2. Make friends quickly - wherever we go, our girls make friends. This year in the Bahamas the girls had five friends that they had met last year and they also made a new friend, Mya, by walking up and asking her to play.

3. Experience different cultures - we love to take our girls to celebrate Junkanoo each year. To have them eat foods like Johnny cake and peas n rice and to make friends of all colors, shades and creeds.

4. Learn about the world - when we travel, the girls get to do things that we just can't do at home. This year we swam with dolphins and went deep sea fishing.

4. Rely on one another - I in large part credit my girls close relationship to the fact that Pete and I drag them around the country 5-7 weeks a year. They have to play with one another and hang out together when we travel. While traveling there is no school, no activities or play dates to get away from each other. We have family time 24-7!

5. Most importantly our kids learn that no matter where we are, who we are never changes. Mommy and Daddy are always there for them. God is everywhere we go and we can worship Him in all sorts of settings. Our family is the same, even if our setting isn't.