My Date with Cameron

Clear View from the Cable Cars
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.

It's family blogging night. So I'm doing a bit of blogging too. For awhile now, on Sunday's we've really enjoyed observing a Sabbath. Reading and reflecting. Realizing that even if work isn't done, the earth will keep spinning and we're not as important as we'd like to be. Usually before a dinner of whatever is leftover in the fridge, we have the kids blog about their week. Then we turn the air conditioner in my room and we read to one another. Jim is gone tonight so we won't get the favourite part of this tradition. He reads to us from James Herriott's DOG STORIES.

Jim is gone this week to Chiang Mai, Thailand to help our colleagues Keith & Lori Webb in a week long Coaching Training. It's a first time through this and Keith has been working really hard at putting coaching (his passion) into a format for training ministry people. He's pretty happy that's it's finally happening.

I'm holding down the fort here in Singapore. The Webb children live downstairs, but they've got a very capable helper, so for me it just means a few extra trips driving to school (no carpool partner!) and helping out in case of an emergency.

These days I have a full time referee job between my two boys. I told them, upon their first altercation (over a nerf gun war) that I'd decided that we are going to practice pacifism for awhile this week. No toy guns, no gaming that includes weapons, no warfare of anykind. I'm so cruel (but I'll be they start getting along better!)

Playtime @ the Creasmans

LOTR Battles in Singapore
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.

Includes costumes, weapons, and cameras. Tyler had been planning a Lord of the Rings adventure. They did mock battles and played capture the flag in character. Hilarious fun.

What's the POINT?

Driving down the road last Tuesday praying for the 4 year old son of a new friend here who'd had open heart surgery that morning. I had peace. Assurance. The kid was going to make it. I told my firend Lori,

"If that kid dies, then my faith in being able to trust that I can "hear from God" dies with him."

The little boy was in Sunday School 5 days later! 5 days later!!!

But here I am middle of the next week.
I'm off to teach the kids drama club in an hour. Trying to pull myself together.
I started crying last night while i was praying with Cameron for another little child at bedtime. I haven't been able to stop crying for very long. Unless I'm taking a nap. All day today.
I'm a wreck.
It's not even the right time of the month to be this hopeless.
And I've been taking Evening Primrose twice a day.

My newlywed friends' premature baby died this morning.
Born at 5 months. She survived about a week. Born this early she had only a 50% chance of surviving, and then for what kind of a life? A life of special needs,
I kept begging God to be merciful. Trusting he knows best, but whatever he was going to do, if that tiny little girl was going to die, would he just be merciful and end her suffering? He did.

We're still hurting. And will be for quite awhile.
Jim and I will be the only non-family at the cremation in 4 hours.
We were also the only non-family to witness the couple's sacred marriage vows only 5 weeks ago.

I'm reading a great book called VELVET ELVIS by a young pastor named Rob Bell.
Where I am in the middle of this book is good for me today.
Chapter six "NEW" is Helping answer my questions of

"WHAT'S THE POINT? If heaven is where he makes all things new and we live the way it's supposed to be why don't we all just drink the spiked kool-aid today?"

My mantra of late has been "Hang on till heaven." No one's been able to really give me an answer. Oh, that's just Kimberly being dramatic.

Here's a good section from the book about being REMADE:

"I am not who I was.
I am a new creation.
I am "in Christ".
When God looks at me, God sees Christ, because I'm "in" him.
God's view of me is Christ.
And Christ is perfect.
This is why Paul goes on to say, "therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved..."
Did you catch that word in the middle?
Holy.
Not "going to be holy someday". Not "wouldn't it be nice if you were holy, but instead you're a mess". But "holy".
Holy means pure, without blemish, unstained.
In these passages we're being told who we are, now.
The issue then isn't my beating myself up over all the things I am not doing or the things I keep doing poorly; the issue is my learning who this person is who God keeps insisting I already am.
There is this person who we already are in God's eyes. And we are learning to live like it is true.
This is an issue of identity. It is letting what God says about us shape what we believe about ourselves. This is why shame has no place whatsoever in the Christian experience. It is simply against all that Jesus is for. As the writer to the Romans put it, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
None.
No shame.
No list of what is being held against us.
No record of wrongs.
Bringing it up is pointless.
Beating myself up is pointless.
Beating others up about who and what they are not is going the wrong direction. It is working against the purposes of God. God is not interested in shaming people; God wants people to see who they really are.
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okay i got carried away on that point. It's good!
But the best POINTS to speak to my WHAT's THE POINT question is the next section:

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We can bring heaven to earth; we can bring hell to earth.
For Jesus, heaven and hell were present realities. Ways of living we can enter into here and now. He talked very little of the life beyond this one because he understood that the life beyond this one is a continuation of the kinds of choices we make here and now.
For Jesus, the question wasn't, how do I get into heaven" but how do I bring heaven here?
The question wasn't, how do I get in there? But how do I get there, here?
Whedn people use the word hell, what do they mean? they mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter --they are all hell on earth.

Jesus' desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth.

True spirituality then is not about escaping this world to some other place where we will be forever. A Christian is not someone who expects to spend forever in heaven there. A Christian is someone who anticipates spending forever here, in a new heaven that comes to earth.

The goal isn't escaping this world but making this word the kind of place God can come to. And God is remaking us into the kind of people who can do this kind of work.

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ah. gotta go see if I can bring a little heaven on earth to a bunch of cute healthy drama kids who did a great job last friday at International Night.

Someone in Need Needs...

Here's a good list from some CRM staff in South Africa who had a crisis recently. Here's their list of what they learned by being on the receiving end of people's care when they were needy.

1. Small acts of kindness make a big difference – A hug, a cup of tea, an offer to help, a listening ear, a phone call, a meal provided, a few simple words of care and concern or a shoulder to cry on, can speak volumes to those who are hurting.

2. Power in your presence – Whether it’s coming over just to be with us, or stopping by to see how things are going, there is tremendous power in the presence of those who truly care. 

3. Words of understanding – It’s amazing what a little understanding will do for the human heart. We received much comfort from the three simple words “I’m so sorry.” Identification with the pain of others is like a healing balm for the heart. 

Sarah & Roy's Medieval Wedding

Sarah & Roy's Medieval Wedding
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.

WHAT WE DO AND WHY Letter to a Kindergarten Sunday School Class

There are lots of Christians in America and lots of very good leaders. We liked living in America, but other countries in the world don't have as many Christians. About the time your mom and dad were little kids, God did something amazing here. Thousands and Thousands of people became Christians in Singapore. Their mommies and daddies were not Christians. They were Buddhist mostly. Now there are so many Christians but they don't have many older Christians to help them. We went to Singapore to be helpers of the younger Christians and their churches. If we help them do a better job leading and telling about Jesus, God’s son (and his love for us), more people will find out the Truth, and want to live following God!


Singapore is one of the smallest countries on the other side of the world and is only 42 years old. People say America is a young country and it is over 200 years old! So Singapore is like a kindergarten country compared to many other older countries around the world.


The new Christians in Singapore and their pastors are excited and want to please God. They all want to share with the world about Jesus. But like younger kids, they need someone to help them learn. Singaporeans work very, very hard and the leaders like to be bossy and tell everyone what to do. Pastor Creasman helps them learn how to stay close to Jesus, be an encouraging leader, listen to God, and not work so hard so they can have time for their families.


Pastor Creasman's job is to be a teacher and encouraging friend to pastors and missionaries. He's like a "pastor to pastors." Most of his friends are Singaporean and their jobs are working in churches or starting churches, but some of them are from other countries and are running big companies.


Singaporeans are mostly Chinese and speak Chinese. There are more Chinese Christians here than in any other country outside China! Now, China is the largest country in the world. We believe that someday soon China will be like Singapore: God has been at work in that country and a lot of the people there are becoming Christians. Mr. Creasman prays that God blesses the work he's doing now with leaders in Singapore; then the Chinese speaking Singaporean Christians will be big helpers in China!


Mrs. Creasman also loves serving God as her job in Singapore. She is a lot like your mom. She drives her kids to school. Tyier is 13 and Cameron is 9. She helps the kids with homework & chores. She also does work besides her mom job too. She teaches drama at the boys’ school. She also teaches drama to grown up Christians in a Bible School. God helps Mrs. Creasman make friends with lots of actors. She helps them learn that Jesus can be their Saviour and friend, or that they can grow closer to the Creator and know God more. Some of these actors she meets with every week to pray or learn together. Some of these friends she will come along side when they are having problems and are feeling sad.


The Creasmans have a lot of guests in their home! A lot of praying, and encouraging, and studying, and laughing goes on in their home with all kinds of VERY different and interesting people! They wish you could come to Singapore and be a guest too!