It’s Haitian creole for thanks … and yes, it is spelled correctly. I thought it proper to give you some insight into my life today. To most of my friends, you may have felt that my life has been on hold for the past few years after leaving my ministry post. It doesn’t seem like years since we left Deerwood. It seems like minutes … or at best a month or two.  But, it’s true … it has been years since I stood behind a pulpit every week and preached. Our journey certainly has not been idle … and ministry still abounds from us whether we like it or not … why do I say this … because “He who begins a good work in us is faithful to complete it.” We have served in several capacities in local churches … helping where we can, supporting our selves through our tent making endeavor of printing tshirts.

My ‘off the menu’ trek has taken me back to things that I brought before the Lord many, many years ago … one being a MasterLife training conference that Lori and I attended taught by Avery Willis and Henry Blackaby. Wow, was that a weekend. During one of the small group sessions that Avery taught … Lori and I both were struck with a deeper call on our lives to missions. We left the conference … back to our nice church office, nice home, nice family, nice cars … and pretty much dodged the bullet and got by in our hearts by doing some short term work here and there and leading our churches to give more money to missions.

Let me digress here a sec … God is not a tyrant or a big baby … you can serve Him anywhere in a myriad of capacities … and He is not disappointed in you and withholds nothing. The gnawing of obedience is in yourself. God blessed our minsitry and the lives that we had the opportunity to put into was tremendous. But … as my U2 mantra rang in my head and heart … “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

Now, I don’t know what you feel about the providential hand of God, but I see it every day … guiding … not pushing … but funneling me to the inevitable aspects of obedience. The Haiti earthquakes were devastating and the loss of human life is heart breaking. What good could come from that catastrophic disaster? I could not even begin to tell you what God has shown as to the good that will come from these earthquakes.

In recent months Lori and I have felt that our place within the church has been filled with an abundance of young preachers and tremendous worship leaders … that’s what we have done all of our lives. But man … there are some very talented and gutsy guys out there that God is using.  So we began to feel that God wanted us in deeper … to the base level of peoples needs … pre-church, pre-convert … at the hurting level of humanity. With me … it always starts with a dream. I woke up one morning … sat up in bed and said … “water wells” … “I want to learn to drill water wells.” I pretty much can learn anything I put my mind and heart to … and this seemed like a mandate from God … so, it was not an option for me.

The need for clean water in the world is tremendous. Africa needs a millions new wells. That’s just one spot in the world. Haiti needs water. I have no idea where else God may lead me … but, now I am ready. After losing 75lbs, getting healthy, training for marathons, beating my body into submission … I am getting ready for the next big mission. Come on, Wayne … you are 53 … you need to be thinking about retiring. Nah, retirement is for old people. I’m not old.

Jordan Ogden, pastor at Mercy Place in Dallas (my last ministry post), has agreed to allow me to work under the covering of the Mercy Place. For prayer, physical, emotional support as well as a financial clearing house for raising support. We are on our way.  I am in the process now of, as Blackaby puts it … finding out were God is at work and joining Him . I want to get my feet wet in water well drilling. I am praying about several good ministries to get put into my training and learning a great deal on my own.

So, I write this today to my friends, the body of Christ, for support, encouragement, and networking. If God moves you with any hint of someone that could help me at this point … you know me. I will follow it.

that’s it

(oh don’t worry about the tshirt thing … we will keep printing … I even have a dream of training indigenous artisans how to screen print as a vocation)

image from AppuruPai’s
77 million boomers now reaching retirement age. Slowing down? How can we afford to? I really don’t see retirement as an option in my future. Plus folks that retire are more prone to illness. I’ll keep chunkin’.

Don’t get me wrong … I would love to retire. I would just love to retire with some money and stability. So, with that said. Seems I don’t have a choice. I mean with interest rates falling out of my retirement fund and social security … I could probably afford a van down by the river.

(from this article)

Score, a nonprofit group that partners with the U.S. Small Business Administration says that “25% of the nation’s self employed are baby boomers”.

As America’s 77 million baby boomers begin contemplating retirement, many are finding that slowing down is the last thing they want to do.

Ok, one of my biggest pet peeves are unruly children in public places … as plainly stated in my bio … so be forewarned … this is a disclaimed rant on said topic.

We were in Target on Friday to buy our grandson a birthday present. He wanted a Nintendo DS or a PSP … as announced to his Nana. So, as I walked by the PSP’s … I said, No way … look how expensive those are. Hoping and praying as I was about to round the end of the aisle and head up the next that the Nintendo DS would be sooo much less expensive … alas, a little … but not alot. I digress. As we walked up the next aisle with the huge locked plexiglass cabinets … there was a young boy playing the Nintendo DS demo. He was quiet and stayed to himself. Absent from this picture was a parent on the aisle at all. That was disturbing in itself. But, as I said he was quiet … perhaps he was under surveillance from afar. So, Nana and I were looking at these giant locked cases … looking at the price tags and the colors of the DS’s wondering why one was $40 more than the other. We were clearly trying to make a decision when “it” came down the aisle.

She had the most irritating voice similar to a vacuum cleaner on a quiet Saturday morning. In tow was a Target employee with keys in hand for the giant plexi case. The minute she stepped onto the aisle … the boy undocked from the DS demo and started standing in front of us looking for the next game he wanted. Nana and I were close enough to the cabinets to read the boxes … so it was a tight fit when the boy started his quest. We quietly stepped back … and Oreck Mom also stepped in front of us with no regard that we from this planet. Frankly, I was somewhat impressed that evidently I had lost so much weight … I was invisible. How cool is that?

After the first couple of tries of the Target employee unlocking the case, getting a game, handing it to the boy, locking the case, the mom asking the boy … “is this the one you want” … and then handing it back to the Target employee …. and everything starting over again. The mother said something to the young boy … “tell the people, excuse me.” Then she asked … “were you needing something?” Nana, very calming said, “no, we will wait until you are finished.” I was thinking of a thousand other things that could have been said right then … but alas … Nana diffused .

You really can’t blame a child for the deficiency of teaching from a parent. What I was thinking when she told her son … “tell the people, excuse me” … was maybe you were the one who needed the excuse. It was all over in another minute or two and the little boy got the game he wanted for that minute and off they went to get their oranges … I knew that because she announced it to the aisle as she exited the aisle and out of my life. It did make a profound impact on my life … or I would have never remembered the story to tell it to you in such great detail.

The point: 1. Don’t leave your kids unattended … EVER in a store. 2. Teach them some manners. 3. Practice those manners yourself. 4. This 53 year old does not know anything about Nintendo DS.

Family is everything. Period. Nothing can be more fulfilling and frustrating at the same time. I love my family because we are living “now” and “beyond” and not in yesterdays. It seems we are always planning or preparing for the next big event or adventure. I think one of the reasons for my shift in wanting to become more healthy is the desire to be around my grandkids. Being able to run and play … roll and romp with them. You need resistance training to be able to hold one of these little guys until they fall asleep. In a few short weeks I will be up to 4 grandsons and 1 little princess. That makes me glad. There is a plus of being a big guy around grandkids … you have the most comfortable place in the house to sleep.

With the birth of each new baby … I look forward to throwing the ball, watching them grow, laughing at the tendencies their parents had as a baby. It’s a special place in my life. Nothing can really push out this priority. Nothing can replace the feeling of having one of these treasures run and grab you around the legs and tell you about their day. No matter how stressful I might be and how self absorbed in a problem I might seem … they still know that they can crowd my thoughts and push out anything negative there and receive their news … of a dead monarch butterfly, a headless barbie, a toy that has been salvaged from under a bed, or a scream for a clean diaper. I think they know how important they are too me and that they have access. Not just access … but VIP access … cross the velvet rope access … not answer the phone access … forget everything and everyone else access. They are powerful anti-depressants. The only side effects … a little spit up on your shirt, sweaty boy smell, the dramatic explosion of pain over a little cut, poor circulation from not wanting to move once you get them to sleep.

While holding my newest grandson last weekend … it was a triumph to struggle with him … he fights going to sleep, twisting and turning, frustrated, getting comfortable, almost making it … then back to the struggle … then it happens, his tiny body relaxes, his breathing takes on a new pattern, shallow, constant, small little breaths … he is asleep. Don’t move Wayne, no matter what … savor this moment … forever.