July 31, 2005 - Sermon Manuscript

I went to hell last week. Or, at least I went to the doorstep of hell. And no, I don’t mean that it was really hot in Ecuador. In fact, the temperatures were fairly mild due to the fact that we were 9,200 feet above sea level. In addition to that, since I was very close to the Equator, the sun was visible for a much shorter portion of the day--they have 12 hour days, 365 days of the year, unlike our days which range from 8 hours to 16 hours long. While it did get hot for a couple of hours around noon each day, by 3 o'clock in the afternoon most of us were reaching for our sweatshirts to keep out the chilly afternoon breeze.

So, when I say that I went to hell last week, I'm not talking about the climate of Ecuador. No, I'm talking about my visit to the city dump. In order to understand what I mean by this, I need to explain that the primary scriptural image (in both Old and New Testaments) to describe hell has little to do with a lake of fire, and much more to do with the dump outside the wall of Jerusalem. If you visit Jerusalem today, you would find the "Dung Gate," leading out of the south side of the city to an attractive garden in the valley of Hinnom.

While it was always called the "Dung Gate," the valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, was not always a garden. It used to be the city dump, and is often referred to as the image for hell, both in Old Testament prophecy and in Jesus' teachings. Not only was it the city dump, but the place where the sewers drained, where animal carcasses were disposed, and where those unfit for burial (executed criminals, lepers, and the unclean) were left to decompose. The leper colony was probably not far from Gehenna, as both areas would have been considered unclean. It is said that in Gehenna, the worm never dies and the fire never goes out (Mark 9:48).

While the city dump that I visited last week was not quite as bad as the picture I just painted, there are disturbing similarities...not the least of which is the colony of people which lived in and around the dump. As I stood there last week, with the sun beating down upon me and the blowing dirt stinging my face, it was impressed upon my mind that this was an evil place.

In reality, I really only went to the parking lot of hell. We didn’t get into the trash piles, I didn’t take a tour of a shack, it was a pretty sanitized experience. And yet, there in the parking lot of hell I was acutely aware of the evil of that place. As we attempted to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of the dump, it was impossible for us to imagine living there. And yet, that is exactly where 300 or more people live. I saw one shack from a distance, it was simply 6 forklift palettes tied together with a tarp stretched across the top. Residents of the dump scrounge for food to fill their stomachs. They gather clothing to wear upon their backs. They look for items to recycle or resell for money.

These are the throw-aways of Quito, Ecuador. These are the children of no hope. They were born here. They will die here. They will probably have children before they're fifteen. Their children will be born here. Their children will die here. Generations of children, teenagers, and a handful of adults were born, will live in, and die in the dump of Quito, Ecuador. Unnoticed, ignored, and unmourned. Nobody will read an obituary of their death, and nobody will attend their funeral. You can't say that they are forgotten, for they were never known to begin with.

While in the dump, we performed a Gospel drama, explained the Gospel message, and provided an opportunity for people to accept the gift of salvation or recommit themselves to Christ. We handed out $780 worth of food, and a couple of suitcases full of clothes. We washed their hair and gave a few haircuts. We played games with them and offered them love. And then we had to leave.

I've been thinking quite a bit about these people. I'm grateful that there is a man they call the "Dump Pastor" who provides longterm physical and spiritual care for these people. Our visit certainly does not solve all of the problems, nor does it really help them to break the cycle of poverty. A long term solution is required. And yet, as poor as much of Quito is, the dump people are considered outcasts. They are literally considered throw-away people, with no hope and no future. The government has abandoned them, the society has abandoned them, and the church teeters on the edge of abandoning them.

Let's be honest...we'd rather this problem doesn't exist. We'd rather that Pastor Jon never went to the dump...for now we know. Now we are aware of our lives of luxury. When we look around our houses, we know that 90% (or more) of our belongings are not necessary for survival, but merely for comfort. The dump people make us uncomfortable, and we'd rather they just went away. It would be much easier to ignore them, in hopes that they would be out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

And yet, this is about more than poverty. The message that we learn from the dump is that there are no throw-away people. We don't get to decide who is worthy of life and who is not. It's not our place to determine who should hear the gospel and who shouldn't. Oh...I hear you. None of us would suggest that the children of the dump don't deserve a better life. None of us would make the sort of judgment that they are worth less than other people. You're right. We wouldn't do any such thing.

And yet, don't we make judgments all the time? Oh, not about the lives of dump children for sure. Our judgments are more subtle than that. We make judgments about the levels of sin in somebody's life. We look at people and are grateful that they're not part of our church. We see sin in someone's life and are quick to cut ties with them, lest we be contaminated. We make decisions every day to not bother share the Gospel with someone because we think that they are beyond hope.

Beyond hope. That's how Ecuadorians view the children of the dump. It's the same way we view some of our neighbors, coworker, and even family members. We're all too willing to sit in the seat of the judge and decide who is worthy of our efforts and who isn't. And when we pass someone by, we have decided that they are a throw-away, not worthy of God's redemptive love.

In the story "The Fellowship of the Rings," the main character, Frodo, has a particular quest to fulfill which will determine the future of the entire world. Throughout his quest, he has been tormented and waylaid by a hideous frog-like creature by the name of Gollum. At one point, entirely frustrated by Gollum's presence, Frodo turns to his guide, Gandalf, and says: "It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."

Gandalf chastises Frodo with these words: "Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."

It is that sort of eagerness to judge which Jesus condemns in the parable of the "Wheat and the Weeds" found in Matthew 13. Hear these words of Jesus, recorded in verses 24-30, and 36-43:

²⁴Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
²⁷"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'

²⁸" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

²⁹" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

³⁶Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
³⁷He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

⁴⁰"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴²They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

If there is one message from this parable that jumps out at me, it's this: "We don't get to decide who is wheat and who is a weed." It's not up to us to judge. It's not our job to make those decisions. The primary reason for this is simply that we aren't capable of those sorts of decisions. We can't tell the good from the bad. We can't tell the Christian from the non-Christian. We can't separate the wheat from the weeds.

You see, the Greek word that Jesus uses for weed is zizania. This is a very specific type of weed which looks just like wheat. Today it's called darnel wheat. It appears just like wheat, but it is not wheat. It fools you. Now, let's notice what the owner says to the workers. He does not say, "Don't throw out the weeds because you might make a mistake and accidentally leave some weeds among the wheat." Instead, he says, "Don't throw out the weeds, because you may make a mistake and accidentally throw out some wheat."

In other words, Jesus is not concerned that we might accidentally mistake a non-Christian and take them for a Christian. Rather, He is concerned that we might, in our zeal to purify the field of all that is impure, throw out some pure wheat as well. Jesus is rarely concerned about us opening the doors too wide, but is more often concerned about us closing them too tightly. Jesus knows our tendency to find people who are "just like us" and decide that they are the only ones we should spend time with. He knows that we are far more likely to cast people out than to welcome them in.

Surely, life would be easier if we were just surrounded by like-minded people: on-fire Christians who produce good fruit. Wouldn't it be better if there was no evil, and there were no people who would seek to destroy the message of Christianity? Wouldn't the world be a better place if there were no weeds?

Let's put it in concrete terms, shall we? Wouldn't life be easier if the murderers and pedophiles were destroyed? In fact, it would be even better if we could scientifically determine who would commit those crimes, and lock them up or destroy them before they had a chance to unleash more evil upon the world?

But that's far too drastic. We're much more subtle than that. We see the immediate fallacy in destroying sinners before their time, we know that they'll "get theirs" at the judgment.

No, our form of judgment is much less direct than that. We're more like this: "That person will never respond to the Gospel. They've already decided they want nothing to do with Jesus. They've already done too much sin, gone too far...they'd never be open to hearing about Jesus. It's not worth my time to try to convince them otherwise."

When we do this, we are doing just like what the workers in the field suggested. We have labeled someone a weed...unworthy of our time or consideration. We have made judgments that nobody but God should make. For when we make a judgment like that, we are far more likely to take a piece of wheat and label it as a weed than we are to take a weed and label it as a piece of wheat.

When we fail to present the Gospel to someone, we are just like the workers in the field, deciding that they are best suited for the fires of hell. Or, perhaps this image makes more sense...we are like a society that determines that some people are not worth more than the dump. We are like those who allow infants, children, and teenagers to grow up in the City Dump--the Gehenna of Ecuador.

You may think that this is far too extreme a parallel. I disagree. When we fail to share the Gospel, we have short-circuited that person's chance to break the cycle of sin and enter the Kingdom of God. We would never dream of going to the dump in Ecuador and keep the food we brought in the car to eat later. Why is it that we come into contact with people every day, and keep the Gospel message inside us, so we might consume it later?

You may say, "But Pastor, I'm not called."

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, would reply to you with these words:

‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.

The fact is, that we are all called to share the Good News. When we disobey that call, we are demonstrating our own indifference to those who are standing on the doorsteps of hell. Just as we would never dream of ignoring the tears of a child destined to live in the cycle of poverty in the Gehenna of Ecuador, we should not allow ourselves to be so callous to those who need to be set free from their own cycle of sin and destruction.

Here is the reality, there is Good News. There is Hope. The prisoners are released. The blind see, the lame walk. The oppressed are set free, and Good News is being preached to the poor. The cycle of sin has been broken, for those who know and understand the Good News of Jesus. Have you done all you can to tell them?

I fear that we probably have not. I fear that I have not. Honesty dictates that we confess our sins, for we have categorically dismissed people, believing them to be no better than weeds. We have failed to share the Gospel. I have failed to share the Gospel. In general, the North American Church has failed at evangelism on the home front, finding it easier to send money and people to other lands. Our failure to share the Gospel message with those around us is nothing less than sin, for which we must seek forgiveness.

As we sing our closing chorus today, I invite you to contemplate this message. You may need to confess to the Lord a failure to share His message with others. You may need to confess the sins of judging others, predetermining that they are a weed. You may simply need to ask the Lord to renew your passion for going to the gates of hell and bringing back those who are wandering far from home. As we sing, you're invited to sing this prayer, or spend time in personal reflection and prayer, either in your seat or at these altars. Let us be obedient to His call on our lives.

‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon

July 31, 2005 - First Thoughts

July 31, 2005

Genesis 32:22-32
Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

First, it's necessary to state that I've deviated from the Lectionary this summer. Because of travel plans and guest speakers, I decided to let the Psalms, OT, and NT lessons carry straight through, and shift the Gospel lessons to accomodate somewhat for my travelling. While this changes the pairings of lessons, that's not altogether a bad thing, and some new interesting pairings have been made. This week we will look at Proper 13, except that we will be looking at the Gospel lesson in Proper 11. We'll get back on track by Proper 27.

Second, since I've been out of the pulpit a fair amount (we had a revivalist for two weeks, my assistant for two weeks, and a guest missionary for one week), this message does not necessarily connect to any message or series from the weeks prior. In fact, I will probably launch this sermon by talking about my missions trip to Ecuador, and then from this sermon move into a study the next several weeks on Jesus' parables and miracles. In particular, we will note the way in which Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God breaking in among us. We desire to be part of the movement of the Kingdom of God on this earth.

As I look at the text, I continually am drawn back to my experience in the dump in Ecuador. As I think about those 300+ people, I realize that they are considered "throw aways" by their culture. In fact, they may even be considered a hopeless cause by most Christians. And yet, the message of this Gospel lesson seems to be that "God don't make no junk." In fact, there are no "throw away" people until the final judgment. God is a god of second chances, one who doesn't want any to be lost...not even the weeds that threaten the wheat.

Aren't we all too ready to cast judgment and sort out the wheat from the tares now? We'd like to make the decision of who can live and who should die. I'm reminded of Gandalf's exchange with Frodo in the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring -

Frodo: It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.
Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

While we might never try to "throw away" the children of the dump, we might ignore them in hopes that they would go away. We might give up on them. While we might not say that all non-Christians should simply be destroyed, we have essentially given up on them by failing to share the Gospel message with them. Our own actions betray our desire to bundle up the weeds and throw them away. Our own inaction speaks much, much louder than our words. All it takes is a visit to a mission field to see how ripe the harvest is to realize how ineffective our methods of North American evangelization are. We have become far too content in our comfortable churches, and are no longer patrolling the gates of hell to keep one more lost child from being found. Lord, forgive us, for we have sinned.

‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.
- William Booth

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon

Ecuador: ZOEgirl, Michael Passons, Big World Ventures, and Positive 89.3

When people and organizations get together in partnership, amazing things can happen! Because of a partnership between Big World Ventures and ZOEgirl, about 80 people from the US and Canada were able to go on a missions trip to Quito, Ecuador this summer. Because of partnerships with EMI/CMG and local radio stations, 5 radio DJ's were able to attend in order to provide media coverage for the trip. Because of my partnership with Positive 89.3, I was able to be one of those "radio guys" for this "Missions Trip of a Lifetime."

I suppose that every missions trip is a "missions trip of a lifetime," for every trip has the potential to radically change your life. As you see God's hand at work in another country, you become more attuned to seeing His hand at work where you live. As you see how other people live, you realize how blessed you are. As you see people come to Christ in droves, you recognize the ineffectiveness of our own North American evangelistic efforts.

During our time in Ecuador, teams performed street drama, painted churches, and visited orphanages, retirement homes, and a compassion project. The focal point of the trip was the free concert in the park featuring ZOEgirl, Michael Passons (formerly of Avalon), and local singer Tony Tomayu. At every ministry opportunity, the Gospel message was presented, an invitation was offered, and several people made a profession of faith in Christ. Contact information was received on 3x5 cards so that local churches could provide follow-up and discipleship.

I was very impressed with Big World Ventures. They have worked hard to network with a variety of ministry opportunities in Quito, giving participants a wide range of experiences. They have also thought carefully about how to nurture the spiritual growth of participants while on the trip. Daily devotions are emphasized, as are evening worship services. Not only do members participate in the ministry, they also are given the opportunity to learn about the culture. Not only did team members generously contribute to purchase food for people who live in the dump, they were able to go to the market and see how much food they could buy for their contributions.

I was also very impressed with ZOEgirl and Michael Passons. You might think that they just put their name on the trip and showed up to do a concert on Saturday, but you'd be mistaken. They were always in the midst of the projects, shoveling gravel, painting buildings, handing out food, and giving children shampoos and haircuts. Their servant hearts were very obvious as they participated in the trip just like any other member. When we weren't doing ministry projects, they were available and personable with the trip participants. It was a great experience for the team members to get to know a musician at a deeper level than an autograph line!

One of the most incredible experiences of the week was our visit to the dump in Quito. About 300 people live out at the dump, many are children or young teens. It would appear as though some children have been there for generations, and I would guess that some of their parents are children/teenagers themselves. Residents of the dump live in shacks which are probably rat infested. They scavenge for food and clothes in the dump, and look for items which can be recycled or sold for money. Running water is not available, and food is not what you and I would eat. Our group brought in $780 worth of food and distributed it, along with clothes and toys. We also washed childrens' hair and provided hair cuts.

As I stood under the hot sun and felt the stinging dirt blowing against my face, I thought to myself, "This is truly an evil place." The smell, heat, and wind all combined to create a sense of despair and hopelessness. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I remembered that some of the initial images of hell used in Scripture was that of Gehenna (Gai Ben Hinnom), the city dump just outside of Jerusalem. In this dump, fires were always burning in order to consume the garbage and reduce the stench. This was also the place where the bodies of executed criminals were thrown to be consumed.

Are these children in Hell? Are they considered "throw away people" by their culture? What role do we have to rescue them from the gates of Hell? How can Christians help them escape the cycle of poverty and escape this evil place?

Short term trips, while beneficial, are not the complete answer to the problem. The answer may lie with people like the "Dump Pastor" who have committed their lives to ministry and service in the dump. Only with long term education and ministry can their lives "be redeemed from the pit." (see Psalm 103:4) It is the responsibility of the church, not just to help them avoid an eternal Hell, but to escape the temporary Hell in which they find themselves.

You can read more of my writing about this trip at www.bigworldecuador2005.com/id10.html. There are also other writers who have shared their thoughts as well, and you can find our photo album at www.bigworldecuador2005.com/photos/. Special thanks must be given to Positive 89.3 (www.positive.fm), Big World Ventures (www.bigworld.org), ZOEgirl (www.zoegirlonline.com) and EMI/CMG (www.emicmg.com).

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon

PS: One of the great side benefits of the trip was getting to meet the other "radio guys" on the trip. Steve, Scott, Bill, Rob, Tower, (along with Grace and Mary (who weren't radio guys (or gals))) made the best travelling companions you could ask for. They were a lot of fun to hang out with, and were gracious enough to allow me (a radio imposter) to spend time with them. I only wish that I'd had more time to play CatchPhrase in the evenings!

General Assembly 2005

As I explained in my last post, the Church of the Nazarene holds its General Assembly every 4 years. I served as a delegate to the Nazarene Youth International (NYI) Global Convention, and stayed on to observe the proceedings at the General Assembly.

As a whole, I was very encouraged to see our church operate at a global level. Resolutions were carefully considered at different levels, with the opportunity for debate and discussion. I did not observe campaigning or politicking in regards to resolutions or elections, but that may have been different for those on the floor. Obviously, there were several decisions made that I don't agree with (mandating the words "Church of the Nazarene" on signs and stationery, for one), but I'm going to focus my thoughts on the larger issues of globalization and integration of all members of the church.

By far, I believe that the most earth-shaking decision all week was made by the Global NYI Convention. Recognizing that the Global Convention is not truly global (more than half of the delegates are unable to attend, due to economic and visa issues) the convention adopted a resolution which will allow for the voting bar to be set in such a manner to allow all duly elected delegates to participate in the voting process. A commission was created to determine the best ways to do this, perhaps through satellite or internet. It is my hope that they will be intentional about engaging international delegates in discussion and debate, not just voting.

The church has struggled to truly reflect the international body that it claims to be, particularly at the global legislative level. We have yet to elect a truly international candidate to the office of General Superintendent, and the services at General Assembly feel like a North American church service with many invited guests. Most disturbing is that a large percentage of delegates are unable to travel to the United States to participate in the process.

I am proud of our Global NYI Council for setting the agenda in such a way as to begin to deal with this issue. Dierdre Brower-Latz should receive many "kudos" for her labors at internationalization of NYI and her work to incorporate the youth into the life of the church.

Having said that, we still have a long way to go. The other legislative bodies of the church need to also find a way to include every delegate in the process of debate and voting. I would suggest that we consider moving to a model of concurrent regional assemblies which would deal with most issues which affect the church. Those regional assemblies could work by satellite or internet to discuss the few issues which are truly global in nature.

The planners of the General Assembly must also be challenged to plan our worship to reflect the makeup of the church. No longer is it simply acceptable to play North American music and provide a translation. If we are to be a global church than participants from every world region must be invited to share in the leading of worship: sharing scripture, song, and prayer in their own language and culture. North Americans must occasionally feel like cultural outsiders.

I would also challenge the church to move beyond lip-service to children and youth in the planning of General Assembly. It is not acceptable to say to the teens, "we give you this church," when the Global NYI Council has not been allowed to plan the "teen emphasis" service at General Assembly. Those words ring empty when actions don't support them. It makes no sense for one auxiliary (NMI) to be given a major service in the dome when the other two auxiliaries are placed in merely an advisory capacity to an "emphasis" service. If we are truly an integrated church, then Youth and Sunday School should be involved at the same level as Missions.

There were two other historic moments at General Assembly which must be mentioned here. I was tingling with goose bumps on Sunday night when it was announced that we had entered our 150th world area, the nation of Iraq. To hear the stories of those who had worked to share the hope of the Gospel with those who were hopeless was truly powerful. I was so excited that I didn't leave the RCA Dome without first calling my missions president back home to share the news.

The second historic moment was when Nina Gunter was elected the first female General Superintendant. Cognitively, delegates have known that we must work for gender equality in our leadership, but this has been a difficult road. The Church of the Nazarene has, since it's beginning, affirmed the call of God upon women to pastoral and church leadership. We have understood the general statements found in Acts 2:17-18 and Galatians 3:27-28 to supercede the specific contextual statements made to individual local churches in the Epistles. Despite this position, the church has not seen fit to elect a female until this General Assembly. Dr. Gunter officially begins her work as General Superintendant in just a few days, on August 1st.

The nature of the Church is that we are always growing. Despite the frustrations that I had, I must recognize that growth comes slowly. It is my prayer that we will continue to reflect a multi-generational, bi-gender, multi-nationality church...indeed, that we would more reflect the Body of Christ.

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon

Vacation

Every four years, the Church of the Nazarene convenes its "General Assembly," which is an elected and representative legislative body. The business of the General Assembly is to hear reports, elect leaders, and discuss many matters of legislation.

In addition to General Assembly, each of the three auxiliaries (Nazarene Missions International (NMI), Nazarene Youth International (NYI), and Sunday School (SS)) convenes a Convention, which in the case of NMI and NYI is also legislative.

As our district president, I was a voting member of the Global NYI Convention, and I also stayed and observed the proceedings of the General Assembly. We drove out, so that Melody could come along and so we could tack a week of vacation onto the Assembly. Consequently, we were away the past three weeks.

(My brother Doug house-sat for us, and kept watch of our cat Kiera.)

During our vacation time, we visited the following places: Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY; Niagara Falls; Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH; and the Longaberger Homestead outside Columbus, OH. However, most of our time was spent in Cleveland, where we enjoyed: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Cuyahoga National Park, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Jacob's Field (where the Red Sox ended the Indians' winning streak), a river cruise; a train ride, and a broken air conditioner.

Actually, we didn't enjoy the broken air conditioner, but we were able to find a shop which specialized in air conditioners and had a loaner available. The compressor must have worn out sometime this spring, and we had a couple very hot days of driving out through New York.

People have asked why we went to Cleveland, since it doesn't have a very good reputation as a vacation destination. Cleveland wasn't as bad as some have made it out to be, although it certainly wasn't anything to write home about! We chose Cleveland for a couple of reasons: 1) we needed a place that was between Maine and Indianapolis, 2) we wanted to go somewhere that we might not choose as a destination, and 3) the Red Sox happened to be playing there during our stay.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was nice, although it was definitely a case of sensory overload. Each display had artifacts, music and videos, and the displays were very close together. It was very interesting to see how Rock & Roll was formed out of the combination of several musical styles, including Gospel, Jazz, and Blues.

The Cedar Point amusement park was amazing. We road on 16 rides, including several of the rollercoasters. (Unlike a friend of mine who also went to Cedar Point and paid the $45 entry fee just to ride on the Millenium Force, we felt like we got our money's worth!)

We also enjoyed a tour through Stan Hywet Hall, which was built by F.A. Seiberling (cofounder of Goodyear). Stan Hywet is a 65-room Tudor Revival style mansion, and it is truly impressive. We travelled to Stan Hywet by way of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, and met some wonderful folks who took care of our admission to the hall with their membership card. (One small step toward recovering the cost of the AC repairs!)

In addition to Cleveland, we spent a couple of days in the Niagara Falls area, both on the way out and the way back. I would like to point out that visitors to Niagara Falls should stay on the Canadian side of the border. We were both very disappointed with Niagara Falls, NY, as it was dirty and run down. Parts of the city looked like a ghost town, and other parts felt more like a cheap carnival side show. It occurs to me that the new casino in Niagara may have taken money out of the community instead pumping money into the economy (isn't that the way that casinos usually work?).

We had the misfortune of staying in a particular hotel in Niagara which was certainly sub-par. When I made the reservations through Expedia, it was a Day's Inn, but by the time we arrived it Day's Inn had abandoned that facility/management and moved across town. Unfortunately, our reservation stayed with the facility--not with Day's Inn. The facility was run down, the front desk staff didn't know what they were doing, housekeeping failed to provide our room with towels and washcloths, the wedding reception under our room went until 11:40 (forty minutes after the noise curfew), the alarm clock in the room was broken, and they forgot to give us a wakeup call. In addition to all this, while we were checking out the manager had to leave the front desk to deal with an electrical fire in the elevator. It took a bit of complaining, and a phone call to Expedia, but we did recover a hundred dollars as compensation for the poor accomodations.

While I'm thinking of it, people should be cautious with Expedia "Special Rates." These rates require that you prepay your entire stay. You pay Expedia directly, who in turn pays the hotel. While the rates are often the most competitive, remember that it's a hassle to change or cancel your stay. But worse than that, you have little recourse if something goes wrong. The hotel couldn't directly refund my money, because they never saw my credit card. They authorized the refund, but I had to call Expedia and convince them to issue the refund as well. The first person I spoke to at Expedia refused to issue the refund, but when I got her to give me to her supervisor, he was happy to take care of it for me.

Anyway, it's good to be home. Vacation was good, but I don't know that we'll try to combine vacation with General Assembly again! Melody says, "I'm all travelled out." I'd say that I'm "all travelled out" too, except that I'm leaving for Ecuador in four days.

I'll post a bit about General Assembly sometime soon, and then I'll write a bit about my trip to Ecuador.

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon