I’m proud to say that a recent news article has left me feeling very good about the educational heritage I have through my alma mater, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and it’s sister schools. Specifically, MidAmerican Nazarene University in Olathe, KS has made me proud.
Olathe, Kansas–During a day and a half of meetings with a group of gay-rights activists traveling the country to battle discrimination on college campuses, MidAmerica Nazarene University (MNU) accomplished its goal of communicating the love of Christ to its visitors without approving of the lifestyle they have chosen.
The gist is that a gay-rights group called Soulforce, travels by bus to various Christian campuses in order to have a discussion and point out the faults of the way most “Christians” handle gays and the homosexual lifestyle. After being blocked and having arrests made at other schools like Notre Dame and Wisconsin Lutheran, MNU chose a different approach and welcomed the group with open arms.
“We viewed this as an opportunity to listen to where they’re coming from and share the love of God with them,” said April Hansen, MNU’s director of public information and on-site coordinator for the visit. “We disagree, but there’s no reason to be afraid to talk to each other, to dialogue, and express Christ’s love, even in our disagreement.”?
And there was a much different response from the Soulforce group as well.
“When you told us you were offering Christ’s love to us and that you wanted to listen to us, we kept waiting for you to say, ‘but?.’ and then share your condemnation,” the Rider said. “You didn’t do that. Thank you.”
and
One of the Equality Riders wrote in his blog after the visit, “I know many, if not most, of the students differ with us in their views on homosexuality, but we were able to share fellowship. They truly modeled a Christlike response.”
Imagine that, inviting dialogue and having respect for others as individuals. Seems like that’s exactly what Jesus did. Nobody was condoning or approving of the lifestyle, but they also weren’t doing any more damage by erecting walls and harsh feeling between members of both groups either. Thank you MidAmerican Nazarene University for making me proud.
For any of you regular readers, you may remember me writing about a gall bladder attack I had last year. I had another one this past Tuesday and it wasn’t fun at all. So, the following day I spent finding and scheduling a visit with a surgeon to have that little annoying bladder removed permanently from my system.
Day before yesterday, Monday at 12:00pm, I was in for surgery and they were poking me with some instruments and making short work of removing my own little personal gravel factory from my body. I now have three nice incisions across my abdomen and one in my belly button area where they were able to go in laprascopically and remove the irksome irritant.
The procedure was fairly non-eventful, at least from what I can tell I wasn’t awake for any of it. Getting my IV in pre-op wasn’t as easy. First they tried going in on the side of my wrist, VERY PAINFUL! Not much room to manuever there. Nurse called in back-up and they tried on my other arm, still painful, but finally achieved success and the blood flowed, too much in fact, left a nice pool on my bed.
The anesthesiologist visited me pre-op and let me know what was going to take place. He said that the knock-out medicine there were going to use works fast and he wasn’t kidding. When they got me in the operating room and on the table, one nurse asked me to pick a dream, and before I could respond I was OUT! Next thing I know I’m waking up in my room with nurses all around me trying to get me take deep breaths and come out of the fog that was my dream like sleep.
Now I’m hoping we can address the insurance issue. Now that I no longer have this pre-existing gall bladder condition, hopefully I can get off this crap insurance that was sold to me last year. The only good news is that my insurance will actually end up paying for some of this, the bad news is only because the bill is going to be around $13,000 and they cover everything after the first $5,000. That’s right, $5K out of my pocket for this little ordeal. Sometimes it makes me wonder if putting up with the pain would have been a better investment.
I have a few website clients that are located in Africa. One is a missionary and was recently attacked and almost killed in his home during a home invasion and robbery. David was attacked with a machete and almost fatally wounded in the neck.
Then, it happened again by the same thugs! Their names are David and Pat Taylor and here’s a brief insight into their experience.
What I am about to share with you may be hard for you to believe but nevertheless, it is so. Around 1:45 A.M. Monday morning, Pat was awakened by a variety of metallic sounding noises from different places around the house. About 2:10, while she was still out of bed, I was awakened by a loud clanging of metal and Pat sensed there was someone in the house. I looked through the keyhole of our locked bedroom door and saw a silhouette of a man approaching our door. Within seconds he was smashing at the door with a crowbar, attempting to pry it open.
The decision has been made to bring them back to their home in Canada. If you’re interested, you can read the entire news story at the link below. Keep them in your prayers.
Full Story at NCN News: World Mission relocates Taylors after second attack
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