Three Cheers for Dom and Amy, honest and good citizens of Tynemouth (I think...)

Sunday afternoon, I lost my wallet at a Metro station while Lorah was dragging me around the yellow line [sarcasm intended]. We turned around and went back to the station we got on at, thinking that I may have dropped it while we were sitting on this bench waiting for the train. When we got back, it was already gone. Thankfully, the awesome Dom and incredible Amy spotted the estranged wallet and googled my name. Some of you may think that's not too much effort to go through, but google my name and you'll find out that this blog isn't exactly the first thing that comes up... sincere dedication must have been present to make the return a success. So here's to Dom and Amy, the most awesome strangers I know!



P.S. Lorah and I are taking Dom and Amy out for dinner the first chance we get, but don't tell them yet, it's a surprise.

Disclaimer: Neither Lorah or I smile like this on normal occasions. However, we find it appropriate on some occasions to look rather silly.

Kevin

I know I usually post a fair amount of pictures, but I don't think that this one will have too many (if any). This blog is about three weeks behind the actual events in my life, but I'm going to try to put for a good effort to change that.

A couple of weeks ago, Lorah and I went to Newcastle for dinner. Actually in was New Year's Eve and our intention was to see the festivities. We got off the Metro (that's the train system around Newcastle, it's about the equivalent to the Long Island Rail Road) and went to find out where the show was. Unfortunately, it had been canceled earlier that day due to high winds. Quick note: in Newcastle, the Metro stops early on New Year's Eve. Cabs also charge a double rate. And the fireworks are at six in the evening, not midnight. Don't ask, I don't know. We just made it an early night...

Once we discovered that the fireworks were canceled, we decided to head to the river to eat. On the way over down, we ran into a guy named Kevin. Kevin had some obvious problems. Some probably drug induced. He asked for a few pounds to get a train ticket so he could make it home. There must me millions of people in the world in his situation. I know that giving him a couple of pounds may have enabled him to get another fix or whatever, but I really felt like it was the right thing to do. We talked to him about who he was, his life, family, gave him a few pounds and prayed with him. When we walked off, I felt kind of sad. Hopeless, actually. I felt like there was really nothing that I could do, actually nothing that anyone could do to help the people like Kevin.

It's hard when you know their names and you know their stories. It's hard because you can't forget that they're real people. Not made up. Not characters in some story. They're real. I know Kevin's name. I know his story. I know his daughter's name. Malorie. I know that he loves Malorie's mother, but that he doesn't know how to love her. I know that, no matter how much I know about Kevin, that I can't do anything to help him myself. Even if I could afford to give him everything that this world has to offer, I couldn't give him anything on my own that would be of any actual, real, lasting help.

I also know that the only thing in the whole world Kevin needs is love. He's not starving. He doesn't have some terminal illness that requires an expensive operation or a miracle. He needs someone to love him. I can't give him what he needs by myself, but God can give him what he needs through me, and through other people that he meets.

I wonder how many other "Christian" people Kevin knows, or sees everyday that don't show him the slightest courtesy, much less Christ's love.

What is it with that?

Who are we to hold back the gift that we've been given. The grace extend to me and to you, is it to end with us? What could be more unfair. What could be more contradictory to the nature of Christ?

I'm not saying that we need to give all of our money away. In fact, please don't. I don't want Kevin to be comfortable or to have what he wants. I want him to have exactly what he needs. What he needs is love. A lot of times, the best way to show people love is to spend time with them. Maybe you can only spend a few minutes, like we did with Kevin, or maybe you can build a lasting friendship, but no matter how much time you have, you've got to sacrifice some of it to love someone. That's genuine, giving someone your time.

Some people go through their entire lives without meeting more than a dozen genuine people. They meet fake personalities constructed to fit into a desired category. The reason that Jesus was the most influential man in history was that He was real, 100 percent, everyday, utterly real. I'm not. I try to be, but I'm a miserably fallen man that wants to be accepted and understood. I don't want persecution, I don't even want anyone to disagree with me. I want to blend in, and so do you and every other person either of us know.

I'm glad that I got to meet Kevin. I'm glad that I got to show him Christ's love. I'll probably never see him again, but at least I was able to step into his life for a brief moment and to be real for him. A lot of people don't ever get that. They never meet real people. They meet a fake personality constructed to fit into some desired category. I hope I don't fit into anybody's categories. I know I didn't fit into any of Kevin's categories.

Ironically, I saw Kevin twice that night. The second time was near the Black Gate to the castle, by the statue of Queen Elizabeth. He was with another guy, I think his name was Josh. They were being searched by the police. At first, I thought that he got busted for some sort of nonsense, but as it turned out, he was just being searched because he had a history of drug abuse (I inferred that at our first meeting) and other disorderly conduct. Lorah and I decided to wait until the police left and then to go talk to them. I'm glad that we did. It was the sort of thing where we were able to really show him that we cared about him. I can't shake the feeling that he went to bed that night thinking about Lorah and me and the lives that we must lead. I really hope to meet him again, but if I don't and you do, love him. Because if he keeps meeting people that love him, he'll understand. If he understands, he'll get what you and I got, grace. Don't let it stop with you.

South Shields Walk

Okay, I'm sorry that my first two real posts have had very little (if anything) to do with my work with Mercy Ships, but it's really not that interesting or glamorous. When we leave England and get to Africa, I'll be sure to post tons of pictures and the like of things like digging wells and helping the needy. Trust me, though, you don't really want to see a bunch of pictures from the shipyard. I'll post some, but I don't want to bore anyone. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, Here are some pictures from a walk I took from South Shields to Marsden with Kent Simpson and Lorah Styer.

We started the walk around 6 am and went down the coast to watch the sun come up. While we were down there, we saw the ferry come in from Denmark (I think that's were it was coming from, sorry I didn't take a picture of it). When we got to Marsden, we went inland to this great little tea room and had a nice little breakfast with a couple of cups of tea. The ladies working there were very friendly.

On the way back, we went down to the beach (we walked to Marsden up above the beach on a cliff). Here are some pictures from that part.

When we got back to South Shileds, we had a little picnic on this old turret. It was good fun, I wish I had the other guys pictures, I didn't take very many (good ones).

Hadrian's Wall

A couple of weeks ago, Ken Berry (tech. superintendent), Jeremiah Kelly (welder), David Brenner (deck hand), and I went for a nice hike along Hadrian's Wall. Here are some pictures from the trip.

This cliff is from an old rock quarry.

It was a rare day for this area, no rain...

It's a goat!!!

It was a beautiful day for a walk. A little chilly, but not cold.

It's a shame that the days are so short during the winter up here... We weren't able to walk too far before it was close to dark. It was a really fun hike. Jeremiah and I had spent the previous two weeks building a fence in the cargo hold (maybe I'll post a picture of it sometime), so it was particularily nice to be outside while the sun was out. Towards the end of the hike, Ken asked me to extend until 2008 and to take over the documentation and certification project. I had to pray about that one for a while! The tree from the Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner (is that how to spell his name?)

Behold, the future!!!

Welcome to my new supporter blog. This site is dedicated to relaying information about what I'm doing to the people that make it all possible. Thank you so much for your help!

Hopefully I'll have some pictures up and a relevant post up by this Friday. Don't hold it against me if I don't make my projected time frame, I'm a Mercy-shipper...