Culture and Sensitivity

One Hundred Days From Today

2012-02-02T10:44:00.001-05:00

Well, the initial response has been fantastic. It looks like we are going to have a great turnout for the 5/3 River Bank Run on Saturday, May 12th. Seems everyone I talk to wants to do it.

Actually, if I'm reading people right, one reason they want to be there is to witness my lightning speed they've heard so much about.

Ask anyone who was there at last year's mud run. I saw them there, standing along the sidelines, laughing with me at how I was able to take on those mud pits with such energy and prowess. That's me on the left side of the picture. You can see that the photographer had a pretty hard time capturing a good photo of me running. (He should have adjusted to a fast-action shutter speed).

Join me 100 days from today. Bare pavement will be a snap.

Steve

Gathering Up Team

2012-01-30T09:42:00.003-05:00

In 103 days, on Saturday, May 12th, more than 20,000 people will gather for the 35th running of the Fifth Third River Bank Run, the largest run of its kind in the nation.

I will be there.

And, you know, I was thinking that it might be really cool if a whole bunch of my friends would meet up with me that morning in downtown Grand Rapids. Not so much to cheer me on but to join me in raising awareness for Starfysh’s vision of transforming an island.

The event has multiple categories for folks to participate in: 25K, 10K, and 5K runs, as well as a 5K walk, and Junior events. Some people are serious runners. Some, not so. Lots of groups do it together as teams (school classes, businesses, clubs, teams, church groups, families) with their own unique team names.

I’m going to promote it hard and am hoping you, my friends will help me promote it in your circles. In the very near future we’ll have a special page on our Starfysh website, as well as a Facebook event page. We'll provide all the information and tools you'll need to plug in.

For now, just mark the calendar... Saturday, May 12th and start gathering up your own team. It has the makings of a very fun... and significant day.

Thanks all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to start getting in shape.

The Suffering I See

2012-01-24T11:07:00.002-05:00

I stop in at International Aid every so often, to see if they can help me with equipment or supplies or whatever. Every time I go in there the first thing I see is this beautiful wall decor (I guess that's what you call it) on the wall behind the reception desk. It's a simple yet beautiful depiction of sick and hurting people on their way to get help. It reminds me so much of Haiti. I can't tell you how many times this simple wall silhouette has taken on the dimensions of color and movement and smell. Not to mention the awful sounds of suffering.

I am frustrated when I try to describe the suffering I see. I try hard, but when I'm done with my description, I walk away feeling like I've left people with a silhouette, some wall-decor-ish, stick-figure rendition of what it's really like. It's hard to depict mourning and tears on a stick figure drawing.

Part of me wants to be discrete and unoffensive to those who read this stuff. I don't want to appear exploitive or voyeuristic even. I don't want to be Geraldo, some first-on-the-scene, report-it-and-boogie-to-the-next-story journalist.

On the other hand, I must journal-it. Haiti's story needs to be told, and if, in hearing and seeing Haiti's story of mourning and suffering, people are squeamish, oh well.

A little mourning sickness might just get our attention.

Blessings,
Steve

PS I would love to find out where we could find this wall decor to put up in our guesthouse. If anyone knows how to go about finding it, let me know.

Superheroes Incognito

2012-01-18T21:17:00.000-05:00

I ran across Spider-Man the other day (I didn't know superheroes lived on La Gonave!).

Over time I have trained my eye to spot them. They don't exactly wear capes nor do they scale tall buildings. Superheroes incognito.

Take Joseph Yves. On any given day he can be found working with village leaders in villages all over the island, teaching and encouraging them that better days could be ahead. And, while he's a pretty humble superhero, he's a superhero, nonetheless. Because he is probably responsible for saving more lives than most anyone else around. Consider this past year... under Met Yves' watch, some 500 family households now have a family latrine. Significant, when you figure that fewer than 10% of households on the island have a latrine, and that cholera has already snuffed out some 7,000 lives.

Joseph Yves (on the right)... a true action hero.

Met Yves doesn't need to wear a cape or drive a batmobile to prove anything. Real heroes don't need that stuff. He's just plain getting it done.

If anyone runs across Joseph Yves' rookie card please let me know. I'd love to take it off your hands.

Blessings,
Steve

Sidenote: just today we transfered funds to Met Yves for another 100 family latrines.

Starfysh Publishes Haitian Creole Early Reader

2012-01-16T23:15:00.001-05:00

After nearly a year of preparation, translating, and illustrating, Starfysh is excited to announce the release of our first book, An Nou Li (Let’s Read!), an early childhood reader. Written by Stacy and Kristin Oldenburg, the book is really a compilation of four smaller books: Kò Nou (Our Bodies), Santiman (Feelings), Kontrè (Opposites), and Bondye fè Koulè (God Made Colors). Each page is professionally illustrated with vivid pictures young Haitian children will love. “Our vision,” says Stacy, “is not only to provide tools to Haitian teachers to help them teach reading, but to instill in Haitian children a passion for learning that will follow them for their entire lives.” A second book, a 2nd/3rd grade level reader, is currently in the translation phase and should be out in the Fall.

From Supermarket to Tomb

2012-01-12T19:11:00.000-05:00

And We All Cried

2012-01-12T18:37:00.002-05:00

"The Caribbean," a large, very nice supermarket in Port-au-Prince crumbled into small pieces under the sheer power of the earthquake. I suspect many lives were lost right here. The rubble was so massive and deep that those bodies were likely never recovered.

I climbed through the rubble pile, even up on top of it. As I explored a bit, I ran across this ironic scene: a couple of Caribbean Supermarket job applications. Hope met despair that January day.

And we all cried.

Two Years Ago Today

2012-01-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning thinking about Haiti.

I suppose, now, that every January 12th will be the same for me. I'll get out my pictures and re-live the events of those days, when a quarter million people perished.

Every script I write today... when I put down the date, January 12... I think about the events of two years ago.

I conclude that this will be my annual, January 12th pilgrimmage, one day a year when I'll get out my pictures and reminisce about the great earthquake.

It has started already this morning, the reminiscing. I've thumbed through hundreds of photos and videos taken with my teeny-weeny Canon digital camera while there in the days that followed, the vast majority which I have never shared with anyone.

I think I'll take the next few days to pass some of them along for those of you who might be interested. They're not as great as those AP photographer shots you'll see in the magazines, but they're impactful and meaningful, nonetheless.

Pictures (and a few videos) to follow...

A Solar Hospital: This is the Vision. This is the Goal.

2012-01-10T15:20:00.003-05:00

The final architectural drawings have been completed for a sorely-needed hospital for La Gonave. It will have 44 inpatient beds, a 4-bed emergency room, and two surgery suites. The Scottish charity, Lemon Aid, founded by my good friend and partner-in-charity, Justin Dowds, has come up with the the money for the hospital, enough to say it's a go. We'll be breaking ground this Spring!

But let me take this one step farther. I've been gathering some information...

I have learned that the costs of running the beastly diesel generators to provide power for the hospital is over $50,000 PER YEAR. (The fuel alone cost $39,498 last year!).

Knowing that the cost of solar energy systems have improved over the past years, we have consulted with an electrical engineer who has vast experience with remote, third world hospitals. And we have learned that, in fact, a SOLAR-POWERED hospital is feasible.

Friends, I have spent much time crunching the numbers and can tell you that not only is going solar feasible, it's the right thing to do. It will move our hospital toward full sustainability, which is an important feature Starfysh looks for in considering project worthiness. Our goal is to develop La Gonave in ways that do not require them to be indefinitely propped up from the outside.

Long story short... the up front capital investment needed for a solar energy system that will provide all the electrical needs of the hospital and take it totally "off grid": $140,000.

May sound like alot, but consider this: current energy needs are currently costing $50,000 per year. So solar will pay for itself in just 3 years. The total yearly cost of running on sun-power is $5,800 ($3,600 maintenace labor + $2,200 depreciation expense).

The pictures you see here are the behemoth diesel-guzzling, smoke-coughing, generators currently powering our hospital. I say it's time to euthanize them.

We are developing fact-sheets for the solar project. If anyone wants a copy let me know. I could use help raising money for this.

A hospital powered by sunshine. This is the vision. This is the goal.

We can do this.
Steve

Who Last Held It

2012-01-03T18:23:00.001-05:00

I was hanging out with my friend, Dede, not too long ago, just talking about different things. The conversation was all over the place, and for some reason we started talking about the very early history of the island of La Gonave.

Most folks probably don't know that Haiti was one of Christopher Columbus's stops in the New World. The Spanish explorers of the 1500's caused all kinds of problems for Haiti's indigenous "Indians" who, if they didn't die from the smallpox that the Spanish unwittingly imported, they were captured and sent back to Europe as slaves. Many of these Arawak Indians escaped from Hispaniola's mainland out to the island of La Gonave. La Gonave was the last refuge for many as the native population of Hispaniola was rapidly wiped out.

I asked Dede if he knew if there existed any relics of the Arawak civilization. He said they did exist and that, in fact, he had found a few. He showed me this one (pictured). I don't know exactly what it was but I think it must have been part of large cup or something like that. (Though for the life of me I can't think of why you would want this strange fellow creeping you out when you sip on your hot cocoa).

Just holding this shard (of whatever it was) is intensely interesting to me. I cannot help but wonder what the person was like who made it, and who last held it.

Just Like That Night

2011-12-20T21:46:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago I found this Haitian nativity, hewn from a piece of wood. A man named Calem carved it. He signed it in pencil on the back. Simple. Plain. Beautiful. Just like the night it all happened.

We All Have Stories

2011-12-18T10:06:00.001-05:00

Here's a picture of the group that met in Haiti a few weeks ago to discuss the way forward for a new hospital for the island of La Gonave. That's me, third from the left, the guy Air France must have thought wouldn't need clothes that week. They did give me that very nice "Air Team" T-shirt to wear for the week, though.

I’ve heard on the news the last few days where the volume of Christmas card mail the post office is seeing has been cut in half over just the past couple of years. Our own mailbox supports this research. Not too many cards come now-a-days. Not surprising, and we can’t blame folks, can we, in these Facebook, Skype, and Twitter days of ours. Not even to mention texting and email and blogs. It is quick and easy and free to send a personalized, even animated, online greeting to someone. Facebook reminds me when it’s your birthday, so I don’t forget. And, I must admit, I love getting dozens of “happy birthdays” from my Facebook family of friends, friends I never would have heard from otherwise.

What has been lost in the transition to cyber, however, (at least so far) is tradition. The tradition of sending hard copy Christmas cards is quickly disappearing. Grabbing a handful of Christmas cards out of the mailbox has gone the way of the milkman’s daily delivery of milk to the doorstep.

Use to be, only old people reminisced about the good old days. Nowadays you don’t have be old at all... the good old days were just ten years ago. (Ah, don’t you just remember way back in the days before YouTube?). Pretty soon, “the good old days” will be measured in months. (Don’t believe me?... iPad-3 comes out this February, less than a year since iPad 2 was released, and just two years after the very first iPad).

Some folks are digging in, resisting the social networking scene. I resisted, too, for a short time But I have decided to embrace it. Twitter and Facebook serve as today’s water cooler, where people hang out. Blogspot is the campfire of our times, where our stories are told. I guess it’s not a matter of Facebook vs. the water cooler, Blogspot vs. a campfire. Because in the end, it’s about the community and telling our stories.

We all have stories, like me wearing the same clothes for a week. Now that's a story.

A More Realistic Rendition

2011-12-17T10:30:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning. It snowed last night. Christmas tree is lit. I'm on my second mug of strong, black coffee (why, Haitian, of course). In front of me on the coffee table are two ethnic nativities (I have collected many over the years). One of them is first ethnic nativity I ever purchased. I found it in Haiti in the early 90's during one of my early trips.

It's interesting how inanimate objects invoke nostalgia. Our tree is full of sentimental relics of Christmasses past. My little Haitian nativity is such a relic, too. It reminds me. It reminds me that Jesus is not mine, but ours. That He came not to be just my personal little American Jesus, held close for safekeeping. He's Dede's Jesus. And Miss Vero's and Maitre Rousvel's Jesus too. And Jean Tinne's and Aldo's and Mme Sami's and Madame Felicien's and Merline's and Jean Rony's and Mickenson's and Jean Bena's. Jesus is Emmanuel. God with US, not God with just me. He is Emmanuel to the people living in the huts on the salt flats and up in the tiny mountain villages. His birth is celebrated not just in my cozy, comfortable American church, but in precious groups of worshipers all over the island of La Gonave, too.

Sometimes when I set out my Haitian nativity, with its coconut stable and crudely carved manger guests, I wonder if maybe it, in its stark simplicity, isn't a more realistic rendition of how it was.

Howdy Partner

2011-12-02T19:08:00.000-05:00

Howdy Partner.

I have progress to report, along with a challenge for those interested in making a significant and immediate impact on the island.

The sad reality is that fewer than 10 percent of households on the island have access to a latrine. In one cluster of villages where there were over 400 homes, there was only one latrine. ONE. It's no wonder that diarrhea (typhoid fever, cholera, worms, hepatitis, among others) kills more kids here than any other disease.

The good news is that people here are getting it, and are responding en-mass to our message of how important latrines are to the health of their families and village, and to the deal we offer to them that if they dig their pit, we will provide them with the cement to build a commode base. In one village (~100 households) every home now has a latrine, and by the end of this month, another village will have 100 latrine use. Word around here is that this statistic is unheard of in Haiti.

The exciting problem we have now, though, is that the message has spread much faster than we thought it ever would, and right this minute about 400 families (scattered across some 20 villages) have dug pits, hoping that we will extend the offer to them too.

What's exciting is that there is no question that this will translate immediately into fewer diarrhea-related illnesses and deaths. We already noticing decreased illnesses.

The challenge I'll throw out to all of you out there in blogland is this... can you help me buy the materials for these 400 latrines? The cost is 20 bucks per latrine.

Through the end of this year (just 4 weeks!) we will designate every gift coming through the paypal button on this blog to help us build latrines. $20 - one family gets a latrine. $100 - five families. $2000 will provide an ENTIRE VILLAGE with latrines.

Our long term goal, of course, is to see every one of the some 10,000 homes on the island to have a latrine. This statistic alone will send shock waves across Haiti, and I think we should do it. Any partners?

I get home on Monday after a week of meetings here in Haiti. I am SO encouraged, so energized to continue the work I feel called to do.

Beauty Beneath

2011-12-01T23:02:00.002-05:00

Friday starts a new series of meetings here in Haiti. The first half of the week we gathered people together for input into how the new hospital on La Gonave should look and function. When the hospital opens in Spring, 2013 it will not only be a new day for the facility itself (structure, appearance). It will also be a new day for the way the hospital functions and operates on a day to day basis. Both levels of change are sorely needed and we are really excited to be moving toward that day.Tomorrow (Friday) starts a new two days of discussions, with new participants gathering... several organizations who have the mutual interest of helping bring transformation to the island. We come from different angles and bring different things to the table, but we come to collaborate and join resources, skillsets, and energies to get the job done.

I was able to spend an hour or so snorkeling out in the coral reefs this afternoon. Exhiliarating. So much beauty just beneath the surface.

Just like La Gonave.

Summit

2011-11-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

My body is tired (brain, too, come to think of it). A half day of travel and a half day of catching up with friends, colleagues, and fellow development workers as we have gathered from all parts of the US. There are a few Scots here too. Tomorrow morning we'll be joined by the Haitian contingent (the hospital doctors, nurses, and administrators) of our summit as we begin to establish a new and improved way forward for La Gonave's only hospital: Hopital Wesleyenne d' La Gonave. Interestingly we're not meeting on at the hospital, not even on the island. That's probably good.

We're staying in a mission guest house in Montrous, on the mainland, right on the sea. The ocean is about a hundred feet from me right now, the island of La Gonave 12 miles out there. As soon as I submit this post, I'll shut the lights off and hope that an ocean breeze keeps me cool as I sleep.

In addition to the work of the summit, I hope to start catching up on some writing while I'm here.

I hear President Clinton is in country too. (He must have heard I was going to be here). I sat next to a guy on the plane who was attending the Clinton Global Initiative meetings being held today and tomorrow. He owns a high-end chocolate company and buys cocoa beans from all over the world and is looking at Haiti as a possible future source. We had a long coversation. I told him about Starfysh, he told me about cocoa growing. We exchanged cards.

Enroute

2011-11-27T22:18:00.001-05:00

I'm enroute to Haiti again tonight. This is my first time using in-flight internet which is pretty cool. I still cannot wrap my brain around how one can click his fingers on a keypad while traveling at 600 miles per hour at 35,000 feet in the air and click send and immediately have his message available for people down on the ground to read (Why did I say still?... as if I am expecting to one day comprehend it).

I will spend this entire week on the mainland, save for Thursday when I hope to get out to the island for the day. The first half of the week will be spent in discussions with all those involved with the hospital rebuild. ("Rebuild" is a misnomer. It will be a totally new hospital). The second half of the week will be spent sitting down with other people and organizations who have projects going on on La Gonave. I am excited about both meetings and feel privileged to have been invited to these summits.

I hope, in addition to the meetings which are the main thing on my agenda, that I can also start to catch up on my writing, which has gone woefully wanting (and I am hearing about that).

Our November newsletter is in the process of going out in the mail (snail- and e-). It was too long and we have decided to email-publish it monthly starting in January, 2012. We'll still do occasional snail mailings, but they are expensive to do (paper, printing, postage, time), so they'll go out maybe quarterly.

I am excited that Starfysh's communication piece is coming together and people should really start to see a big change for the better in the quality and frequency of what we're doing.

It is Good to Gather

2011-11-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

Doesn't seem possible that a year has passed. On a blustry, snowy evening last November, a bunch of friends braved the elements and joined me in an airport hangar for the official launch of this thing we had decided to call Starfysh. Today, exactly one year and one day later, folks continue to gather around this campfire of an idea that maybe... just maybe... something significant is in the works.

The Starfysh board of directors met this morning, in the same coffeeshop... in fact, at the same table in the same corner of the coffeeshop where we first met a year and a half earlier. I didn't think about that until just now, typing this. I would have certainly mentioned it this morning had it come to mind. I am nostalgic, if nothing else!

Today, people continue to gather, inspired by the same vision that brought us out at the airport a year ago: that together... as a gathered people... we can make a difference.

Just last night I swung by one such gathering. Someone, whose name I'll not share (let's just say her initials are Denise Johnson) had organized a road race, inspired by the TV reality show, "The Amazing Race." The race took a competetive group of racers through a series of photo stops and roadblock tasks through the busy downtown district of Grand Rapids. They called it "The Amazying Race."

Just a couple hours ago I received a call from Denise saying they had raised over a thousand dollars for Starfysh, and asked that we use it to get clean water to La Gonave.

In our gather-ing we become a force for good. A force that is much stronger than the simple sum of our parts.

It is good to gather.

I was Thirsty...

2011-10-27T20:42:00.000-04:00

"I was thirsty...

... and you gave me something to drink."

It's Both/And

2011-10-26T20:16:00.000-04:00

Well, after a year of planning, we were finally able to start a program of feeding hungry kids. We had to cut down the size of program we initially had planned because we would not have been able to continue to fund it at the pace we have been receiving funds. But small is probably better in the early going as we learn the ropes. Nothing wrong with taking our time and doing it right. We learn as we go.

The pictures at left were taken last week during the first feeding, a trial run. It went really well! I was a bit worried about order and control and stuff like that, but it was absolutely orderly and controlled.

We are feeding one hundred kids in this particular village. We hope to begin soon to feed children in a second village of about the same size.

In doing development I suppose there is probably nothing particularly strategic or sustainable when it comes to feeding hungry people. I mean, these kids are going to wake up hungry again tomorrow, right? What I do know is that malnourished kids are sick kids and that it's hard to learn when you're sitting there hungry, and that while we set about the painstaking tasks of development it won't hurt to love on people along the way.

Besides, as we feed we will be bringing trees and garden seeds and farm animals to their homes. In the future, then, they won't need people to come to feed them. They'll do just fine on their own.

Development and compassion need not be mutually exclusive activities. It's not either/or... it's both/and.

If It's Glamour We're After...

2011-10-25T21:48:00.002-04:00

Two great friends, Aldo and Dede

I suppose it's a bit unreasonable to think that in these hard economic times one could make a go of a business whose sole purpose is for the benefit of someone else, not us. But there you go. On one hand we see so many well-thought-out, well-funded business plans falling flat. On the other hand, the simple, perhaps even silly notion that a few folks here in the States might be able to bring transformative change to an island of people they'll never meet... seems to be gathering steam.

I've had the pleasure of being witness to both ends, both here and in Haiti. And, while it is fun and busy and all that here in Michigan, the true exhiliaration comes when you can see the fruits of our Stateside efforts borne out in a precious village whose people know (and care) nothing about golf outings and tax receipts and all that stuff.

Just days ago I wandered through the white tents of the cholera hospital where, just two days prior, my friend Jean Tinne's grandmother had died of that quick and horrible disease. Sadly, Jean Tinne had to bury her the same day, her and the evil Vibrio that claimed her life. I hugged Jean Tinne and told him how sorry I was.

Days ago I returned to an obscure, yet precious mountain village where just months ago there were zero household latrines, and now there are 54 (out of 91 households). Our goal is for 100%. The deal we have made with families is that if they dig the hole, we will provide them with cement for the slab cover and the toilet. They are enthusiastically taking us up on our offer. Thanks to community development missionary Lowell Adams for doing the hard work in transporting literally tons of cement up the treacherous mountain roads.

Mundane? Probably. Unglamorous? Absolutely. But so what? If it's glamour we're after, we should stay at the Ritz.

I need to catch up on my posting. So much to share...
Blessings,
Steve

A Kid's Joy

2011-09-20T21:25:00.001-04:00

About as far removed from our rushed, stressed, complicated way of life as you can get, are a bunch of kids in a little Haitian village who know nothing of American politics, the global economy, or who won the Emmy's. They're unaware of 9/11, Adderall, and Ambien. They just are. Their concerns aren't global, they're local. Extremely local. Like will I eat today? Will anybody in my family get sick today? I wish we had a school. Stuff like that.

I learned something in a little mountain village in Haiti last Monday. I learned that it takes more than struggle and hardship to take away a kid's joy. I was lucky enough to capture a few moments of it here...

First Impressions of the Children of Mare Koshon

2011-09-19T23:18:00.000-04:00

Mare Koshon

2011-09-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

A week ago today I jumped on a motorcycle and headed to the mountains with a couple of good Haitian friends. They had been telling me of a tiny village up there where there was great need. So I said let's go. The road was brutal all the way up.

When we finally got close we parked the bikes and walked toward a stand of mature mangoes where we heard some commotion. In the cool, dense shade of the trees were gathered a bunch of young children. The ground was dense with old and brittle mango leaves. It was impossible to walk quietly. I learned that the children gather here under these trees about three times a week to sing and play and to be read a story out of a
Bible story book.

Mme Diwork

I later learned that there is no school here (Mare Koshon they call it) and that they fetch their water from about a mile away. I did not see much in the way of garden crops or animals. No electricity, of course. 91 homes. They told me they had a church but I didn't go to see it. They told me there had never been a medical or dental team come to their village. The woman whose land the mango trees were on was 85 years old. Her name was Madam Diwork. Born, I calculated, around 1926. Man. Her deep wrinkles betrayed her hard life. She had defied the life expectancy odds of living here. I wondered what all she had seen.

They tell me Mare Koshon means "standing water where the pigs go to" and they walked me to a field that for some reason, did not drain water well even though we were at some altitude. It was boggy with a fair amount of standing water. I never saw any pigs.

I have a few videos of my time there and I'll post them when I figure out how. You will enjoy them, I'm pretty sure.

You can't find Mare Koshon on a map. I figure that's because it's tiny, plus no one much knows its there. But now I know it's there. My time there was one of those alive, exhiliarating, pinch me experiences you have every so often. Mare Koshon is a precious place with precious people whose needs are basic and severe. I figure I'll be back. Probably soon.

2011-09-10T22:43:00.001-04:00

Stopped back by the cholera hospital today. Pleasantly surprised to see just four patients there. They were all quite ill though,m and I wouldn't be surprised if on guy doesn't survive the night.

I'm glad to be able to blog from where I am, but it's difficult on this dinky blackberry, plus I can't post pics from my blackberry to my blog. I have posted a half dozen or so on facebook. For some reason I can do that.

Tomorrow I'll trave by boat down the coast to visit a tiny seaside village. Can't wait.

Blessings,
Steve

Much to Catch Up On

2011-09-09T19:34:00.002-04:00

It's tough to type long narratives on a 1 x 3 inch blackberry keyboard with type font in the negative numbers but I'll try my best while in Haiti these next couple of days. I know from my earthquake days that folks like to hear directly from the front lines.

I haven't blogged much for the last several weeks and there's a reason for that... So much going on. Guess it's why you don't see many interviews of athletes while the game is going on.

Much to catch you up on... Talk to you from Haiti tomorrow.

Steve

Haiti Rocks

2011-08-21T17:13:00.004-04:00

Whenever I return home from Haiti, the TSA and customs people at the Miami airport give me weird looks when they see the large rocks I have stuffed into my luggage. Most people returning home from the Caribbean bring back jewelry and rum. I usually bring home coffee, occasionally vanilla. Almost always I bring home a few rocks. I mean, there's nothing contraband about them, and they have to let them go through, but that doesn't stop them from backing up the xray belt a time or two. Every time they say to me, "Is this bag yours? We need to look inside."

The snow-white rocks in the upper picture come from the north shore of La Gonave. They have been made smooth from thousands of years of ocean waves washing over them. I have wondered how many swashbuckling pirates have trampled over them on their way out to their ship.

This middle picture is of a couple chunks of earthquake debris I picked up. Iconic, don't you think, of a country that has been laid so low. "Ayiti kraze," someone said. "Haiti is broken."

In the bottom picture are rocks I picked up in the middle of La Gonave where we hope to locate a base camp for our work in the future. I'm not a geologist, but to me they look like old coral, which makes me wonder if ancient La Gonave may have been an underwater reef.

I love pictures and I sure take my share of them, but they're a poor substitute for holding relics like these in your hands, which I just have to do every once in awhile. You just have to wonder what all they've seen.

Acting Routinely

2011-08-18T19:30:00.001-04:00

“[He] does more than practice medicine. He doctors people. There’s a difference.” Charles Kuralt

I long ago came to realize that I might never “get it right.” Today, I know it for fact: I will never “get it right.” I’ll always be just “practicing” medicine. I suppose that the same can be said for everyone. We’ll always be just “practicing” in life. Never quite getting things perfect.

I guess in a sense we're all practitioners. Practitioners of our work. Practitioners in our relationships. Practitioners of our faith. We never do get things quite right, do we? We’re not perfect. What’s more, we never will be! The good news is that all this imperfection is all as God expects.

The use of the word practice these days almost always connotes the idea of trying to get better, or “get it right.” It is natural, of course, for those of us involved in sports or music to use the word practice to communicate the idea of repetition in order to get better. After all, “practice makes perfect,” right? What team will take home the trophy who has not, through tedious repetition, practiced the execution of different parts of the game? “Practice your free throws,” I’d always encourage my kids. And who wants to hear a song played by someone who has not practiced it? Artists practice and experiment with different colors, shapes, and materials. Fly fishermen practice tying flies. My golf game stinks because I spend no time practicing at the driving range or putting green.

The word “practice” comes from the Latin practica which, at its very essence, means to “be used.” For example, if we say that a kitchen or garden utensil is practic-al, we imply that it is use-full, or literally, full of use. The word, even though it is used as an adjective here, conveys a strong sense of action. Of course the verb “to practice” is an action verb. Even the noun “practice” (eg. a medical practice, or a legal practice) very literally, then, means a routine action. To “practice” medicine, then, is to “act routinely” in the area of medicine. To “practice” law is to “act routinely” in the area of law. The “practice” of faith is to “act routinely” in the area of faith. Be careful here, don’t equate “routine” with monotony, drudgery or vain repetition. My family practice is anything but monotonous. Oh, I show up every day, and I “act routinely,” lest my patients lose confidence, but “acting routinely” for me is a daily dose of variety, challenge, and excitement. Likewise, the “acting routinely” in the area of faith in Christ should not and need not be drudgery. Indeed, the practice of faith in Jesus Christ brings variety, challenge, and excitement, not in spite of “acting routinely” but as a direct result of “acting routinely.” Routine can be the source of great blessing! God’s intent is that routine would be a blessing to us, not a curse against us.

The primary reason that we “act routinely” is out of obedience. God calls us to an active, vibrant, use-full practice of our faith.

“This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.” Ps. 119:56

A Practicing Faith

2011-08-17T21:49:00.001-04:00

After med school comes “residency,” that essential part of every young doctor’s career where “head knowledge” meets “street smarts.” I remember the day well, back in July, 1988: my first days in the hospital after graduating from medical school. I remember the painful realization that all the “stuff” I had been cramming into my brain the past 4 years was not yet enough to equip me to be a good doctor. What first year intern doesn’t dread the “pimp” sessions when the attending physician grills him at the patient’s bedside about all the possible etiologies of the patient’s abdominal pain? I remember well my first day of medical internship. It was during “rounds” the attending physician asked me (in front of about four or five other young doctors), “Doctor Edmondson," (and the inflection in his voice when he said “Doctor” proclaimed loudly that he really had his doubts), “list for me the possible causes of this patient’s congestive heart failure.” The ten seconds that followed were the slowest ten seconds of my life. Time stood still for ten seconds. Deer in the headlights time. In an act of mercy, his eyes lifted their gaze from me to the rest of the group, who managed to come up with what he was looking for. Why didn’t I have all the answer to that question? I should have known the answer to that question. His eyes panned back to me and, in a reassuring tone, I remember him telling me, “you’ve got it all up here,” placing his hand over my frontal lobe. “What we need to do,” he said, “is to get it from here” (frontal lobe), “to here” (moving his clenched fist and placing it over my gut). What I lacked was the gut. Not guts. Gut. And I learned gradually over the years that it would come. Head knowledge would transform into gut instinct. That first preceptor in the clinical phase of my education taught me... not facts so much (I had those, or so he reassured me)... but he taught me how to use those facts to make a difference in my patients’ lives. He taught me how to process the raw material (head knowledge) into something that would be useful to me as I stood at the side of the bed of a critically ill patient. The patient, I learned, could care less if I got an A in “pulmonary.” The patient cared a lot if I could prescribe therapy that would save his life.

“Bible smarts” isn’t enough (ask any Scribe). Faith in God goes way beyond head knowledge(consult any Sadducee). And lip service certainly doesn’t cut it (ask any Pharisee). What a waste it would be for a graduating medical student to hang her shingle on her bedroom wall and never allowed her “head knowledge” be translated into improving the quality of people’s lives. Similarly, how tragic is it that there are those who have an understanding of the Christian faith and seem to know all the right answers, yet who bear no fruit through the exercising of their faith in ministry to others. How can we grow in faith if we don’t enter the “patient rooms” of life and allow our Great Preceptor to mentor and mold us into ever-learning, ever-maturing, and ever-reproducing practitioners of our faith?

I want to be an ever-maturing practitioner of my faith. The moment we stop maturing in our faith, we start stagnating in our faith. Fruit isn’t borne. Hot turns to luke-warm. Zeal gives way to boredom. Might as well hang the shingle on your bedroom wall.

Living Being

2011-08-16T19:42:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking recently about what it means that God created us in His image, His likeness.

The understanding of a living organism must go beyond knowing how it is structured (its anatomy) to how it functions (its physiology). And as amazing as our Creator has created our anatomy, it is equally amazing to see how he has created our physiology.

“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7

Here in Genesis we see the distinction between anatomy and physiology. When God “forms” he creates our anatomy. When he “breathes into” our lifeless anatomy, we become living, breathing, laughing, digesting, metabolizing, smelling, seeing, hearing, growing, thinking, hoping, indeed physiologic beings. The term “living being” used here is significant. Don’t gloss so quickly past the phrase that you miss its significance. Could it be that when God created us as “living beings” that both words, living and being, might carry equal weight in how we bear His image? When God forms us from dust we are yet, and very simply, a “being.” Only when He breathes into us are we transformed into a “living being.” The very act of God’s breathing His breath into us is just as much a part of our creation as is the forming us from dust. God created you by forming you AND by breathing into you. Form equals anatomy. Breath brings physiology.

“God created man in his own image.” Gen 1:27

Note carefully, it does not say here that God created man in his own form. It does not say that we were created to resemble him in a strictly anatomic way, although that is part of it. When it says we are created in his own image, the function (physiology) He created us to possess was also intended to bear His image! Form and function. Anatomy and physiology. Out of dust, and from His breath. What we are and who we are. All deliberate, necessary components of image of the God.

When God first created man and woman, they bore His image, His likeness. They were “living beings.” They were like Him in their being; they were like Him in their living. They were like Him anatomically; they were like Him physiologically. Later sin would corrupt both aspects of that likeness: form and function, being and living. Anatomy fell corrupt: to disease, decay and death. Physiology fell corrupt: to disorders, derangements, and disharmony. Today, we still bear the corrupt scars of sin. No one is immune.

"Living beings." It’s the "living" part we have the most problem with. We chalk up the three-score-and-seven aspect of our existence, our "beings," to fate or luck or lifestyle choices. But we struggle with living, really living. God-centered, purpose-filled, full-of-meaning living. Who among us doesn’t want to know that the life they’re living counts for something, that they’re not the result of some cosmic accident?

“You have made known to me the path of life…” David

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Deut. 30:19-20

Choose life? Is life a choice, like choosing whether I want dessert or not? Can I really decide whether or not to have life, like deciding if I want to accept a job offer?

“I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus John 10:10

It is clear: God, in Jesus, wants us to have life. But He allows us to choose whether or not we want this life. “The work of God is this,” Jesus tells us, “to believe in the one he has sent.” “He who believes has everlasting life.” John 6:47 The implication is that it is possible to be, to exist, but not to live. Note that Jesus is not saying, “He who believes will have an everlasting existence.” Who wants to live forever if it is all just existence that has no purpose or meaning?

It is possible to exist without living, partial image-bearers of God. Just vague representations. Some years ago I visited the Museum of Art, in Chicago, when the Egyptian exhibit came into town. I especially remember standing in respectful awe in front of many of the mummies on display. I was fascinated as I gazed at the skeletal remains of what, thousands of years ago, was a living, breathing human being. I was intrigued by some of the features that were preserved: the leathery tissue left covering the skull and face, providing a sense of the facial features. Hair, still attached to the scalp. Fingernails. Vague representations of a life lived. Kind of spooky. Very real.

In what sense are we just vague representations of what God initially created us to be? Vestiges of “better days”? Bodies still intact, but whose “life” has long since departed? Spiritual corpses?

A slogan made popular by the pro-life movement simply states, “Choose Life.” In like manner, God makes it abundantly clear: “Choose Life!” Life is a choice! We don’t have to live. God doesn’t force it on us. We can go through life simply existing. But Jesus says He has come that we may have life… a rich, meaningful, physiologic, image-bearing, purposeful life! Rick Warren surprised the publishing world by the enormous and long-lived popularity of his book, The Purpose Driven Life. But think about it. Is it really any surprise that the number one need in all of our lives is for purpose? Purpose that transforms merely existing into abundant living? Purpose that breathes life into the corpse of our existence? Purpose that busts us out of the museum of dead corpses into a world of relationships and growth and meaning?

Wanting to Want To

2011-08-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Two-year-olds are much smarter than most of us think. Alex is a good example. A few months ago Alex came in with his Mom for a routine check up. After my physical assessment, I looked at his growth chart and started talking with his Mom about Alex’s developmental milestones. It was a good visit, no red flags.

Now, most two-year-olds are still in those high-absorbancy “pull-up” diapers, one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century. The only problem with them is that they are so easy and so convenient and they keep toddlers so dry that the incentive to potty train is lost. I mean, why bother learning how to use a toilet when these pants work just fine?

Alex must have thought so.

I brought up the issue of potty training with Alex’s mother. Not so much for the purpose of encouraging her to get on it, as much as to open it up for questions she might have about the process. As it turned out, she had the “big boy potty” sitting on the floor in the bathroom at home but Alex wasn’t expressing a whole lot of interest in using it. Invariably, every discussion about potty training eventually leads to this conclusion, and you’ve heard it a thousand times: “They’ll do it when they want to.” Doesn’t matter what you say. And Child Psych 101 notwithstanding, a child won’t potty train until they get good and ready. It’s kind of one of those “you can lead a horse to water…” laws of early childhood behavior.

Alex was familiar with this law. And he was paying attention to the conversation between his mother and me. The reason I know he was listening was that the second I said to his mom the proverbial, “He’ll do it when he wants to,” Alex chirped in, “I can’t want to! I can’t like that!”

There was great wisdom in Alex’s words that morning. What Alex’s little two-year-old mind understood, and what parents through the generations have found out, is that reason and logic aren’t enough. Persuasive skills fall short. Shame and guilt are counterproductive.

When Alex shouted, “I can’t want to!” he was admitting that, in this instance…potty-training… he would rather comply out of an inner desire rather than out of obeying a parental edict.

“I desire to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8

Do we ever, like Alex, want to want to, but can’t? Where does the “want to” come from and how can we get it?

When God tells us, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4) could it be that God is telling us that when we place our faith in Him He will instill desires within us? That when we place our faith and delight in Him He will reward us by putting the “want to” in us?

Last word is that Alex is still not interested in the “big boy potty.” To be sure, Mommy and Daddy are ready for him to make that decision. (Hey those pull-ups aren’t cheap!). But they are patient.

Just like God is with us.

“He is patient with you,

not wanting anyone to perish,

but everyone to come to repentance.”2 Peter 3:9b

Buying Presence

2011-08-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

The catch-22 is this: on the one hand we want so badly to be about the work (and only about the work) of helping people. To help them dig out of their despair, to bandage their wounds. To, as Jesus said, visit them, clothe them, and give them something to eat. But the thing is, we must first be there. Not just get there, but be there.

It's a love/hate thing, sort-of. Because while I love the notion that we will soon have our own place (the last installment of our guesthouse furniture is currently enroute: bunkbeds, mattresses, shelving units, etc.), at the same time I feel like my time is stolen from being with the people I love so much. (I remember telling our board in one of Starfysh's early organizational meetings that things like fundraising and such don't charge me up nearly as much as being in Haiti, being with those we would help.

But the long view of "being there" requires more than showing up now and again. If we are to make a lasting impact, we must invest in presence. In a fully-equipped, comfortable guesthouse, ready and waiting for those who would come and invest a few days or weeks or months of their lives down here. In the vehicles needed to move compassion about the difficult terrain which is La Gonave's.

As we do all this, of course, we are laying program groundwork (water, agriculture, feeding, medical care), which is, for me, way more fun. The time is coming soon when the center of gravity of time and resources will begin to shift from readiness to implementation. In fact, I see it already happening. Happy day!

Finally, I need your help folks. We need rugged island transportation. We have received two like-new 4-wheeler ATV's that are currently enroute down. These will be of enormous value to us in moving about the island. What we are still waiting for and desperately need next is a couple of heavy duty, 4-wheel drive, diesel trucks. They wouldn't need to be new, just in good condition. We will "lift" the bodies of the trucks up a ways, so they can navigate the rough mountain roads in moving supplies and people to where they need to be. If you can ask around for us, or pull some strings, or know someone who would want to make a monster difference in the lives of a bunch of desperately-poor people by donating one, please send them my way.

Buying presence. It's what must be done if we are to deliver radical, transformative change to this land.

Golf Scramble a Great Success

2011-08-12T21:40:00.000-04:00

Golfers, start your engines!

We had a great day on the links today. Perfect weather. Fun golf. Fun contests. Lots of prizes. Great steak buffet. Promoted our clean water initiative. All proceeds from our outing today will be used to help us provide clean water to families on La Gonave.

Good stuff. There will definitely be a "Second Annual" next year.

Thank you golfers who came out and volunteers who helped make the day great. Thanks to sponsors, too, for your support.

Hanging out with friends (some new!) at the golf course

God 101

2011-08-11T23:01:00.000-04:00

“For the eyes of faith, every created thing manifests the grace and providence of Abba.

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

We’re all signed up for God class. Sometimes we're spending time in the Book. More often, we take field trips. Sometimes group field trips, but usually field trips just by ourselves. Today's assignment: “Look for signs of God. Report your findings.” We find that clues are everywhere and it looks like He’s still on the move! Twigs are broken and His tracks are still wet. Seems He’s everywhere.

The assignments and tests are all open-Book. Sometimes we get A’s. Sometimes D’s. Often we just plain flunk the exam. We forget to study. We forget our Book. We lose our #2 pencils. We forget we can work together. Our Professor says, though, that as long as we stay in the class, we’ll get through the course.

The course: life. God 101. Independent study, done together. Life, a course in knowing God.

Manifold Witness

2011-08-10T19:06:00.001-04:00

“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father.

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love”

Thomas O. Chisholm

God has made us privy to so much more than the people who lived when Jesus walked the earth. You’ve got to know that God, in His eternal I AM-ness, knew about telescopes and computers and dinosaurs and atoms and quarks and the internet and E=MC2. God knew (and knows) about undiscovered truths of the day. As we unearth these yet-to-be-discovered truths, we dare not discard them as not having originated from God, just because the Scriptures haven’t spoken of them. Rather, we take newly-discovered truths and see what light Scriptural truth sheds on them. Real truth will neither disprove nor discredit Scripture. It might challenge our previously-held interpretations. But that’s our issue, not Scripture’s. The Word of God is true. Truth cannot be untrue. The fact that my little cauliflower of a brain has not yet comprehended (nor will ever!) the wonders of the Creator of the universe in no way minimizes His greatness. In fact, my puny understanding only accentuates His greatness.

What a freeing concept! We are free to discover. Wherever we find truth, we learn a bit more about God. (If astronomers should discover trees on Mars, it would not threaten our view of God; it would only serve to enlarge it. The only faith we would lose is the faith we have placed in our own puny attempts at understanding an infinite God). We wake up each morning with a new eagerness to find out a little bit more about God today. God speaks to us directly through Scripture, through the impressions of His Holy Spirit, and through the truths of the day, none of which are mutually exclusive.

We can know God and have relationship with Him through Christ Jesus. And we can know about Him through His creation. God’s creation gives witness to His nature and character and personality and attributes.

“All nature,” the song goes. “Manifold witness.” Each choir member has it’s own unique “voice” to add. Every planet. Every star. Every tree. Every animal. Every insect. Every rock. Every molecule and atom. Yes, every electron of every atom in the universe spins at the direction of the Director of creation’s choir. The bazillion individual choir members are blending their voices in harmonies of praise, each telling their own, unique story. Each witnessing to God’s character.

We, too, sing. Every one of us each have our own unique set of insights about God. No one’s life is like another’s. Our life experiences, even those of people very close to us, are wildly different. We each have a unique voice to bring to the choir. Singing together our voices blend in rich harmonies with all the others (brothers and sisters, mountains and molecules, galaxies and snails). What a variety! Manifold witness.

Evidence

2011-08-09T19:50:00.000-04:00

“What on earth are we missing?” Philip Yancey, Rumors of Another World

There is a subtle, yet important distinction between “evidence for God” and “evidence of God.” If we’re collecting evidence for God, it’s as if we’re trying to prove His existence. In observing the evidence of God, on the other hand, we are getting to know the God we already know is there. I need no evidence for God. That evidence is the witness of His Holy Spirit inside my being. But I desperately long for evidence of Him, for the sense of His presence. While I may intellectually agree that He is present, I also want and need to feel His presence in and surrounding my life.

F.W. Boreham in his 1997 essay, “The Quest,” said it well:

“The footprints of God! It certainly proves that there is a God: but I want more than that. Robinson Crusoe found a footprint on his island: yet how little that footprint told him! Was it the footprint of a black man or a white man; of a friend or of a foe; of a man or of a woman? He could not tell. I want more than a footprint. The lover is not satisfied with the footprint of his lady: he wants her! I am not satisfied with the footprint of God: I want him! And science, failing to reveal him, failed to meet my soul’s deep need.”

We seek clues… not to build some airtight case for God. We seek clues to discover “His eternal power and divine nature.” God has set us loose… free to explore his visible creation for the purpose of knowing Him better.

The Lurking Presence of God

2011-08-08T19:17:00.000-04:00

“Our world is saturated with grace, and the lurking presence of God is revealed not only in spirit but in matter--in a deer leaping across a meadow, in the flight of an eagle, in fire and water, in a rainbow after a summer storm, in a gentle doe streaking through a forest, in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in a child licking a chocolate ice cream cone, in a woman with windblown hair. God intended for us to discover His loving presence in the world around us.” Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

God rarely shouts for our attention. He is often subtle and quiet. Lurking, even. Hoping we’ll perceive His presence in the room. Hoping we’ll see that He has carefully and deliberately planted clues about Himself all around, hoping we’ll recognize them for what they really are.

Everything God has done is relevant. Nothing He has done is irrelevant to who He is. All creation. All revelation. Every inspired word of Scripture. Every order He has put into place has a purpose greater than itself. Everything we see exists not for itself. Every encounter, every universal law, every person exists for a God-inspired purpose.

What is that purpose? What exactly is the relevance of the oak tree in my backyard? And just why should I concern myself with it? And is there something about the celestial sky that has meaning? What difference does it make if the planets rotate in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction on their axes? Could the structure of a cell possibly tell me anything about the Creator of the universe?

Katanoeo

2011-08-07T20:17:00.000-04:00

“I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.”
Psalm 77:12

“If your heart were right, then every created thing would be a mirror of life, and a book of sacred doctrine. There is no creature so small and worthless that it does not show forth the goodness of God.” Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Mirrors of life. Books of sacred doctrine. We’ll miss them if we’re not paying attention. It was Jesus Himself who taught us the importance of paying attention:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!” Luke 12:22-28

Consider the ravens. Consider the lilies. The Hebrew word is “katanoeo,” which means, literally, “to take note of.” Essentially, Jesus is saying to us, "Look around! Are you taking notice? Are you paying attention to the things around you?"

Jesus’ teaching style was to use familiar, everyday scenarios that His audience would relate to in order to teach Kingdom truths. But was it God’s intention that all truth about the Kingdom would be tidily summarized in the several specific parables Jesus taught?

Is Scripture simply a historical narrative that not only contains truth, but is sole guardian of all of it? Is it God’s wish that we limit our understanding of His nature and His ways to that which can be described by (and only by) birds and lilies, and the moon and the stars? Is it His intention in giving these words to us that we accept them at face value? That we not extrapolate them to our context?

“Stop and consider God’s wonders.” Job 37:14

Or, might there be wisdom in the parables of Jesus deeper than what we see on their surface? Was Jesus, in elucidating the specific Kingdom truth of those parables also teaching us, here in the 21^st century, how to observe life around us, looking for our own parables, for new Kingdom truths perhaps? In imparting truth through the audiovisuals of His audience’s context, was Jesus also teaching us, in our personal discovery processes, to use the audiovisuals He gives us in the 21^st century?

The latter is the case. In fact, Scripture itself teaches us to look at and to consider the things we see and experience as we think about God and His design and purposes for our lives. Jesus Himself taught us that observing and reflecting on the things around us: nature, relationships, social structures, stories and events, and so on, all can provide insights that have value to our spiritual lives.

Ever aware of His surroundings, Jesus modeled for us what it is like to appreciate all things as God-given truths, nothing less than divine insights into the way things are. Mirrors of life. Books of sacred doctrine.

God has placed life lessons all around us. We just need to katanoeo.

Red Blood Cells and Platelets and Spleens, Oh My!

2011-08-06T19:45:00.003-04:00

I did not get too far in my medical school training before there developed within me a profound sense that something was up. The cadavers, the pathology slides, micro lab. What had they to say? Having come to faith as a boy, I was familiar with the passages in the Bible that spoke of the Church as Christ’s Body. Over the years, I had heard plenty of sermons and Sunday School lessons on the subject of spiritual gifts, taken from 1 Corinthians 12:

“Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:14-27

Overwhelmed and over my head in textbooks, class notes, pathology slides and cadavers, I could not stop thinking about the metaphor of the "body" of Christ when thinking of the Church and how I had never heard it taken beyond the simplicity of hands and feet, eyes and ears, presentable parts and unpresentable parts.

Now, I believe “body” is a perfect metaphor when describing the Church. I also believe, however, that God, in inspiring its use, knew (and knows) infinitely more about the human body than the first-century contemporaries of Paul. Paul knew nothing of serotonin. Nor could he have ever imagined the complexities of the respiratory control center of the medulla oblongata, or that ultraviolet rays from the sun caused malignant melanoma. Neither Paul nor his hearers could have conceived that leprosy might be caused by a thing called a microorganism, a billion of which could reside in a drop of water. Metaphoric language is useful only to the extent that those who hear it can identify with its terms. In likening the Church to the human body, then, Paul spoke of familiar things: hands and feet, eyes and ears.

Of course, Scripture is replete with anthropomorphic language that so effectively communicates truth in the familiar terms of the human experience. ^“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean,” David prayed. “wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7), his request not for a physical scrub down, of course, but a spiritual one. “Blessed are those,” Jesus said, “who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” People then, as today, so strongly identify with the physical experiences of hunger and thirst and being filled, that divine truth easily finds its mark in the minds of its hearers.

What of today? What does it mean today that the Church is the body of Christ? In considering timeless truths, can we, should we, need we, add new and fresh examples to the old ones? In a day when we have catalogued the entire human genome, do we risk straying in to heretical territory if we add to Paul’s examples of hands and feet things like DNA, thyroid glands and fetal development?

Keep in mind, everyone in Paul’s day had a pancreas. Fetuses went through the same phases of development for them as they do today. People had diabetes, lupus, high cholesterol, and warts. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight,” the writer of Hebrews reminds us (4:13a). “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” Jesus told his hearers (Matthew 10:30), not bothering to tell them that their white blood cells were probably also numbered. Wait... cell? What's a cell?

If you and I, as Christ's Church, are His "body," then might we stand something to learn about the nature and workings of His Body by examining the nature and workings of our own body? And if Paul had known of red blood cells and platelets and spleens, would he in describing the Church have drawn them in to the parallel? Perhaps. Knowing about such things, can we today?

“I knew something sacred was at stake.”

Ken Gire, The Reflective Life

Sacramental Mindfulness

2011-08-05T21:16:00.001-04:00

“If I take seriously the sacred origin of this world, at the very least I must learn to treat it as God’s work of art, something that gave God enormous pleasure.” Philip Yancey

Our basic inclination, as earthly creatures, is to hold physical and spiritual realities at arm’s length, sequestering one from the other. We have been duped by modernity, which asks: “If we can examine it, measure it, quantify it, analyze it and predict it, then what could possibly be divine about it?” We have lost the reverence of what God has made. Ken Gire, in his book, The Reflective Life quotes Abraham Heschel on this point: “Let your conceit diminish your ability to revere and the universe becomes a marketplace for you.” (Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosphy of Judaism). Gire goes on to state: “We can objectify the world or sanctify it. When we objectify the world, we view it and all that is in it as existing solely for our use, whether that use is for pleasure or profit or patriotism. When we sanctify the world, we view it and all that is in it with appreciation. In doing so, we recognize them not simply as objects, but as objects created by God that in some way reflect Him and all that is dear to Him, the way a work of art in some way reflects the artist and what is dear to the artist’s heart.”

“We tend to confine the sacred to a fenced-in-area,” Philip Yancey states in Rumors of Another World, “the ‘spiritual,’ reserved for church activities. Many people rarely give God a thought apart from an hour on Sunday morning, when they sing songs of praise, listen to a sermon, and then reenter the secular world as if passing through air lock.”

How do we rediscover, then, the art of seeing the divine in the ordinary, of regarding created things and created order less as physical, chemical, and physiological marvels so much as testimonials of their Originator? Philip Yancey, in his book Rumors of Another World, articulates it best: “As a start,” he states, “I can aim to make daily life sacramental, which means literally to keep the sacred (sacra) in mind (mental). In other words, I seek a mindfulness - a mind full- of God’s presence in the world. I have no desire to escape the natural world, the pattern of Gnostics, desert monks, and fundamentalists who flee “worldliness.” Nor do I deny the supernatural, the error of the reducers. Rather, I want to bring the two together, to reconnect life into the whole that God intended. This world, all of it, either belongs to God or it does not. If I take seriously the sacred origin of this world, at the very least I must learn to treat it as God’s work of art, something that gave God enormous pleasure.”

Lord, God… Creator of all that is…. Creator of me… please awaken me to the reality of Your presence in the world you have placed me in. Help me to see at least some of the “glimpses of truth Thou hast for me.” Amen.

“In every act of creation God is present, waiting to be discovered. The essence of the spiritual journey is the discovery of the presence of the sacred in everyday things, in everyday people, in everyday life.” Leonard Sweet, Soul Salsa

One Week From Today

2011-08-05T11:19:00.000-04:00

Next Friday... in fact one week from this minute, a bunch of folks will be on the practice green and driving range, getting ready for the 12:30 shotgun start of our 1st Annual Starfysh Golf Scramble. I had hoped to have filled up the course by now... 36 foursomes, 144 golfers. But as it turns out we've got plenty of room left.

Hole in One Prize

And I'm asking if you who follow my blog would help me get word out to those you think would enjoy a fun round of golf for a good cause. We've planned lots of contests and prizes and we'll serve up a nice steak buffet dinner immediately following golf.

In addition, if you have connections with businesses who might like to sponsor a hole or offer up some cool prizes or give-aways that we can give out that would help make the day that much more fun.

Please help me make this "1st Annual" a success. Thanks.

Steve

PS Little detail... folks can register online at www.starfysh.org Deadline to register: Tuesday, Aug. 9th

This Looking Business is Risky

2011-08-04T21:12:00.001-04:00

So where does all this leave us? On one hand, we see evidence of God all around. On the other, we’re afraid to collect it for fear we might be led away from pure Scriptural truth. The safe thing to do would be to walk away, sacrificing the benefits in the interest of safety. But can reward come without risk? Along our paths of discovery, we must be mindful of the mines, the slippery slopes, and the baited traps.

“This looking business is risky.”

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Legitimate dangers cause wary believers to wear side blinders through life, out of fear that non-biblical truths may cause them to stray. As a result, they miss out on enjoying the results of God’s creative energies and, consequently, all that these creations might say about their Creator.

We can neither deny nor ignore the obvious Kingdom truths found in creation. God has certainly intended that we consider…that we take note of… creation in our search for truths about the Kingdom. He does not want us to miss the clues! With discernment and all due caution, then, here’s where this all leaves us…

Filtering our thoughts and observations through the grid of Scripture, prayerful reflection, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak truth, and within the God-ordained community (church) He has placed us (1 John 4:6) we are safe to discover new truths about God.

My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; Proverbs 3:21-23

Cornelius Plantinga Jr. put it well...

"The Holy Spirit authors all truth, as Calvin wrote, and we should therefore embrace it no matter where it shows up. But we will need solid instruction in Scripture and Christian wisdom in order to recognize truth and in order to disentangle it from error and fraud.

"Thoughtful Christians know that if we obey the Bible's great commandment to love God with our whole mind, as well as with everything else, then we will study the splendor of God's creation in the hope of grasping part of the ingenuity and grace that form it. One way to love God is to know and love God's work. Learning is therefore a spiritual calling: properly done, it attaches us to God.

"Educated Christians therefore need to "know their Bible" in order to lead a life that fits in with the purposes of God. But to reform a complex institution-- or, as a matter of fact, to write a law, treat a patient, or perform any of a number of other human undertakings-- you will need to gain wisdom from many sources in addition to Scripture. You will need to look for truth wherever it may be found.” Engaging God's World--A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living

Leonard Sweet would agree.

“Jesus taught that whenever we discover truth, it is God who has taught us. No book is so bad that you can’t get some truth out of it. No person is without some truth to teach us. No situation is without its truth. God is instructing us in soul sciences and soul arts every second of every day.” Soul Salsa.

So if God is the author and owner of all truth, it follows that examples of God’s authorship fill the libraries of the world. And wherever we find truth we should, like the psalmist, celebrate our discovery as a God-given clue to His greatness and His character. We come just that much closer to knowing what God is like through knowing a bit more about what He has created.

Five Dangers

2011-08-04T10:04:00.000-04:00

It’s clear then. All creation serves as God-evidence, revealing to us not only proof of His existence, but clues of His attributes… clues God wants us not to miss.

Yet, while we dare not discount Romans 1:20 (For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse), we ought not to ignore the dangers of Romans 1:25 (They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised) either.

We need to be mindful of several dangers in looking at God’s creation for clues about His nature.

Danger #1: ignoring the essentiality of applying Scriptural truth to our human experience. To our peril, we can become a truth unto ourselves and slide down the slippery slope of heresy, even idolatry.

Danger #2: deifying Scripture rather than it’s Author. Bibliolatry. Dallas Willard refers to it as “Bible deism” (Hearing God). It is possible to make idols out of very sacred things… like church, like family, Scripture, even our own spirituality… elevating them to levels God doesn’t intend. These things, essential as they are, can get in the way of knowing God, turning us into 21^st century Pharisees.

Danger #3: Deifying the created. In marveling at creation (as God wants us to do), we are baby-steps away from idolizing it. The Enemy certainly knows this, and will use this fact to cause us to subtly slip into a pantheistic idolatry before we’ve recognize what’s happened. Kempis, in his “Imitation of Christ” cautions that we not cling “to anything created with unmeasured affection.”

Danger #4: Forgetting that the created is sin-tarnished. If we forget or minimize the influence of sin on what God has made, we might, in turn, make wrong assumptions about God’s power and His nature. We certainly aren’t reminded of God’s greatness when we see a smog-filled sky, for example. Or a dying child. What we see is evidence of how what God has created has been perverted by sin.

Danger #5: Relativism. We are but a few slippery steps from saying that all truth is God’s truth to saying that all versions of truth are true and, therefore, have originated from God. We must be on guard for the lie of relativism.

He Speaks To Me Everywhere

2011-08-03T22:28:00.001-04:00

God wants us to know Him. To know Him personally and to know about Him. What person in love doesn’t want to spend time with his or her soulmate, learning everything they can about them? Really knowing someone goes way beyond a casual acquaintance. It’s knowing them and everything about them. What makes them tick. Their past, their sense of humor, their interests. Their quirks and idiosyncracies. Their passions. When we get to this point in relationship with God we are getting close to the soul-mate relationship for which He created us.

Through an ongoing relationship we get to know God and to grow in our knowing. No matter where we are in our faith journey, each day can bring new discoveries and insights about Him. We can know Him better today than we did yesterday.

Life with God is a life of anticipation and expectation. "Abundant life," Jesus called it. A reason to get up in the morning. A reason to get up early. A reason to be alert, to stay engaged, to participate! A reason to not deaden our senses with drugs or alcohol. A reason to pay attention, to take notes, to journal. A reason to pray, to study, to ask questions. And permission to sleep at night, knowing that your day was not spent in vain… for you know God just a little bit better.

And it’s not just physical, measurable things that give testimony to the attributes of God. The unseen also does. Migration patterns of birds. Laughter. Emotions. The dance of honey bees about their hive. Gravity. Heat. Wind. Sounds and smells. Interactions between children at play. “How little of creation,” Philip Yancey remarks, “do we humans understand, much less control: the wonders of instinctual behavior, the rhythms of nature that go on whether any humans observe them or not, the comparative smallness of human beings” (Rumors of Another World).

This is my Father’s world,

And to my listn’ning ears

All nature sings, and round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Fathers world;

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world.

The birds their carols raise;

The morning light, the lily white

Declare their Maker’s praise.

This is my Father’s world.

He shines in all that’s fair;

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;

He speaks to me ev’rywhere.

This is my Father’s world.

Oh, let me ne’er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the Ruler yet.

"He speaks to me everywhere." God has placed each of us in "rustling grass" fields filled with spiritually-significant truths, hoping that we’ll see them. My fields happen to be patient rooms, medical journals, flower beds, and a precious Haitian island. Wherever your fields, be on the lookout! Clues and evidence of our amazing Creator are all around.

Grand Rapids Mud Run

2011-08-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

Join Team Starfysh in taking on the mud at the...

2011 Grand Rapids Mud Run

Saturday, August 27, 2011

To be a member of the Starfysh team...

1. Find some friends to run with. You don't want to do this alone!

2. Register at GrandRapidsMudRun.com
Groups of various types will run every hour on the hour throughout the morning and afternoon. Choose the category and time that fits you. Team Starfysh runners will not all run at once. We will be scattered throughout all heats throughout the course of the day.

3. Once you have secured your spot(s), contact us (steve@starfysh.org) with your name, contact info (phone, email) and shirt size.

4. Get in shape! Though crazy and fun, this is a 5K.

5. When you arrive at the event, stop by the Starfysh display to pick up your t-shirt ($5 suggested donation).

6. After your run (walk, crawl, slither) stop back by our booth for your congratulatory Gatorade.

Sign up soon! This event could fill up!

Breath-Taking

2011-07-30T09:53:00.008-04:00

Consider breathing. Thankfully, breathing takes place in the background of our day-to-day. And, though we value it, we generally don't have to think much about our breathing.

If you think about it, breathing is a spiritual exercise. The word spirit might literally be translated as breath. Holy Spirit literally means Holy Breath.

If “Spirit” is “Breath,” then spirituality is breath-ing. Leonard Sweet, in his book, Soul Salsa, puts it this way. “A spiritual life is one that breathes out the ‘breath of life.’ The body is God-breathed. It cannot help but breathe with regularity. The soul must will itself to breathe and live. It gasps for air until it finds its breath. Hence the Sabbath. The root of Sabbath means ‘to catch one’s breath.’ The faster and fuller you exhale, the more you need to inhale. The Bible is designed to transform your life. One of the biggest transformations is the formation of multilingual souls: souls that have learned the languages of exhaling and inhaling, of speech and silence, the interior rhythms of space and time.

“In other words, to breathe new being into the soul, we need to decentralize our Sabbath keeping. Sabbath does not come just once a week. Every day needs a holy hiatus. Every week needs to be well ventilated with sabbaticals.”

Many regard Sabbath simply as a day to “catch our breath” from the past week. We see it as a recovery time and only that. The “day of rest” should rest-ore, after all, right? We look forward to it like marathon runners look forward to the end of their race: a time to collapse and catch our breath. But is there more to Sabbath-keeping than simply restoring the breath spent during the race of the preceding week? Or do we ask, “Restoring our breath…. for what?” For what future purpose might God be re-storing our breath?

We have reduced the notion of rest to mean only recovery and in recovery our attention is on the past: recovering from long hours, hectic schedule, etc., etc. In this reduction we miss a major point: that rest is an appointment with God, a divine nexus where recovery from yesterday and preparation for tomorrow collide.

We have assumed that when God rested on Creation’s seventh day, that he was, in a sense, recovering from Divine Exhaustion. What if “rest” does not, in fact, mean “recovery”? What if God’s “day of rest,” of breathing, has value intrinsic to itself, apart from other days of the week? Breathing for breathing’s own sake? I think we can learn something from Isaiah’s prayer: “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.” (Isaiah, 26:9a) I love the way he puts it… “my spirit longs for you.” He could have just as easily said, “my spirit yawns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit yawns for you.” “I am so air-hungry for you. I desperately need a deep, deep breath of You. Please give me some of Your Holy Air.” “Holy Spirit, come and fill this place,” the songwriter put it. “Holy Breath, come and fill this place,” we might also sing it. Spiritual air hunger. In the morning, at the beginning of his day, Isaiah’s spirit… his breath, longed for the Lord! In the morning, before the day’s activities, Isaiah inhaled deeply. Not in exhaustion, but in preparation for what God had in store for him that day.

We need air. At the beginning and end of our day, at the beginning and end of our week, and at the beginning and end of our year, our career, our project, our ministry… we need to rest: To inhale deeply and experience the deep, refresh-ing, ready-ing breath of God. We need to breathe… for breathing’s own sake. We need to live lives “well ventilated with sabbaticals.” Every breath one of recovery and of preparation. Each breath a rest, appointed by God. Each breath a praise to Him, acknowledging His sovereignty over our lives.

Our walk with God is breathtaking only to the extent that we are Breath-taking.

Two Weeks from Today

2011-07-29T20:00:00.004-04:00

The golfer who hits a hole-in-one on hole #8 of the 1st Annual Starfysh Golf Scramble will win this loaded 2011 Ford Fiesta. In fact, all four of the par three's will have great hole in one prizes (Caribbean cruise for two, airline tickets, Sony Playstation 3). Just sayin...

Friday, August 12th
The Golf Club at Thornapple Pointe
Registration deadline: August 9th

Register Now

Please help me fill the course with golfers by spreading word in your circles. The more golfers we have the more water filters we can place.

Thanks folks!
Steve

Thornapple Pointe Hole 8: Beautiful 165-Yard Par 3
A hole-in-one here wins a new 2011 Ford Fiesta

Mobile Money

2011-07-27T22:53:00.001-04:00

I didn't downsize this picture because I want you to look closely at it. Seems boring enough... it's a picture of remote mountain regions on the island of La Gonave, Haiti.

Click on the picture to zoom in a bit and you'll see, way out in the distance on the top of that hill, a cell phone tower.

The one "infrastructure" that has changed alot in Haiti is that of communication. It is a strange reality that most people in Haiti, including the poorest peasants, carry a cell phone. (Digicel, the main cell phone company in the country) and Voila have invested millions in developing the cell tower network that covers much of Haiti and in making cell phones widely available at low cost to millions of Haitians.

In addition to the voice communication they provide, the use of cell phones for "mobile money" or "cellular banking" (the transfer of funds from one cell phone to another) is picking up steam. Check out this 3 minute video on how it works: Mobile Money

This technology will no doubt play a role in Starfysh's strategies in future years as we move forward with our development work.

Breath

2011-07-26T19:45:00.001-04:00

“the Lord God formed a man’s body

from the dust of the ground

and breathed into it the breath of life,

And the man became a living person.” Genesis 2:7

Do you see it? No, I mean literally, do you see “it”? Look there, that little word “it,” tucked quietly in the middle of line three. Little and inconspicuous. But don’t miss it. God breathed into it (the man’s body) and “it” THEN became a living person.

It is possible to have a body without the breath. But the body cannot live without the breath of God. The body remains lifeless until God’s breath enters us. Breath brings life. No breath, no life.

Is it possible that, when Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), He was referring to the fact that life before and without the Breath of God, is not really living at all?

God is a God of breathing our Source of in-spir-ation. The root “spir” here is the same word the apostle John used when he said, ^”The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:62). Very literally, then, His words are the breath we take in. He breathed the world into being. And He breathes life into us. Until then we’re just corpses. Organized dust. Form without function. Existing but not living. Bodies without Breath.

Re-Summoned

2011-07-25T22:25:00.000-04:00

Evaluation of breathing is one of the most common and important assessments that doctors and nurses perform. With stethoscope on chest we get our patient to breathe deeply. For adults we simply ask them to take a deep breath. For infants we might blow gently in their face which causes them to inhale deeply.

Some patients, however, just won’t breathe deep for us. No matter what you say or do, they simply will not take a breath!

You can politely ask them to breathe. You can sternly command them. You can show them how you breathe and why you enjoy breathing. You can plead with them, bribe them, guilt-trip them, even threaten them. You can startle, frighten, or tickle them. You can blow in their face. You can tell them how popular it is to breathe, that many of their friends breathe. You could try reasoning with them, giving them, say, four good reasons they should at least give breathing a try. You might present them with survey results showing that people who breathe lead much more successful lives than those who don’t. You could walk them through the complex physiology of breathing or maybe show them the latest research revealing convincing evidence that breathing prolongs life. You can show them results of a poll showing them that 99% of all respondents believe that regular breathing is good. Still, they will not breathe.

They are the most obstinate of patients. Unwilling, even to listen. I have never been successful nor I have never heard of any of my colleagues being successful nor are there reports in the medical literature any instances of doctors having success at convincing this sort of patient to take a deep breath.

Tactics fail. No matter how well prepared for and presented. No matter our sincerity, concern, and good intentions… patients in cardiac arrest simply will not take a deep breath. They won’t listen, nor will they respond. Ever.

One hope remains. Resuscitation. In this instance, breath must be placed into the patient. Breath from elsewhere. Breath from Elsewhere.

We are inclined, sometimes, to forget that people to do not find Breath merely because we want them to. Strong and well-executed apologetics can fall short. Christian celebrity testimonials may fall short. Saturation marketing falls short. Television advertising, slick evangelistic tools, polished seeker-targeted programs fall short.

Imbedded deeply, yet significantly, within the word “resuscitate” is the Latin word “citar,” which means “to summon” or “to call.” It is God Who calls, not us. When we are resus-citated, we are literally “re-summoned”….called again to enjoy life. “Summon me and I will answer,” Job prayed.

A patient in true cardiopulmonary arrest will die without external intervention. A dead man can do nothing to save himself. ^“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 Breathless we lay, dying. Unable to help ourselves. God then, in mercy, stoops down and freely offers us His Breath. Resuscitative breath. Reviving breath. “Re-summoning” breath.

The summons comes from God. He alone resuscitates. The only hope for we who are dead is that our lungs would expand with the Holy Breath of God. Divine CPR. Through no effort of our own, God in His mercy performs His resuscitative work on us.

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.” Psalm 85:6-7

A Good Thing

2011-07-23T19:47:00.002-04:00

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

Psalm 150:6

Martha Stewart, goddess-of-household-perfection, made it one of her trademark bylines: “It’s a good thing.” Fluffy crepes served with fresh-squeezed orange juice? “It’s a good thing.” A bed of fragrant lavender lining the garden path? “A good thing.” Homemade decorations adorning the freshly harvested, fifteen foot Christmas tree in the great room? All very good things.” I wonder how many homemakers have committed hari-kari trying to keep up with Martha.

What are the “good things” in our lives? Blessings like family, health, a new job come to mind. In the day-to-day, we might be thankful for running water, nice weather, a fun vacation, even a good night’s sleep. But when is the last time you heard someone say they were thankful that their body temperature was well-regulated or that their digestion was going well?

Funny, isn’t it?... that the things most critical to minute-to-minute survival are those that we take most for granted. Crucial, life-sustaining body functions like our beating heart, digesting food, and body temperature regulation are those we don’t need (thank God) to think much about (leaving time for the conscious decisions about things not nearly so important: What shirt should I wear? Should I mow the lawn today? Should I get single or double pepperoni on my pizza?).

Take breathing, for example. While we all would agree breathing is definitely a “good thing,” we tend not to think nor talk much about it. It’s just one of those processes in the background of daily life. All that we do every day is done against the background of breathing and we really just aren’t aware of it.

Breathing is one of the many body processes that are under the control of the autonomic nervous system. (Whenever you see the word “autonomic,” think “automatic.”) Lots… in fact, most of the processes in our bodies that are absolutely necessary for day-to-day survival are under autonomic, that is automatic control. Think about it, we do not have to consciously tell our hearts to beat, our kidneys to excrete, our bowels to digest, or our marrow to make blood. We do not have conscious control over ovulation, body temperature regulation, or sweating. (By the way, you might, from time to time, thank God for your autonomic nervous system. Because of it, you can fall to sleep at night without worrying that you might forget to breath, or to secrete enough insulin to deal with that bedtime snack. Without your autonomic nervous system you’d be so busy with such issues that you would never be able to get around to cleaning the garage). But because breathing is automatic, most of us take it for granted.

Until there is a problem with it.

In “To Kill a Mockingbird” Scout makes the statement, “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” She makes an interesting point. We don’t particularly “love breathing.” When is the last time you heard someone say they loved to breathe? Yet, while we may not “love breathing,” we do need it. We may not “love breathing,” but our life depends on a regular habit of it. We may not “love breathing,” but take it away from us and we’ll learn to love it real fast. We tend to value most that which we fear losing. For proof, look into the panicked eyes of someone suffering an asthma attack. Notice the worried expression of a patient depending on a ventilator to breath for them. Seems it is when we cannot get our breath that we cherish breathing most.

The psalmist had something to say about good things. “They who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing” (Psalm 34:10b), he once said. “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11b). James, too, spoke of good things when he said that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above…” (James 1:17a).

Breathing. It’s a good thing.

Scramble Proceeds Targeted

2011-07-22T20:26:00.000-04:00

The 1st Annual Starfysh Golf Scramble will tee off just three weeks from today at Thornapple Pointe Golf Club. We already have enough golfers signed up to ensure that the event will be a success. But, of course, my hyperactivity disorder is not letting me relax until we fill the course with golfers. We have room for a total of 144 golfers (36 foursomes).

We have decided that all proceeds of this year's event will be applied to Starfysh's efforts to bring clean water to the island of La Gonave, Haiti, where the vast majority of people have no access to clean water. The proceeds earned from every registered foursome will help us place a biosand water purification unit in a family's home. These systems will provide clean water for ten people for ten years and will immediately improve the health of the families and their village. We have identified the village and our goal is to finish the funding for clean water for the village.

A great golf event is planned. All four par-threes have great hole-in-one prizes: a car, a Caribbean cruise for two, airline tickets for two, and an electronics grab bag (choice of 32" flat screen TV, 8 GB iPod, or a Playstation 3. There wil be lots of other fun stuff, too: longest putt, longest drive, straightest drive, and several closest to the pin contests.

Included in the $110 entry fee is the steak buffet dinner which will immediately follow golf. That's where we'll award prizes.

Speaking of prizes, if anyone out there in blog-land would like to donate prizes (any size, any value) we'll take them to help us make the event even more fun. Just contact me. Also, if you'd like to sponsor a hole or a golf cart or a beverage cart or something, you can check out the right side of this page for information about that. Remember, sponsoring our event is a win-win: it would be good advertising for your business, plus it will provide clean water to our world's most desperately-poor. Like I said... win-win.

If you don't golf but know somebody who does, please tell them about this event. You might even consider paying the entry fee for someone who might have trouble coughing up the cash. Sponsor a foursome! I'm pretty sure you could make four poor college kids pretty geeked if you arranged them a spot in our event.

Like I said, we're a go and based on where we are right now, the event is already a success. The rest will be gravy in helping us reach our goal.

Ah

2011-07-21T23:01:00.001-04:00

Let me tell you about Stefan. True story. Stefan is a four-year-old little boy whose mom brought in to my office the other day because of a sore throat and sinus symptoms. Stefan is one of those inquisitive kids who is always thinking. “I… I…. I’m almost five!,” he stuttered, as soon as I stepped foot in the room. “You are?!,” I replied, with my incredulous voice. “Yup!”, his countenance then changing. Puckering his lip, he pitifully continued, “I’ve got a sore froat.” His eyes filled with tears. “Aw, I’m sorry,” I said, my voice dropping too. “Let’s take a look.” After checking his ears and glands, I asked him to open his mouth. “Open your mouth and say ‘Ah,’” I said, in as reassuring tone as I could. (For some reason, when you come at a four-year-old with a flashlight and a tongue depressor, they tend to tense up). Stefan did a good job though, and I was able to get a good look on the first try. Then it came. Out of nowhere he blind-sided me. “Does ‘Ah’ really do anything?,” he asked. The way he accented “do” told me he really had his doubts.

I glanced over to his mom with one of those looks of disbelief. If he hadn’t been so serious in asking, I might have laughed out loud. “Yes, it does!,” I replied, turning back to face my inquisitor. “I can see your throat a lot better when you say ‘Ah.’ And you did a great job!” I thought it amazing that an “almost-five” year-old might wonder how saying “Ah” could help the doctor see into his throat.

Does “Ah” really do anything? It’s good question.

His question was more than a question. It was a question-statement, really. What Stefan was really saying was, “You don’t really expect me to believe that my saying ‘Ah’ will do anything more than just opening my mouth so you can look into my throat, do you?” He wasn’t doubting the opening-his-mouth part, he was questioning the saying-“Ah” part. Cute little Stefan. Two foot nothin’ Stefan. Insightful Stefan. Four-going-on-twenty-four-year-old Stefan.

It occurred to me that Stefan was simply asking a question that other patients ask too, just not out loud. “Come on Doc,” they wonder. “What’s ‘Ah’ got to do with it?” Fact is, only a small percentage of patients actually say the word “Ah” when a doctor asks them to. Most just silently open their mouths, assuming that’s what the doctor is really trying to get me to do.

Now, I have to tell you that, in the examination room, “Ah” does make a difference. It makes a difference because when you verbalize it, your tongue pushes itself to the floor of your mouth, getting out of the way for the doctor trying to see to the back. Furthermore, the louder you say it, the more the tongue gets out of the way. Try it in front of a mirror. Open your mouth. Then say it. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. You see? Saying “Ah” gets the tongue out of the way, allowing deeper inspection. In fact, if patients would just master saying “Ah,” doctors wouldn't need near as many tongue depressors.

We all need to work on our “Ah's.” Put "Ah" up against any big word you can think of and it holds its own. Two letters can carry a lot of punch. "Ah" conveys a sense of wonder, of discovery, of bewilderment, amazement, and awe. It also carries an air of contentment, of satisfaction, and of thanksgiving. Jeremiah gives you a feeling for the word when he says, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Jeremiah 32:17.

The person who says “Ah Sovereign LORD” is the one who recognizes his own puniness and God’s largeness. It is in saying “Ah” that we acknowledge that God is God and we are not.

This Particular Scandal

2011-07-20T19:48:00.003-04:00

“One generation will commend your works to another;

they will tell of your mighty acts.

They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

They will tell of the power of your awesome works,

and I will proclaim your great deeds.”

Psalms 145:4-6

Commending. Telling. Proclaiming. When thinking of God’s creation, we cannot keep secrets. We must share with each other what we have witnessed in the works of the Creator, some (perhaps most) of which have been unseen until now. Wonders unappreciated for simple lack of detection.

“In order to maintain and increase the renown of these discoveries, it appears to me necessary… to have the truth seen and recognized, by means of the effect itself, by as many people as possible.” Galileo

I resonate with Galileo who, confronted with the truth that Earth was not the center of the universe, thought he would explode unless he shared it.

Discovery is not for hobbyists who would treat wonders and truths like collectibles, placing them in lock boxes for safe keeping. Discovery is not an exclusive privilege reserved for especially-favored super-Christians. Discovery is not only the stomping grounds of shepherds and poets, but of astronomers, too. And grocers and greenskeepers and salesmen and second-basemen. “We’re all,” says Annie Dillard, “up to our necks in this particular scandal”(Pilgrim at Tinker Creek).

All of us. And up to my neck is right! I have either been preparing for or practicing medicine for over thirty years. Infants that once screamed bloody murder on my infant scales are now hovering over their own babies being traumatized by the same ordeal. Sage adults whose confident wisdom I once soaked in now lie confused in their beds, waiting for my next visit to the nursing home. Children to whom I lectured about wearing bicycle helmets and to stop biting their nails are those for whom I now write medical school recommendations.

I have devoted most of my life to understanding the human body. Patients who place trust in me for their families’ lives want to know that I understand the human body. My patients do not care that I do not know how to ride a horse, fly an airplane, or hang drywall, and they could care less that I play double bogey golf. All they care about is this: do I understand their body and can I fix them.

I wasn't very deep into my medical school training before there began within me a nagging sense that something was up. The cadavers, the pathology slides, micro lab. Might they have something more to say than what would show up on the tests?

Attempting the Tell

2011-07-19T17:45:00.002-04:00

I suspect God is sad when we choose to live safe, sit-tight-and-stay-put lives. I mean, where's the need for faith when we never dare to venture out? Like Dillard’s amoebae, we settle for pond water while a universe full of God-evidence goes unnoticed. “We are called to live a noticed life,” says Bruce Main (Spotting the Sacred). “Like Jesus,” he says, “we are called to begin the process of excavation by unearthing the buried and unrecognizable glimpses of holiness in our midst.”

This blog is, in a sense, my own exercise in noticing. And it is as I wrestle with sentence structure, light bulbs turn on. Illumination comes during the struggle of articulation, not before (which is probably why I always wait until I've finished my blog entry before I decide what to title it). And though it is, for me, a fun and rewarding struggle, it is very much a struggle. Transcendence resists definition, it seems. Epiphany and syntax seem strange bedfellows.

The psalmist’s own frustration is apparent when he says,

“Many, O LORD my God,

are the wonders you have done.

The things you planned for us

no one can recount to you;

were I to speak and tell of them,

they would be too many to declare.”

Psalm 40:5

“My mouth will tell of your righteousness,

of your salvation all day long,

though I know not its measure.”

Psalm 71:15

I share the psalmist's pent-up emotion. Speaking and telling do fall frustratingly short. God’s wonders are many and I cannot know the true measure of what I see. Tension mounts as I want so much to nail it, while at the same time I know I never will.

But this telling I must try, for I have discovered that just attempting the tell has been well worth the effort. Through my journaling and reflecting and writing, I have realized that notice is just the beginning and that maybe the struggle of committing notice to language is what God desires… what makes Him smile.

Ancora Imparo

2011-07-18T18:41:00.002-04:00

“The harder I work, the behinder I get.”

refrigerator magnet

There is an interesting phenomenon in medical learning that applies to all disciplines of study: The more I learn, the more I find there is to learn and the more I realize how little I truly know. Have you ever felt this way? As if I had a chance at knowing everything there is to know in the field of medicine, it did not help at all when I learned that the world’s fund of scientific knowledge doubles every five years. I did not have to go long into my professional career before I had to acknowledge that I would never arrive at a point of completing the learning process. The magnet was right.

Annie Dillard spoke of being overwhelmed:

“I reel in confusion: I don’t understand what I see. With the naked eye I can see two million light-years to the Andromeda galaxy. Often I slop some creek water in a jar and when I get home I dump it in a white china bowl. After the silt settles I return and see tracings of minute snails on the bottom, a planarian or two winding round the rim of water, roundworms shimmying frantically, and finally, when my eyes have adjusted to these dimensions, amoebae. At first the amoebae look like muscae volitantes, those curled moving spots you seem to see in your eyes when you stare at a distant wall. Then I see the amoebae as drops of water congealed, bluish, translucent, like chips of sky in the bowl. At length I choose one individual and give myself over to its idea of an evening. I see it dribble a grainy foot before it on its wet, unfathomable way. Do its unedited sense impressions include the fierce focus of my eyes? Shall I take it outside and show it Andromeda, and blow its little endoplasm? I stir the water with a finger, in case it’s running out of oxygen. Maybe I should get a tropical aquarium with motorized bubblers and lights, and keep this one for a pet. Yes, it would tell its fissioned descendants, the universe is two feet by five, and if you listen closely you can hear the buzzing music of the spheres.” (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

Do we, in our Christian journey, allow ourselves to become mental amoebae, preserving our endoplasm at the expense of missing galaxies of Truth? Paul’s endoplasm must have been bubbling when he exclaimed,^“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” Romans 11:33.

At the same time, it is the very abundance and availability of information that can, paradoxically, numb our senses, causing us to plop down in a heap of mental exhaustion. Acknowledging the impossibility of knowing everything, we are inclined to give up the pursuit of knowing anything, leading submissive lives, passively waiting for the scraps tossed our way, settling for whatever tweets, email-forwards, and Facebook messages are sent our way, or whatever TV programming happens to offer up this week.

The all-too-common response, then, is to throw up our hands in surrender. Disillusioned, we stop actively learning, and we demote discipleship from a required course to an elective one in the curriculum of faith. “If God’s paths are untraceable,” we say, “why risk getting lost?” We stay home, rationalizing our complacency by concluding that learning earns us no brownie points. Entrance to Heaven does not depend on our Jeopardy performance. (I’ll take “Pearly Gates” for $1000, Alex). And if it does not make a difference, why stress over knowing something we can never fully comprehend anyway? If we don’t work harder, we won’t get behinder, we conclude our logic.

We settle, becoming spiritual lazybones, shifting our spiritual weight from one buttock to the other, trading in discovery for familiarity, “Aha!” for “Ho-hum.”

Where does all this leave us then? On one hand we have a God who, despite all our striving, can never be comprehended. Faith is, for us, too wonderful and mysterious to be fully understood. Attempting to do so, on the other hand, seems only to magnify the difference between God and us....

Ah… now I see! Learning more of God and His ways is not a threat to His omni’s. In discovering truths about God, we do not, like Dawkins suggests, scientifically chip away at the mystery of God’s essence, reducing it to some complex formula. To the contrary! Discovery leads us, not away from worship, but to it! It did Galileo. Upon discovering the moons of Jupiter, he penned the following words in his journal: “I render infinite thanks to God for being so kind as to make me alone the first observer of marvels kept hidden in obscurity for all previous centuries.”

Discovery humbles us and elevates our estimation of the Creator. The more we learn, the greater we realize God to be, and the more properly we can see ourselves in contrast to Him. “Learning is therefore,” as Calvin College president Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. has said, “a spiritual calling. Properly done, it attaches us to God” (Engaging God's World -- A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living). Frances Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which recently completed the colossal task of identifying all of the 3,000,000,000 letters of the human DNA code, said it well. “For me,” he said, “scientific discovery is also an occasion of worship.” (“Time,” August 15, 2005)

The words "discovery" and "disciple" have the same Latin backbone, "discere," which simply means “to learn.” Learning, for the follower of Christ, is neither elective nor optional. Disciples are, by definition, learners… people with lifestyles of proactive, intentional discovery. Always alert and searching, ears perked, eyes wide open. Fact is, we are students and, as followers of Christ, we will always be students. Students of faith, learners of truth.

“Ancora imparo,” remarked Michelangelo, at the time, 87. “I am still learning.” A fitting modus operandi for every serious follower of Christ. Active, intentional learning is the essential lifestyle of all who would follow Him.

The Problem of Mystery

2011-07-17T08:05:00.004-04:00

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?

They are deeper than the depths of the grave—what can you know?

Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea." Job 11:7-9

Atheist Richard Dawkins contends that “the ultimate goal of science is to remove all mystery.” Mystery annoys Dawkins, legitimizing, for him, the role of science. For Dawkins, everything that can be known, must be.

I sometimes wonder if we, as Christians, slowly and unwittingly begin to buy in to this diefication of science. Dawkinology. And whether or not we have, without really thinking about it, begun to gradually demote our faith journey to a mere discipline of study, thinking that if we study long and hard enough we might eventually nail it...God now just another notch in our intellectual belt, one more mystery solved.

What is our problem with mystery? Have we bought in to science’s presumption that mystery must go? And anyway, is it even possible that the study of created things could ever chip away at God's infinity?

We have become uneasy with mystery. Mystery has become, for us, sinister and untrustworthy. We have made it so. And it is this sinisterization of mystery that has led many to agree with Dawkins’ assertion that mystery is the enemy. For the person of faith, however, mystery is not the enemy.

“If all you can trust and have faith in is the God you can comprehend and understand, then who are you worshiping?” Leonard Sweet, Soul Salsa.

Where does this leave mystery, then, for those who believe in God? Should we regard mystery as a tolerated necessity of faith, just accepting it as the way it is? Or should we, in fact, celebrate the mystery of faith, knowing that we can never fathom God?

And if we promote mystery from neutral status (a facet of faith we simply regard as un-objectionable) to a position of esteem (a celebrated tenet of faith), we must ask ourselves, what is the role of discovery in the journey of faith? Are the very endeavors of discovery and learning counter to what we have just said is axiomatic to our faith? If so, dare we strive to know more?

On the other hand, what is intrinsically wrong with wanting to solve mystery? Is our opinion of God affected by how much we know about Him? “We live by faith, not by sight,” we are told (2Cor. 5:7). But might not "sight" and experiences and discovery be able to boost and strengthen our faith?

So where does this leave us, knowing that our tiny, finite minds can never grasp all that is true about God? What can be known about Him and does He want us to know it? Might God melt under the heat lamp of human scrutiny, lessened just a bit with every piece of evidence revealed? Is God sweating it out, worried that we will someday have Him pegged? If not…. if God is beyond measure, dare we try to measure Him?

Or is it just possible God wants us to know more about Him than we now know?

Such Knowledge

2011-07-16T21:39:00.001-04:00

I later felt a little convicted over reducing God’s Word to a smart-alec comment, more wise-crack than witness, smugly quoting for my own satisfaction a memorized verse apart from the context in which it was written. I had used my memory verse as a lament, an expression of grief over my incapacity to know it all. I had exploited it as a mere venting of frustration, no less than my paraphrase of “Arrgh!”

“O LORD, you have searched me

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.” Psalm 139:1-6

Frustration was not, however, the primary emotion prompting the psalmist’s thoughts. His inability to comprehend God led not to exasperation but celebration. Coming to terms with the limitations of his own humanity and the immensity of God’s deity, David was able to say, in effect, “You’re God, I’m not. And I’m good with that.”

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the LORD.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

The paradox is this: knowing God does not require comprehending Him.

Flannery O’Connor expressed it well: “Whatever you do anyway, remember that these things are mysteries and that if they were such that we could understand them, they wouldn’t be worth understanding. A God you can understand would be less than yourself.”

Understanding God is not the point. Being OK with our incapacity to understand God is the point. And not only being OK with it, but celebrating it, for acknowledging our puniness in light of God’s largeness gives us permission to be puny. We can relax, knowing we cannot know.

Why bother, then, with exploration and study? What part does discovery and learning have in the life of a Christian? If we truly celebrate the mystery of God’s omni’s, do we dare risk attempting to define the One Who is indefinable?

Too Wonderful

2011-07-15T19:35:00.002-04:00

Day one. Human Physiology 201. A tentative enthusiasm diffused through the room. Exhilaration often accompanies unfamiliarity. Most “day ones” start off the same and “Human Phys” was typical in that regard. The professor, Dr. Hines, was a diminutive man in his early fifties with wire-rimmed bifocals and sporting one of those crew-cut haircuts that men with thinning hair often go to. And, despite the fact it was thirty some years ago that on “day one” I sat in the second to the last row, I remember being impressed by the man. Seems scientists do not need chiseled physiques to impress.

Introductions were brief. Dr. Hines held up copies of the textbook and lab manual and, just about that quickly, put them to one side of the lab table which would serve as his desk and lectern for the remainder of the course. Then, with an enthusiasm and body language that not-so-subtly proclaimed, “now for the important stuff,” he picked up the stack of light green papers we had all been staring at since we arrived. He did not have to tell anyone of us, the most important issue that day would be the four page document he began to distribute. We knew (as every student does) that the syllabus was the focal point, not only of day one, but of the entire class. Schedule, expectations, grading scale, research papers, quizzes, tests, comprehensive final exam.

Now, a final exam is a final exam…. unless it’s a comprehensive final exam. “Comprehensive final” changes the dynamics for the whole course. “Comprehensive final” means you are accountable for all the material…. twice. Once for the unit test. And again for the final exam.

“Comprehensive” means you cannot throw away your notes after the first test.

“Comprehensive” is a seed of dread which, when first read on page three of that light green syllabus, trickles down into a groove in our brain, nestling up against some fertile gray matter. We try to not let it get to us but, like a tiny rock in our shoe, it nags and irritates, compelling us to acknowledge it and say, “I know! I know!”

As I reflect and write, I remember being more than a little perturbed that the final would not only test us on the course material covered by all previous tests (as if that’s not bad enough), but over the last unit of new material which we were just covering for the first time. The breadth and difficulty of material we were responsible for knowing, coupled with the stress of learning brand new material just days before the final made it one of those “killer” exams.

Mind you, since day one I have loved the study of physiology. I relish the struggle of learning complex and difficult things about how the human body functions. So when you hear me vent my spleen about a test I took more than half my life ago, understand that I enjoyed and excelled at the topic. The most important things to be learned in life, however, are not in the textbook. And it is only through retrospect I have learned this: realizing that we cannot know and master everything is, in fact, the most important thing we can know.

I remember the final. Thirty-some years removed and I still remember it. That is just sick, isn’t it? I cannot remember where I put my glasses five minutes ago, but I can remember, verbatim, one of my responses on a college final over 30 years ago.

I studied hard for that test. As hard as anyone, I am sure. The enormity of the material was overwhelming but I had given it my all. I showed up to the exam armed with a couple hours’ sleep, two sharpened #2’s, and a cup o’ joe by now sloshing its way through my jejunum. The test was part multiple choice, part essay.

Now, notwithstanding my level of command of test material, I am a good multiple choice test taker, so I did pretty well on that portion of the exam. I remember the essay questions to be tough, but not unanticipated.

Except for one. I do not even remember the question. All I remember is that I did not know the answer and it was not one of those questions for which you could reply with a muddled-through answer, hoping for partial credit. For this question, either you knew the answer or you did not.

I did not know the answer and knew I could not muddle through one.

There is something, however, about leaving a question blank. Somehow I could not bring myself to conclude my favorite class in my favorite subject with an unanswered question.

With just minutes left, words came and in humility (and, I admit, with a smile on my face) I wrote the following response to a question for which I did not have an answer…

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it.”

That day, in addition to proving my ability to answer some questions, I admitted my inability to answer them all. Some things are just too lofty, too wonderful. I find myself agreeing with Dr. Richard Swenson, who wrote, “The body. Never presume to fully understand it--physically, spiritually, or ecclesiastically. Instead, stand in awe at the kind of God who can package atoms in such a mystical, glorious form.” (More Than Meets the Eye). I really did not expect any credit for answering a physiology question with a Bible verse that day.

And received none.

Am I Better Now?

2011-07-14T21:42:00.002-04:00

Four year-old Andrew was such a brave little boy for his doctor's visit. His mommy brought him in because of a high fever and an earache. When I walked through the exam room door, I could tell right away that he was nervous and tired, having been up much of the night. He sat on the table while I inspected his ears, nose, and throat. With a temperature of 102.6 his little body was hot to the touch. It was obvious he didn't feel well, but he remained calm while I finished by feeling his neck glands and listening to his lungs and heart. His heart beat fast from fever and nervousness. I turned and shared with his mommy that Andrew had an ear infection and that the medicine I was going to prescribe would take care of things. After answering a few of her questions, I turned to Andrew and bragged to him about what a big boy he was getting to be and that it would be important to take the medicine that his mom would be giving him. I helped him jump off the table, slapped him five, and turned to the door to leave. Mom, also proud of how Andrew did during the visit, reached down to grab his hand and Andrew reached his hand up to grab hers. And as we all left the room I heard little Andrew behind me say, "Mommy, am I better now?"

Life is hard sometimes. I struggle. I hurt. I get into trouble and I get sick. I'm exposed to the germs and the poisons and the hurts of life. And I am tempted to wonder when, or even if, I'll ever get through my struggles. Enter Doctor Jesus. What a great Physician, this Jesus! He listens intently when I describe to Him my issues and predicaments. And He has just the cure. When I get up to leave the room after my time with the Doctor, I often wonder, "Am I better now?"

Could it be that my recovery begins before I even leave the Great Physician's exam room? Is there a healing that actually begins right in the room, before even medicine is taken or treatment therapies have started, just as a result of my encounter with Christ?

When little Andrew looked up to his mommy and said, "Mommy, am I better now?" I heard her wisely and very gently say, "You sure are! But you know what? We'll give you the medicine that the doctor prescribed because that will make sure you keep getting better." Yeah," Andrew replied, "I'm just gonna get better and better."

There is a healing that begins by simply being in the presence of Jesus and spending time with Him. Sure, I'll still take the medicine that He prescribes. And I will follow His treatment plan to the end. But I must say, since my visit with Jesus, I'm better already!

Jesus knows all about our struggles.

He will guide til the day is done.

There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.

No not one. No not one!

The Greater Challenge

2011-07-13T22:59:00.000-04:00

Cut branches are set on fire
and covered with dirt to
let smolder down to charcoal

Everyone knows that the land of Haiti is pretty much barren of trees, the result of several decades of deforestation. And all who see the Haiti-Dominican Republic border from the air comment on the stark contrast between the lush green countryside of the D.R. and the brown countryside of Haiti. A land once peppered with beautiful mahogany and citrus has succumbed to decades of abuse. Very few mature trees remain, and few young trees make it to full maturity because desperate poverty drives the peasantry to cut them down to make charcoal so they can cook their food or sell it at market so they can buy food.

When I look at the disfigured land of La Gonave, I want so much to intervene and tell everyone to "Stop it! Can't you see what you're doing? Stop cutting down your trees!"

And maybe they do see it... what they're doing, I mean. I really sort of think they do know, intuitively, that the trees they cut for charcoal would be better left standing. But many starving Haitians look at a tree and see in it a way to survive the day. And surviving the day will trump ecologic conscience every time. And you really can't blame them. If I had to choose between feeding my hungry family and preserving a tree for the future good of the island, I'd cut the tree down. Every time. It's the same reason women in Zambia knowingly and willingly expose themselves to HIV by prostituting themselves so they can have money to feed their family. "If I get AID's," one woman said, "I'll die in 5 or 10 years. But if I can't feed my children, they will die in a couple of weeks."

On her way to market
to sell her charcoal.

So I'm going to plant as many trees as I can. Most of them will be fruit trees: mangoes, avocados, papayas, key limes, bananas. We'll plant some bamboo and moringa too. We expect that most folks will regard trees like these as too valuable to cut down. But the painful reality is that, unless the problems of economy and hunger and health are addressed, planting trees is like putting a bandaid over a severed artery.

Charcoal being sold at market.

When you can tell me how to feed my kids without cutting down a tree to make charcoal, well then I'll stop cutting down trees. This is the greater challenge.

Starfysh Golf Scramble

2011-07-10T18:43:00.000-04:00

Now just a few weeks away!

Friday, August 12, 2011

The Golf Club at Thornapple Pointe

Grand Rapids, MI

Golfer check in, driving range, putting practice: 10 AM - Noon

12:30 Shotgun Start

$110 includes golf, contests, and steak buffet.

Steak Buffet Awards Banquet to follow.

36 Foursome Teams maximum.

On course contests and prizes.

Hole sponsorships available.

Grab your clubs and join us for the fun and help raise money and awareness for Starfysh's work in Haiti.

For more information and to download a brochure, go to http://www.starfysh.org/images/stories/pdfs/Starfysh%20Golf%20Outing.pdf

For information on Thornapple Pointe go to www.thornapplepointe.com

Register soon. We anticipate a full event!

We Will Invest in Gardens

2011-07-09T23:38:00.002-04:00

I have always loved gardening. Don't know why, particularly, just always have. Ever since I was a little kid I have liked growing things. I even maintained a large vegetable garden all during medical school. In fact, I seriously considered pursuing horticulture as a field of study when I was in high school thinking about college, and was a biologist well before I was a doctor. I suppose it's why I talk alot about my garden and woods and hostas. It's why, too, I am excited about the prospect of reforesting LaGonave with a quarter million trees.

Another way we plan to transform La Gonave is to virtually fill it with family gardens and farms. These gardens and farms will help in so many areas: providing food for the family, a source of occupation and income. They will provide a sense of dignity and pride of ownership. They will also be beneficial to the island from an ecologic and climatologic standpoint, helping to condition hard soil and prevent runoff of the heavy rains that come. Restoring the island's once lush and dense vegetation will provide a cooling effect to the island, which today is consistently higher in temperature than the mainland.

Thanks to several generous grants of vegetable seeds, hundreds of family households have gardens today. I visited about a dozen-or-so of them last month and was energized! Vegetable gardens were springing up seemingly everywhere, and were healthy! What struck me as much as anything, though, was the obvious sense of pleasure and pride that the families took in their gardens. When we showed up to a home and asked if we could see their garden, you could tell... they were more than eager to show them off. In fact they would walk us to where their garden was and would start working in it, to show us how they worked the ground with their machetes.

It was, and is clear to me that there is something about gardens. Gardens have value beyond the dirt and seeds and even the food. Gardens are about hope and expectation. Haitians love gardens.

We will invest in gardens.

Blessings,
Steve

"Evidence has shown that for most crops the optimal farm is small in scale and that it is at this level that the most gain in terms of both sustainable productivity increases and rural poverty reduction can be achieved." United Nations Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs

Where Poison Ivy Belongs

2011-07-08T22:16:00.005-04:00

I just came in to the house after my yearly pilgrimage of traipsing out into our backyard woods to find and pull up as much poison ivy as I can. I usually stuff one or two big garbage bags full of it. I've made really good progress in getting rid of it, but it's still back there. There'll be a day when I get it all. Progress has been made and I'm good with that. Some things just take time.

Where poison ivy belongs

I sort of felt weird taking a picture of this bag of poison ivy, but hey, a guy can be proud, can't he?

A hosta straggler stopped by my house this evening, wondering if I had any left over hostas! Foolish, foolish question. We loaded a wheelbarrow of Abby's and Albomarginatae into the back of her SUV and she donated enough for us to purchase 20 more banana trees for Haiti.

We have placed an order for another thousand trees.

Trou-a-L'Eau

2011-07-07T22:50:00.000-04:00

Out there in the distance is Trou-a-L'Eau (pronounced Twa-loo), a tiny, remote village of 101 desperately-poor family households (6-10 family members each) on La Gonave's northeast shore. A place virtually untouched by the outside world. A place nearly impossible to get to by land. They drink water from a capped spring, but the water is tainted and unclean from surface contamination. They have this little school but don't have the resources or the teachers to keep it going. Where children die of preventable diseases like measles and malaria and diarrhea, and the world never hears the mournful wail of their mothers.

The people of this village don't know it, but there are people who have noticed them, and are quietly making plans to come. We'll arrive with doctors and nurses, with medicines and food, childrens books and water purifying filters and shovels and hammers and nails. And a good word that God loves them and sees them and has good news for them...

Arriving at Trou-a-L'Eau

Not About Hostas

2011-07-02T20:23:00.000-04:00

We had a steady flow of hosta lovers coming strolling through our yard today. It was fun talking hostas and Haiti. I was able to share with neighbors and friends how much I enjoyed combining my hobby of growing hostas with my passion to make a difference in Haiti. "It's not about the hostas," I said more than once. "It's about Haiti."

Tons of foot traffic mashed down my grass a bit today, and I have lots of empty holes where nice hostas once flourished. Who cares? What charges me up is that we raised awareness of the needs of Haiti a bit, and raised a boatload of money... enough to buy 730 banana plants to plant in yards and gardens of impoverished families on the island of La Gonave.

A good day's work. I'll sleep like a baby tonight.

Saturday's Goal: 300 Banana Trees

2011-06-30T21:42:00.000-04:00

My gazillions of hostas are ready for adoption. They are all healthy and have had their shots. Most are purebreeds, but I've got a few muts you can have too if you feel sorry for them.

My goal is to bring in enough money to buy 300 banana trees to give peasant families on La Gonave. Every 3 bucks will buy a food-producing, income-producing, re-producing banana tree.

A very good deal indeed.

This Saturday, July 2nd. 9 AM - 12 Noon. My house.

Help Haiti. Buy a hosta.

Kay Po

2011-06-28T23:07:00.000-04:00

Tucked away and hidden back down a narrow alley somewhere near the center of the village of Anse-a-Galets is the "Kay Po." The Poor House as it is known to the locals. In the poorest Western Hemisphere country, in one of the poorest sections of that country is this little "kay po," the poor house. Where the poorest of the poorest of the poorest live, er... exist. About 20 of them, young children to old adults cohabiting this tiny, dingy, filthy place. Many are crippled. A few of them are blind. One guy is missing a leg. One little child runs around naked. It is heartbreaking even to the most seasoned of Haiti travelers. The "house" is really two small little buildings with a total of 5 rooms... dark and dirty. The people live in a state of hunger and thirst.

I brought a team down last October/November and introduced them to the people of Kay Po and they did many things during the two weeks there (washed the black walls and painted them light yellow, poured nice smooth cement floors to replace the dirt ones, distributed clothes, supplied them with food, played with the kids, and basically just loved on them. There are many stories and memories of those two weeks, vignettes of the love of Jesus being experienced all over the place.

Here's one...
Dawn, a nurse who works in my office, gave manicures and pedicures to several of the elderly people. Their nails were so long and curled and thick and filthy (it's not like they had water to wash with). She especially "took" to an old woman called Lizena. She moved slowly and hunched over a bit. She could see some, but you could tell she had catarracts and couldn't see all that well. Dawn spent a lot of time with Lizena, talking sweet to her. She soaked and scrubbed and washed Lizena's hands and feet, then applied a beautiful polish to them.

By late in our time there, most of the others in the kay po had received clothes that we had brought down, but for some reason, Lizena hadn't gotten anything yet and Dawn had intended to find her something before we left for home. Problem was... Hurricane Tomas decided to pay a visit and we had to high-tail it home a day early (a harrowing story I'll share another time), and Lizena got nothing.

This has bothered Dawn ever since. So when she found out I was going down a few weeks ago, Dawn found a nice blue dress she thought Lizena would like and asked if I'd mind going down to the kay po and find Lizena and give her the dress.

The pictures tell the story. Click on them to get a better look. See how beautiful Lizena is.

There are not many people on this earth that know about kay po. But I do, and Dawn does, and a few others. When I stopped by a couple weeks ago they had no food. Except for a half wheelbarrow of half-rotted mangoes they had no food, because I checked. So I did what I felt Jesus might do in that situation. I bought them some rice and beans and oil and charcoal to cook it with. Totaled about a hundred bucks and I calculated it would last them two weeks. Good news: that was a pretty good way to spend a hundred dollars. Bad news: that was about two weeks ago.

Kay Po would be such a great starfish.

Hostas For Haiti

2011-06-27T19:10:00.000-04:00

HOSTAS

FOR

HAITI

When: THIS Saturday, July 2nd
9 AM - 12 Noon

Where: Our house... 3725 Oak Creek Ct. SE Grand Rapids

Why:
1. My wife says we have way too many hostas (this, friends, is simply not true).
2. All proceeds will go to help us plant banana trees in Haiti. Every $3 brought in will plant a banana tree which will produce a 100 pound bunch of bananas in just 18 months AND will reproduce itself (this, friends is absolutely true).
3. Hostas are cool and you need one.

My goal is to raise enough money to plant 300 banana trees in the yards and gardens of peasant Haitian families. Please come to Hostas for Haiti and help me reach my goal.

Hosta La Vista.
Steve
PS Pass this invite along to your friends. Believe me, I've got plenty of hostas to go around.

The Unglamorous Dirty Work

2011-06-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

I spent awhile in the cholera hospital last week. There were about a dozen patients being cared for at the time. Whatever you do, don't get cholera. It's awful.

So is typhoid fever, come to think of it. Typhoid has been endemic in Haiti ever since I've been going there. It's pretty awful too.

Come to think of it, diarrhea from intestinal parasites is endemic too. About one of every three children is believed to be infected at any given time.

Infectious diarrhea is the #1 cause of illness and death on La Gonave. Not malaria. Not TB. Not HIV/AIDS. In Haiti, diarrhea kills more than any one of these diseases.

I have spoken passionately in the past about the need to bring clean (and close) water to every village on the island. And we work to that end. But also critical to improving the overall health and dignity of La Gonave is to establish a culture where sanitation and hygeine are held in high importance by the people who live there.

Sadly, we have discovered that fewer than 10% of the households on the island have a latrine, a fact which factors into why the surface springs (from which so many islanders draw their water) are tainted with disease-causing microorganisms.

One of our visions for the island is to see the day when every home has a good working latrine. The deal we are making with each household is that, if they will dig a good, deep pit, we will provide them with enough cement (two bags, 20 bucks worth) to build a good base and toilet over it. They take care of the rest, then, erecting whatever shelter/privacy they can from the materials they have.

It's working. We have our eyes on one community (about a hundred family households) that is on track to have 100% latrine use by its citizens by the end of this year.

We must not avoid the unglamorous dirty work in our business of delivering dignity and hope.

Kindness is Always Win-Win

2011-06-25T08:37:00.000-04:00

Not too long ago, after a few days off, I arrived to my desk to find a large ziploc bag full of knitted infant hats that one of my patients had dropped off for me to take to Haiti the next time I went. Her knitting group had made them. So of course, in packing last week, I squeezed the bag into my luggage among all the banana plants, et.al.

I delivered the goods last week to a hospital chock full of newborn babies with no hats. I called Diane yesterday to thank her and tell her the hats were delivered. I emailed her a few pics (seen here). Here was her response...

"Dr. Edmondson,
Thank you so much for sending the beautiful pictures. I am so excited to be able to show my knitting students the babies that will wear our hats. If there is anything else that the hospitals could use please let me know. I started teaching this bunch of gals last October thinking I would take the Summer off and we are having such a good time knitting and have grown to be such good friends that they begged me to continue all Summer too. It will make everyone's day to see where we can help someone else with our new hobby. Thank you again.
Diane

Kindness is always win-win. Always.

Not an Amoeba Anymore

2011-06-24T21:39:00.004-04:00

I did an interview with a local newspaper yesterday and the reporter asked me about what I thought the most significant accomplishment of our first year was. I had to think about it for a minute. Thoughtful questions demand no less than thoughtful answers.

Lots of things raced through my head: Formation. Incorporation. Bylaws. 501(c)3. Website. Launch. Raised funds. Feeding. Cholera hospital support. Latrines. Water filters. Container shipments. All good. All significant.

I have to say, though, and the answer I gave the reporter was that the most significant accomplishment of our first year was the beautiful network of people and organizations that God has brought together (and continues to do so). It has been amazing to witness the complexification of this once-unicellular embryo called Starfysh. A beautiful and amazing ontogenic development of a fetus. The development of specialized parts that make us better than the amoeba we started out as.

Hooray! I'm not an amoeba anymore! In fact, I am not I anymore. I have become us. And that's better. God has created us for community. Even in going about doing good, we is better than me.

Another partnership we are establishing is with a micro-loan bank called Fonkoze. I visited with the local branch director while in Haiti last week, and we will be collaborating in offering small loans to would-be business owners. Micro-finance is widely-regarded as the most important economic development model for transforming economies in the Third World.

In the picture, the woman on my right is the Fonkoze director. I'm pretty sure the guy on my left was just there to make sure my deposit slip was made out correctly.

Restavek

2011-06-23T18:38:00.001-04:00

I attended a Rotary meeting in Lowell, MI yesterday, as a guest of my good friend and colleague, Dr. Jim Lang. I was seated next to Miss Michigan Katie LaRoche with whom, over meatball stroganoff, I had a very interesting discussion about her platform of human trafficking. She was there as the guest speaker for the hour, giving an articulate and passionate talk about the fact that trafficking is not something that is just a problem in other parts of the world, but that it's also a problem right here in the USA.

Trafficking is a problem in Haiti, too. Parents, desperate to offer their young children anything but the life they know, are willing to give their children to evil people when they're told that they their kids will be able to get an education and will have a better life. Neither is true. Nearly always these children, "restaveks" they are called in Haiti, are sold as a commodity, to be used as child slaves... and sometimes as prostitutes. Google "restavek" or watch this 7 minute YouTube "Restaveks: Child Slaves of Haiti" for an idea of what I'm talking about. It's worth the 7 minutes.

So Encouraged

2011-06-22T23:08:00.000-04:00

I visited this well last October (top picture) to learn that it was broken, and people in the village were walking 4-5 miles round trip to fetch water from a spring down in a ravine (which means they had to walk UP the ravine with their full 5-gallon buckets of water). Since that time the village assembled a water/well committee who, with the help of a facilitator, mapped out a plan not only to get the well fixed, but to address the importance of clean water in a more holistic way... i.e. strongly encouraging each home have a good latrine, the absolute importance of drawing water into clean buckets, etc. They built a nice enclosure and hired a well guard.

People often ask if I am seeing signs of improvement in Haiti. And I honestly can say yes, and this example of community ownership and responsibility is one of those signs. I am so encouraged by stories like this, and get excited that we can be a part of this transformation process.

Post #200

2011-06-21T20:53:00.000-04:00

Another thing on my to-do list in Haiti last week was to visit with the families in whose homes we placed biosand water filters last October.

I wanted to know a couple things...
1) were they functioning well and without problems? Yes, in every case.
2)were they being used religiously to purify the family's water? Yes, in every case.
3) Had there been any cases of diarrheal illness in the household? No, in every case.

The 5 people in the bottom pic all have a filter in their home. I was touched by the thankfulness and joy they expressed when I asked them how they liked their filters.

OK, I'm sold. We will work hard to place one of these units in every household of at least one village this year. The way I figure it, $115 to keep a family healthy for 10 years is a pretty good deal.

The analytics on blogger tells me this is my 200th post since the earthquake. Wow.

A Good Deal All Around

2011-06-20T22:39:00.040-04:00

We took the first baby step this past week in our vision to plant trees and banana plants on the sun-parched island of La Gonave. We delivered 62 banana plants (I told you baby steps) to the island where they will be grown in gallon pots to one-to-two foot-high plants before they are distributed to families to plant in their yards.

The man with the box is Jean Tinne who we have hired to care for the plants. He also oversees our guest house security. His eyes really lit up when we lifted this box of young plants out of the boat.

Check out the soil in the third picture. These bananas are just a few months old. The last pic shows what the bananas will look like after just 18 months. What's more, each plant will produce sucker offshoots at the base of the plant that can be split and planted, and the process of growing, producing fruit, and reproducing is repeated.

Sue and I decided that all the money we take in at our Hostas For Haiti sale (July 2nd, 9AM - 12Noon) will go to buy bananas plants Every $3 in proceeds of our sale will provide a banana plant to a peasant family in Haiti. Plus, you get a great hosta for your yard.

A good deal all around.

Shameless Promoter

2011-06-19T22:48:00.012-04:00

Got back early this afternoon from Haiti. Much accomplished. They had steaks on the grill waiting for me. We drank Dad's Root Beer (Jon's idea), Sue got me a great "Plays in the Dirt" t-shirt (I already have the hat), and Katie got me this great Survivor hat. "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast." I have it on as I type. (I would so win that game).

Having just returned from Haiti, and with several awareness events coming up, I really have alot to blog about and lots of cool pictures to share. I'll keep this one short, as it's getting late and I'm pretty travel-weary.

I really hope you will put these events on your calendar and help me promote them. They're fun things really meant to bring exposure to Starfysh and what we're trying to do for the people of La Gonave.

Saturday, July 2nd 9 AM - 12 Noon Hostas for Haiti. Come on over to my house and take some of my gazillions of Hostas off my hands. All profits go to help our work in Haiti.

Friday, August 12th First Annual Starfysh Golf Scramble 12:30 Shotgun Start Venue: The Golf Club at Thornapple Pointe, Grand Rapids Cost $110 per person which includes a great awards banquet at 6PM there at the course. Lots of fun, contests, prizes. Get up a foursome and join us! Email me if you're interested steve@starfysh.org We'll have a registration brochure on the site www.starfysh.org later this week.

Saturday, August 27th Grand Rapids 5K Mud Run. Join Team Starfysh as we raise awareness of our efforts to transform an island. Gather up some friends and sign up for the craziness ( www.grandrapidsmudrun.com ). Once you register, let us know how many of your friends are going, and all your names, so we get enough t-shirts. This event will fill up, so register early!

Such a shameless promoter, I am.

Focus

2011-06-18T21:00:00.002-04:00

I love little kids who wear glasses. I don't know why, necessarily, but kids in glasses just have this endearing look. I met this young school boy up in the mountain village of Fontina a few days ago. And of course, I had to get his picture. His glasses were huge on him and the missing right earpiece was replaced by a stick. But they worked for him. They help his eyes focus.

"Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent." Philippians 4:8 NLB

Hostas for Haiti

2011-06-12T08:48:00.003-04:00

Getting ready for "Hostas for Haiti" on Saturday, July 2nd.

I'll be in Haiti again this week, with a long to-do list. A couple months ago I spent a week with the folks developing water systems in Haiti. This time I'll travel with yet another development worker to more rural villages on La Gonave. Learning, learning, learning. I'll meet with the principal of the school where we had intended to feed kids this past year (had our supplies not been held up in customs for seven months). I'll be at the hospital, meet with Anse-a-Galet's village mayor, and connect with the director of a local micro-loan bank. I'll deliver broods of chickens to several families, inspect some of the water filtration systems we've placed during previous trips down, deliver the first installment of banana plants, and look at some of the household latrines we are funding the construction of.

Stacy Oldenberg will be going with me. He will be leading the team of teachers going down to the island in October and he is paving the way for that. Very exciting stuff. More about that later.

I am resolved to solve the communication piece. Communicating to you directly from these rural villages will be a big step for me. I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT. As of today, I am on Twitter (Lord help us all) and will put it to the test in Haiti this week. I'll also try to blog from down there.

Upcoming Starfysh fundraising/awareness events. Mark your calendars!...

Saturday, July 2nd 9AM-Noon - Hostas for Haiti. Buy hostas right out of my yard (believe me, I've got plenty). All hosta sale proceeds go to help us do very cool things in Haiti.

Friday, August 12th - 1st Annual Starfysh Golf Scramble and Banquet Thorneapple Pointe Golf Course. Tee Off Shotgun Start 12:30, Awards Banquet 6PM. Great Prizes. Great Fun. Put together a foursome and join us!

Saturday, August 27th - Grand Rapids Mud Run. A 5-K run (walk, crawl). Join me and Team Starfysh as we have fun and raise awareness for Starfysh and the needs in Haiti.

More from Haiti,
Steve

Mallet Anesthesia

2011-06-01T10:48:00.017-04:00

The anesthesia machine at our mission hospital has bitten the dust and we need to replace it. Without it, all we have is spinal block anesthesia, which suffices for below-the-belt surgeries (C-Sections, hernias, and lower extremity surgeries, and the like) but we need general anesthesia for pretty much everything else. International Aid has a refurbished unit for us (pictured here) for $3,000. The other option would be to get a $20 mallet, which patients do not care for. Most mallet anesthesia patients wake up with zinger headaches.

Any donations, of course, are tax-deductible. You can send your gift in the mail or give electronically via PayPal. Make checks payable to Starfysh. I'll keep you posted on progress of this little effort.

Blessings,

Steve