Hair Of The Odd

I'll admit, on any number of occasions, I've gone without shaving...no one noticed.

I can't grow a beard, it's something I've come to terms with...in fact, after reading about the "Beard Association" in Egypt, growing a beard is a lot less appealing.

However they are celebrating their 19th anniversary with a contest for the most "attractive" beards.

Here are the contenders.




Suddenly, being clean-shaven seems fine...just fine.

Real Live Worried

I've gotten several emails from folks worried about Gordon (Reallivepreacher) since his site is down.

I'm sure this is a server thing - a renewal overlooked or a screw-up at this new server firm he's switch to recently - in any case, last time I spoke with Gordon he was doing very well. His Dad is doing so well he was due to come home from the hospital last night.

As far as I know - I'd call him but it's 3 a.m. and no one is doing well at 3 a.m. including me - everything is fine with Gordon with the exception of some server issues of which he might not be aware yet. I'll make sure he's aware at a more decent hour.

Since I know I share a smidgen of Gordon's readers, I figured I'd post something...okay, I'm also lazy and didn't want to respond to each email individually.

Seriously, do please keep his Dad, Hollie, and his entire family for that matter, in your prayers. There's a long recovery and journey ahead.

Diddling with websites is not a top priority right now.

However, rest assured, I'm certain the server issues will be addressed and "the Preacher's" wisdom will be back on line soon.

What's Your Excuse?

From the wires this morning...

Millions of people have their own blog and many of those spend much of their time writing about why they haven't blogged lately.
That's the word according to Jenn Shreve, who has a blog dedicated to -- you guessed it -- documenting the excuses bloggers give for not blogging.
She started keeping track of people's blog excuses on her own blog at www.jennshreve.com after realizing so many people had lame excuses for not writing.
Says Shreve: "All the bloggers want to believe everyone is waiting patiently at their computer for their latest blog
-- but in reality no one really cares."
Generally, the top three excuses for not blogging are:
Work; a bad internet connection; or a terrible tragedy has occurred and they are unable to bring themselves to write.
But Shreve's favorite excuses are from the guy who hasn't blogged because he got ``promoted to an officer in his World of Warcraft guild" and another guy who said he's "been drunk or busy a lot."


Hey, at least I wrote something today...

Jerry Lewis Time

Okay, so our little spiritual crisis is seemingly resolved...at least in our minds, and we've got a busy weekend ahead - visiting with our friends Chuck and Lindsay tonight (Lindsay is out of the hospital and all is well)...Habitat tomorrow - I wasn't signed up but I noticed our group was a bit "thin" so I think I'll join the fray one more time...and then "church" with our friends Harold & Dallas on Sunday, if Dallas is up to it...she started chemo this week and I need to call her as soon as I finish writing this...which is a round about way of saying that I may not have time write much for a few days.

Which means, in truth, I'm going to use this for my "final" pitch for any contributions to the Moldova Mission trip - which is still very much a go.

First off, again THANK YOU to everyone who has given to this cause. You are amazing and we truly are humbled and astounded by the response. Please keep praying for this mission, for the team members, "uneventful" travel, and for Amy's health to stay strong.

Now, please pardon me for being blunt, but dancing around this makes me even more uncomfortable despite reassurances from a number of very caring people who are more used to this stuff than I am...and probably will ever be.

I'm not going to belabor the point: we are on a deadline.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you wouldn't be the first, there are links on the sidebar to previous posts about Moldova and direct links to Children's Emergency Relief International...I do want to modify some of that information because of our deadline.

If you have been planning on making a contribution, please do it now. Our next "team meeting" is November 2nd, and we will be paying for all the trip expenses at that time. In other words, I'll be writing a check to cover what we haven't raised through other means or which we haven't already personally contributed. We have been fully expecting that from the start and have planned accordingly.

However, if you were planning to contribute in a "few weeks" or in December, that money will go to "general" Moldova travel rather than our specific mission. That's still okay! CERI is a GREAT organization. Your money will be in the hands of good stewards...people dedicated to helping children in need. Yet, if you want to contribute to the Moldova Christmas Mission of which Amy and I are team members, the donations need to be made right away.

If you plan to donate by credit card, you can do so through the CERI website, but I implore you to make it VERY, VERY clear that the money should go to "Moldova Travel" for Michael and Amy Main. I've had some communication issues with the no doubt overworked folks at CERI, so I want to make it as easy for them as possible. The site is very easy to navigate, you need only select "Moldova Travel" in the donation area and then add a note designating your gift. That note is very important.

I'd also ask that you drop me an email letting me know you made a contribution that way, so that I can be certain CERI got it and knows for what it is intended.

If you were planning to write a check, with less than two weeks before our next meeting, I think it would be best to still make the check out to CERI, but send it directly to us at our home, not to CERI or our church. That seems most expedient. Again, if you'd also drop me an email, it would be helpful in keeping tabs on all this stuff.

Our home mailing address is listed in the "How To Give" link on the sidebar.

A few folks wrote me to tell me I was nuts for posting our address in the first place - they were very kind about it, and it's probably true - so I'll refrain from posting it again, but it remains listed in that link.

Unlike Jerry Lewis who's a master at this stuff - by the way, did you see him on Law and Order the other night...wasn't he good? - I have no plans to take this to a 23rd hour, in fact this is the last request along these lines I'm going to make.

I do hope to come back in a few weeks with a request for specific items that we'll be taking to the kids in Moldova and the workers who are there with them year round, once I know what items are appropriate. That is another wonderful way you can consider giving.

I most definately will be coming back to you asking for prayer...often.

Should you have any questions please feel free to email me at Michael AT MichaelMain.com or by using the "Email me" link on the sidebar.

Okay, that's that. I wanted to get it out of the way today and to again thank you all for your generosity not only financial, but spiritual generosity too. It has carried us through a tough personal time recently, and I know it will carry us through the Moldova mission as well.

My only concern now...with our church "crisis" seemingly at bay...the Moldova giving stuff mostly done with...what am I going to write about?

I promise, I'll think of something.

Again, bless you all...we have found great strength in our "online" relationships. It's not unlike our relationship with God. We know you are there, we've communicated with many of you personally, but we haven't met face to face.

One day we will...and what a glorious day that will be.

Thank you,

Michael & Amy

Either Or Not

Admittedly, we've been confused lately, and on your end that probably translates to a lot confusing writings to plod through. Sorry about that, I sit down and start writing, that's how I've always done it...I plan to continue doing so, but I'm finally at a place where I can change topics.

We believe we've found another way through the fog...let God lead us.

Without going into details, Amy and I have been at odds with several things going on at our church. There's no reason to go into great detail anymore...what started out as a miscommunication caused us to look deeper. The closer we examined the situation the more we saw that was murky...and truthfully uncomfortable.

It remains so. There are some things we can not be part of...but worshipping God is not one of them.

We prayed for God to show us a way over this bump in the road and He did...but what we saw was not a bump, but a fork.




Initially, we believed that was a clear sign and we would have to break away....go in a completely different direction without looking back.

I'm not sure why though...perhaps emotions were still being mistaken for truth.

Make no mistake, we still plan to explore that new path, travel the fork and see what's around the bend, but while we do feel God nudging us, and we do see clarity ahead, that doesn't mean we have to sever any ties, make any great pronouncements or decisions regarding the church and those areas that are confusing and cloudy.

Somehow we had made this an "either or" situation...we made it that way...God didn't. God simply showed us a light to follow, He didn't say to turn our backs on the path that brought us there.

I walked the land our little church is built upon last night. I have walked it often. I prayed at a small pile of stones which were placed there by the people of Covenant some years ago, before we had any buildings on the property...only dreams.

I thought about the old days, these days, and future days.

They all have one thing in common...I've never been in control of any of them...never was...never will be.

Sure I can make decisions, disagree with decisions, be disappointed by decisions...but this stuff...concern over theological cynicism, disdain for the petty posing as pious...and trying to cut our way through all of it with some sense of balance and integrity - that stuff is above my pay grade.

Amy and I are still going to spend some Sundays normally spent in traditional worship trying to be more Christ-like, reaching out to folks in need, doing "home church" on occasion, being the church on occasion and ministering where we feel called. Walking that new path....

But I believe we still need to spend time with our traditional church family too, on that land we have walked upon, amid the trees we have prayed under, and in the seats where we have wept, and sung, and laughed and mourned.

For this is a place we know very well...our church home.

It is the wheat upon which we feed our souls.

We would hunger for the wheat were it any other way.

And there is no need to hunger.

So there is chaff amid the wheat.

It is not our job to separate the two...that is God's work.

Instead of being consumed and confused, we are going to let go and trust that God will work it out.

He always has...He always will.

" He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Perspective

Amy and I are going to church tonight.

That may not sound like much, but truthfully it was not something we expected to do.

However, those of you who read our Pastor's blog know that his family is going through a very tough situation today.

Gordon is our Pastor but foremost he is our friend.

Our church "issues and decisions" aside, being at Covenant tonight... praying for his family....is where we need to be...I don't need God to tell me that...the body of Christ has taught me that.

Tonight we need to be with that body of Christ.


Please pray for Hollie Atkinson and his wife Janell. They are such good people, and they have raised a very good son whom we love dearly.

Michael & Amy

Dropping Our Nets

Amy and I have made a hard decision which we truly believe God is directing us toward. I'll speak more specifically to that at a later time, right now I have only time to speak to a related topic.

The odd thing is the decision came as a fairly unmistakable answer to prayer. We had been praying for guidance, wisdom, discernment and trying not to let our emotions guide us.

Then something unexpected happened - something we were completely unaware of - that I could only interpret as God saying, "You want an answer. Here! Deal with it."

That was a good thing, except for the dealing with it part.

I know that's still somewhat cryptic...I apologize, once the dust settles I'll spell this out more, I promise.

Anyway, last night I prayed for some additional direction to embark along this new part of our journey.

I should add that over the past few weeks Amy has said frequently that "we need to be ministered to."

Today, we were rushing out the door to get to the gym...okay I was rushing, Amy and Shell were doing their hair, fixing whatever women fix when men wait in cars for them, and our neighbor, Arlene, came over to talk with me. She told me that our former neighbor, and still a dear friend, Dallas, had called her last night to tell her she had terminal lung cancer.

It was stunning news and I thought of her husband, Harold, and how completely fragmented he must be - he's not the most stable guy to begin with, and I say that lovingly.

I asked Amy if she would mind if perhaps we offered to come to their house next weekend and "have church" with them. Amy loved the idea.

I don't know how they'll feel about it, but I'm at least about to make that call...that offer.

As we were discussing those particular friends, we realized today another dear friend is undergoing major surgery, her second this year. I frantically called her husband, Chuck, and asked what the status of the situation was and he said the surgery had been delayed and his wife had "just been rolled in."

So, we're leaving in a moment, as soon as Amy finishes fixing whatever it is...um...I think I've dug that hole deep enough...suffice it to say we're leaving for the hospital soon.

And oddly enough this seems like God answering my prayer again.

We believe He has shown us a path, but we must choose how we approach it.

I'm fairly certain He's telling us that perhaps if we do "need ministering to" the best way might be by ministering to others.

It's only a first step, but if feels like a very right step.


Please say prayers for our friends Dallas, Harold, Chuck and Lindsay.

And perhaps add in a praise to God for being rather blunt so as to penetrate my thick skull.

I think I'm being cryptic enough for everyone.


"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. - Mark 1:17-18