Kentucky and Chicago

So we're visiting my sister and Dad and other family here in Owensboro, Kentucky. We flew here about a week and a half ago...



In Kentucky, you eat...good food. This is from a place called Culver's. Home of the famous "Butter Burger". BUTTER BURGER! A Burger with butter. Amie had the pot roast sandwich there...



My Dad is doing ok. He has a dementing illness kind of like Alzheimer's. He doesn't talk very much but it seems he has genuinely enjoyed being with the family as we gather every few days. He watches the kids play and laughs with them and listens to our stories. He is definitely offering his presence and that is very precious to us.



Did I mention that we eat here...this is my Sister and Brother-in-law's church. They have a community soup kitchen every Wednesday. They feed their neighbors good food and offer dignity and a welcoming environment...



This past weekend, my Sister lent us her car and we drove to Chicago to Jesus People, USA for our friend's wedding. Jesus People is like being in one of the elf communities in the Lord of the Rings...you don't quite know how they do anything but it seems to work. Over 500 people all living together in Christian community and care. This is the only shot I got of the place but it kinda describes it very well. This is a shot in the cafeteria of a young guy praying with and caring for a disabled man before the church service on Sunday morning in the cafeteria. You see people of every different kind living, celebrating and working together. It's a beautiful place and a, well, magical wedding.



We went to see the bean. If you don't know about the bean then there's not much to say...except, here's the bean..






Did I mention that we've been eating well on this trip? After the bean, we miraculously found a free parking space one half a block from the miracle mile on Michigan Ave in Downtown Chicago! We wandered looking for FAO Schwarz (which is closed...booo) but stumbled around the corner here where they were just about to open for lunch...



Have you eaten here?! Oh my. Oh wow...





So now we're back in Kentucky...or as Stella calls it "To-tucky". Oh, on our way back we ate here...



...we've been doing that a lot. And we'll while away our last few days being with Dad and participating in church life here. We'll probably eat more and have some campfires and enjoy the fall. Oh yeah, Owensboro has bugs. Really big bugs. They are cool. For more pics from our YWAM work back home and our recent team we hosted from Canada...GLONK HERE! Leave a comment or drop me a line if you can.

I can't watch Monsters Inc. without crying...

Phone pictures

Some snap shots from my phone along the way...



This is the most recent of Stella...right before her ear tube surgery. She did great and is all ready for her trip to Kentucky. She won't stop talking about it..."Daddy, I fly with you to 'tucky?!"



This is Arlie and Dave. Dave was on a team we just hosted from Stanley Park Church in Kitchener, Ontario; Canada and Arlie is from his Hobo shack. Arlie has on a Canada hat and Dave is sporting a Modesto hat. They are both helping to feed to folks of South 9th St. a hot meal.



This is the blue print sketch of our new (to us) church building. On the corner of Hadden and Trask in Modesto, this little church was built for a Wesleyan congregation and has been empty for over 4 years. The Canadian team helped us with a lot of clean up in the yard and inside the building. There is quite a buzz in the neighborhood about the new church that's coming. We're really excited!



And finally for now...if you ever want to know what kind of town Modesto is...this pretty much sums it up. Our portraits of success case in the airport to greet visitors is empty.

Wanna see a few more phone pictures? Go to our YWAM Modesto Blog for a few more.

Be like Momo

This is a picture of my grandparents. We called them Momo and Popo. Popo was a rigger for Louisville Gas and Electric Company. Momo was his wife. They were happy. They were loving. They lived for their family. They grew a huge garden and shared it with their church. They worshiped in simplicity. They rose early and worked hard all day. They canned food for the winter. Popo watered his garden from the rain barrel...by hand (well into his eighties). They rarely complained and always laughed.

I've especially been thinking of Momo lately. She refused to talk politics. She refused to let you know who she voted for on election day. She went to the polls, cast her vote and didn't feel the need to talk about it.

In so many ways, we should all be more like Momo.

Panda Express...foreboding

Life has been a bit nuts lately. This was the last thing I needed.

Some Whitler highlights...

Howdy folks, I got some blog ideas in the works but I thought it'd be nice to show a few pictures and tell a few stories. Here we go...first the kids...



Sam recently finished his Aikido lessons. He did great. He was quite intent on getting the moves just right. Aikido is a martial art that teaches how to defuse a threatening situation. It requires focus and precise movement. Sam grew a lot in these areas and is still practicing. Of course, Josh and I are the only ones that really attack him...so..

Josh. Are pictures really worth a thousand words? ...cause this pretty much describes Josh these days...



Lego and reading. That's it. By the way, Josh is reading the book series that created the fantasy geek that I am today. It's a great little "tip of the hat to Narnia" type series called "the Archives of Antropos" I loved them and it's fun to see him loving them too.

And Stella...A friend of Aaron's stayed with us for a bit (hi Christine!) and Stella loved her and her clothes...



There's not much more to say.

Last week we had a great BBQ on south 9th St. But the only pictures I got were of Arley making his now famous "Burgerdog"





I didn't eat one, I promise.

This past Saturday, we took our kids club out to the park at Knights Ferry, a little community that was built in the 1800's. The river gorge is beautiful and the kids really enjoyed swimming, hiking and frog hunting. I gave the girls my camera and this is what they came up with...





This is the longest covered bridge in California! Here's the kids in front of "Shrek's Shack"



Frogs and snakes and, er, shoes beware!





For several reasons, this is one of my most favorite graffitis ever...



And oh, yeah, recently, for arts sake, I grew a beard that was supposed to become a mustache for a little funny video we were going to try to make. Here's what the world is missing by me not having a mustache. I think this is number 1 on the list of top things that shouldn't be...



Sorry. See you soon!

Real Quick

Alright, I haven't blogged in a while (who reads this anyway?) but, I thought I'd add this just so you know...Jack in the Box now serves fried nuggets of Macaroni and Cheese. Hmm. They're not bad. Hopefully more depth and inspiration come soon.

Failure

I found this at Ben's blog...

Jesus' love

"He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.

They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.

He said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward!"

And He said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent.

After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." -Mark 3

We don't know a lot about love and how it operates. I've been thinking about love lately. A post by my friend Beth and another from Mary have helped me too. Does love mean you overlook everything and be 'nice'? Does it mean you pick every battle? How do you "sin not" in your anger?

This story about Jesus gives me a clue. He was angry and grieved. This was not a slight on Jesus' personal pride. Jesus was not angry for his own sake. Ever secure, he was grieved and angry on their behalf.

Jesus grieved over how locked in and stubborn they were and with authority (not rebellion) he acted and healing came. Jesus' pro-active authority shut the mouths of his accusers.

There is a time to be angry, reasons to grieve - but complaint and rebellion do not bring healing, love and action do.

The county fair.

We've been here for 7 years this summer. We've never been to the county fair. So, when we heard about "kids get in free night" and "free 'Raven Simone'" night all in the same night...hey, why not. Let's get the ball rolling with some variations on a theme...







And these...when we saw these we could not resist paying waaaaaaaaaaay too much for them. They were not as good as they look...do they look good? I think the fair food smell kinda gets in when you're surrounded with it and well, takes over and makes you do something crazy. Like...buy these fries...



They were VERY greasy. Very. They were wet...soaking with grease. We threw them away before they were done. If you know the Whitlers...that's quite a thing. And then there was Raven. The doors opened at 5 for the 8:30pm show. The stadium was packed at 5. We didn't really make it in. Josh and I squeezed in to standing room. Here she is saying good night...or not...I can't get the sound to work...well, you can kinda see her just like we kinda saw her...



And finally...the carosel...you can imagine the music I guess...



The fair...I dunno...it's kind of like, pay money to get in and spend money. But we took our dinner and only spent a little bit and we saw Raven and got sick on fries and had some fun...so, yeah. The fair. The end.

I keep finding cool quotes...

"The job of the peacemaker is to stop war, to purify the world, to get it saved from poverty and riches, to heal the sick, to comfort the sad, to wake up those who have not yet found God, to create joy and beauty wherever you go, to find God in everything and in everyone."

- Muriel Lester
(1884-1968)

"I don't deny...that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say...it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, to remind men that they are not dead yet."

—G.K. Chesterton

Pictures from my day

This is the inside of Viva Taco...it is a bus that is a Mexican restaurant. This is (left to right) Arlie, Jimmy's Dad, Pastor Sustar, Sylvester (owner and proprietor and cooking at the moment), John and Jimmy. We love the bus. The bus is good. The bus is here. It was good to be at the bus again. I would suggest the chicken burrito supreme...hot, freshly made and a quality like no other taco truck I've encountered (for my non-Californian readers, we get the best tacos from establishments that have 4 wheels and motors). This is an good picture from my day. Here's another taken by Joseph, the "super" at the Budget Inn on S. 9th St...



These were pretty fun and easy to be in. There are others.

There was the intense warfare of getting relationships right. There was prayer at the 9th street bridge. There was the picture of friends walking into one of the darkest, most depraved places I know of and calling for God's Kingdom to come and His will to be done. A picture of mercy as I saw people giving dignity to a broken man. I was in a picture of a family wracked by sickness and sadness. My mind took a snap shot of merciful hands asking for healing. A picture of hope super-imposed. Now an image of woundedness and grief...of a life never affirmed by a mother or father and even now a greater Father weighing in, filling up, setting free. On to, a circle of friends handing the dead parts over to Jesus. It is harder than it looks in the pictures. Next a scene of obligations fulfilled and letting go. Finally, my family with ice cream and laughter.

And in all of these pictures from today, there is a theme, a thread that links them all together. I don't know how these all fit into the same album but I close the cover on my day and the simple label on the front says, "Joy".

A quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. God’s command is enough and your faith in him to sustain you. Then at last freedom will welcome your spirit amid great rejoicing."

People are awesome!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Back on the ole horse

It's been a while since I've like, blog blogged so I thought I'd try something I've been thinking about for some time. In our garage is a box and several bags chock full of old, unorganized photos. Remember, you know, like an actual picture that you can hold in your hand? Well, I thought I'd go out there, stick my hand in one of the bags and what ever photo came out, I'd write about it...so here it is...



This is Michael...but he wanted us to use the french pronuciation of Mi-kai-el so we did. He was in Dunham, Quebec working with Youth With A Mission. Or Jenesse en Mission in French...in English it's YWAM, very blunt and awkward. In French, it's JEM which also convieniently means "love". ahhhhh. Michael was working there as a part of a language study school from England. As a requirement, he had to spend six months or a year (I can't remember which) in a French speaking nation. He was quite fluent. I remember him thinking the Quebec version of the language to be quirky and endearing. It's all French to me.

I was in Dunham also working with YWAM from the base in Cambridge, Ontario. In a story much too long to go into, we had to run our Discipleship Training School at a different location and the Dunham house was the closest and also available at the last minute. So here we came, 40 or so loud anglo-phones crashing in on a small, french YWAM base in a tiny village in Quebec about 7 miles from the Vermont border...in January. Our hosts were very gracious, it was extremly cold (we had to buy a heater to place on our engine block so our car would start in the morning) and the food was...uh...improvised. We had brought with us a large donation of frozen pasta dishes like tortellini and ravioli all of which we just kept outside. It stayed frozen no problem.

I did not keep in touch with Michael. He stayed in Dunham for a while after we were all gone. But I do remember a conversation I had with him. I remember it every once in a while. He was deciding whether to do his Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM there. We were talking about the way we look to programs to fix us rather than looking to God. He had a very humble view. He told me that he didn't expect the DTS to change him completely but that it was just another season. An extra focused season maybe but one that would come to an end. His goal was to stay on the path toward God no matter what.

Seeing this picture today made me think of the four students from my church now, here in California, that are headed off to YWAM schools this Fall. Seasons come and go. I remember the first time James and Julie came to our youth group...they were just 13 years old. They graduated this year and are both off to YWAM. I'm very proud of them. They are already on that path and getting ready for an intensified season.

I remember when it was me. While those decisions actually did change the coarse of my life,it didn't happen the way I thought it would. For the most part, there has not been the big and the wonderful. It has been the small and the faithful that has made all the difference...friendship, simplicity and good work. Let's stay on the path.

New Podcast

Listen to a new message from Chris about ministry opportunity and how you can activate and get involved...Glonk here.

Sam's B-day blow up

This (along with Lasagna) is the only thing Sam asked for for his birthday...

Jump!

For Sam's birthday, we had a pool party and the dream we've had for 4 years has come to fruition. I give you...Jump!...

New Thailand audio report

Hey everybody, for an audio report from Jimmy and Aaron about their recent trip to Thailand...Glonk here!