PK conference in Minneapolis in 1996

The year was 1996. My son was only 2 years old at the time and too young to bring to PK Minneapolis.  Instead, I joined my dad and my younger brother at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. It was a powerful PK conference that touched a lot of men with many of them making confessions of faith for the first time. 

To hear 55,000 men sing at the top of their lungs praises to our King was incredibly moving and for me, I felt goosebumps on my arms.  Sadly, around this time the media tried to stir up derision with false claims that the movement was meant to keep women barefoot and pregnant.  The media didn't or refused to believe, the movement was ordained by God to change men's hearts so they would treat and respect women better.  This same media went after Coach Mac and again accused Promise keeper's as a movement that would keep the woman in the dark ages. 

When I see all the men that are damaged by alcohol, drugs, who leave their wives I wonder if these men had made confessions of faith would their lives be different?   Today, there is more woman going to church alone with men saying things like, "church may be good for her, but I got other things to do with my time."
We need men to confess their faith to Jesus Christ if we're ever going to see a revival in our land. More confessions of faith will mean fewer women damaged by men who abused them.  More confessions of faith will mean more men to sit in the Church sanctuaries with the desire to know more about their Savior. More men who make confessions of faith mean more sons who learn to follow in their dad's steps with confessions of faith of their own- only until this happens is it possible to see a revival in America.

We need a new promise keeper's movement to bring men to God.

I love my church because of the diversity of people who attend

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23-4

When our children were little my wife and I were debating about attending a church closer to our home. We attended some and while the services were good with solid teaching from the pulpit we felt something missing. That missing ingredient was the diversity of skin colors and backgrounds of the church we were currently attending.  You see, at the church, we continue to attend we have a multiple of different races and ethnic backgrounds that we didn't see at the churches we visited. It felt like we were associating with people much like we were which was referred to as 'white ' or caucasian. 

 In the real world of work, we were around different ethnicities.  Our interest in different cultures may also have to do with my wife's teaching in Haiti, a country where the 'white' person is the minority. 

Over the years as I listened to the stories of people of other ethnicities I hear and see similarities with us.  They have the same desires and the same goals to raise their families, help their kids in college, and get them the best medical care money can buy.  

I also know from their stories that they travel the same road when the unfortunate thing such as the loss of a child occurs.  After the sermon message at our Church, I shared with our Pastor about  a friend from Liberia who asked me "how can I get American's to understand that not everyone wants to leave their homeland, but have no choice when civil war  and trauma occurs in their homeland."    I said to our Pastor, "if only we can look past their skin color and their accents and truly listen to their stories just maybe we can find ways to be their friend. 

 I started thinking that when we all get to heaven we will find people of all ethnicities breaking bread together with our Lord Jesus.  Heaven will not be about segregation such as keeping other ethnicities apart from each other.  There will be no black part of heaven, nor a white part of heaven nor a Hispanic part of heaven for that matter.  When we get to heaven we will experience a multitude of ethnicities that are united for the purpose of praising our Lord Jesus, our Savior who died for all us so that we will experience eternal life.

To make a long story short, isn't it time to practice getting to know our ethnic neighbors while we are still on planet earth?

As I drove past a car seat event at the City of Coon Rapids police department I remembered a story told to me by a fellow police officer and friend

One morning a few months ago I brought my wife's car to Main motors for a oil change. As I was waiting for her car I ran into a friend and his wife.  I discovered that this individual was no longer a police officer. This officer would have been the one to respond to the 9-1-1 call when our daughter wouldn't wake up, but his shift had just ended and a different crew responded.

As I listened to his story I understood why. He said there was a horrific memory that would not leave him.  When he responded to traffic accident he discovered that a little baby had been thrown from the car he was riding in. He tried to revive the child's life, but it was obvious that no amount of effort was able to save the life of this child.   I since discovered that PTSD is rampant among the emergency responder's from the police officers to the fire fighters to the EMT's called to the scene to try to save the life of the person.   It especially effects them when they are not able to revive the life of a child which leads many EMT's to leave the profession they trained in.

I also learned that when a EMT is unable to revive the life of a child on one of their calls some of them are physically attacked by the adult caregivers in that home.  As heart broken as we were that fateful night on June10th, 2007 I remember silently praying for the EMT's present while going to Fire station number one and thanking them for giving all that they had to try to revive Maria while assuring them that our daughter was in this place called heaven, a place we will all be one day.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when we lose a child, or other loved one, our hope rests with Jesus Christ who through his death and resurrection opened the door for all of us to have the assurance of salvation and a new hope for the future. 

To all the men and woman who serve as EMT's I thank you for making the world a better place  for your service. You may not be able to save everyone, but your willingness to serve will help save lives nonethe less. If you are under stress please tell someone about your emotional pain. Don't try to bury it by consuming drugs or alcohol to cope with it.  You are not alone.

I must admit that for me waiting for a miracle for my eye is hard to do.

And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Hebrews 6:15

It is natural to expect instantaneous results from God.  For the eye, I've been told it takes time for it to heal completely.  Waiting is hard when one wants it now.  Every now and then I remind myself what it was light December 23 when I saw the curtain gradually close on that eye. I forget that God found a world-renown retinae specialist who restored sight in that eye on Christmas eve. I forget the follow-up visit with this same doctor who declares the surgery a success.  I forget the little miracle moments where I saw my sight in that eye become sharper.  

I think one thing I've learned in my waiting is to pray more and trust him fully by remembering all of His past blessings and how much each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made with a unique set of DNA that set's us apart from others around us. When Jesus died on the cross for our sin's He died for each of you with his promise of taking up residence in your heart upon declaring him Savior and Lord of your life.

Because Jesus is in me I love listening to praise music on Christian radio or in Church. Christian music calms us and restores the equilibrium after a hard day of work. It restores my soul which, I believe, helps the healing process of whatever ails us. Praise songs restore hope in all of us where hope is hard to find.  

Our God is an awesome God!