Friday Summary Report, October 19

It’s been a slow week on the blog, mainly because I have been in Memphis all week at Harding School of Theology for a Global Evangelism class. The class has been really good, but it has been an exhausting week. Here’s a peek into my week:

• Class meets every day from 8:15-5:00, with a two-hour break for chapel and lunch. That’s a long time to be in class each day.
• Chapel is every day at 11:00 AM, and is a nice way to break up the day with worship and remind us all of why we are here. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak today.
• Every morning we have quizzes over some of our reading for class, so at night after class, I generally have to do some reading and studying to prepare for them. In addition to that, I’ve had Greek homework to do as well as some other research, and altogether that means I’ve been spending a lot of my time after 5:00 PM working in the library. It makes for really long days.
• I have stayed with Kevin and Linnea Burr this week, and they have been marvelous hosts all week. It’s always tough being away from my girls for a week, but the Burrs have done a ton to make me feel at home, including cooking for me each night and buying Coke in glass bottles for me (they know what I like!). Hospitality is a Christian virtue that we often neglect, and I have been humbled by how I have been treated all week.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world…actually, I don’t really know what’s going on in the rest of the world because I’ve been super busy all week! Here’s hoping that I’ll be back to more regular blogging next week, but with a Greek quiz, a Global Evangelism final, and a sermon to prepare for, who knows?

Five Blankets In An Ice Storm

In case you hadn’t heard, we’ve had a bit of an ice storm in my part of the world.

Mixtures of ice, sleet and rain began Monday afternoon and lasted through all of Tuesday, leaving between 1/2” and 2” of ice on everything.

Throughout Tuesday night the trees began to snap under the weight of all the ice, sounding like a chorus of artillery fire. And indeed, it does look somewhat like a war zone around here, or as if a tornado had ripped through the area, with trees and power lines down all over the place and fences, cars and houses damaged.

Despite all the devastation, I think my memories of the 2009 Ice Storm will mainly be fond ones, centered on the hospitality of others and a lesson on contentment that I received in the unlikeliest of places.

No sooner than our power had gone off Tuesday afternoon we began to get calls from people who had gas stoves and fireplaces who offered to let us stay with them. As it began to get darker (and colder) Tuesday evening, we finally decided to impose on some friends for the night, and we greatly appreciated their hospitality.

Wednesday morning Caroline and I decided to brave the icy roads and head to my parents’ house (whose power had been restored after a matter of hours), but on the way we stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up some carbonated, caffeinated essentials.

Wal-Mart was swamped. Hundreds of people were there to buy what they needed, and the combination of the big crowd of customers and a small number of employees who had been able to get to work meant that the check-out lines were incredibly long.

As the checker began to scan our items, the young man in line behind us struck up a conversation. From his appearance and the way he spoke, he appeared to be of Asian descent or from somewhere in the Pacific. I immediately warmed to him.

He had apparently ventured out to Wal-Mart to buy a few bananas. He asked us if we had power, and I told him that we didn’t, but that we were heading to someplace that did. When I asked if he had electricity where he lived, he cheerfully responded, “No, but I’ve got five blankets. I just stay underneath them and it keeps me warm.”

It’s hard to know much about people just by interacting with them for a few moments, but if I had to guess, I’d say the man wasn’t at all well-off financially, didn’t have friends with electricity right down the street, and had been braving the storm all on his own. In short, he was far less blessed than I was.

I took my leave of him to make the journey with my wife and my 2-liters to my parents’ warm house, hoping the high-speed internet would be working by the time I got there (after all, I had been without for 24 hours, and that’s a tough way to live, right?). Meanwhile my Asian friend took his bananas and headed back to his dark apartment and his five blankets.

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4.11, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

Some people clearly have a better grasp on this than I do.