CHRISTMAS 2015

CHRISTMAS – OUR “NEW NORMAL” 2015

One thing that is sure, other than breathing and dying, is change.  We can fight it, or we can embrace it.  This year has certainly brought much change in the lives of our family.  Since fighting it is futile, we have chosen to embrace it.

Kelly and Aaron are now living in Fayetteville following a 10-year stay in the same home, neighborhood and school system.  The Parks’ family has definitely experienced change.  Their church, Fellowship Bible Church of NWA in Lowell is building a new campus in Fayetteville.  Aaron is the Children’s Director of the new campus.  They look to moving into the building in late spring of 2016, but their family made the move in the fall of 2014 to begin building relationships and become adjusted to their new community as quickly as possible.  Their house sold quickly and they found a lovely home on 2 ½ acres of land near the site of their new church building.  Asher and Ben have about a 3-minute drive to their new school and have settled in well.  They are 9 and soon to be 8 years old.  Asher loves video games and reading.  Ben loves basketball and will play on his first team this spring.  Caleb will be 3 years old in January and could possibly be the funniest child on the planet.  He loves the attention we willingly give him and brings a lot of joy to us.  He still loves cars, trains, and anything that moves.

                                                                                                                                               

                              The Parks Family - Aaron and Kelly, Asher, Ben, and Caleb

Chase and Lacey spent some unexpected time in the US this year following a 7.8 earthquake and another 6 pointer that devastated the northern villages and damaged their city in Nepal.  We were awakened by an early morning text telling us they were all ok, and then a short FaceTime with them sitting on their front lawn.  Though their teammates had prior plans over the months to come to pursue other ministry and leave KTM, this event pushed up their exit plans and they all came home to the US.  Chase stayed for a few more weeks to settle business with their coffee shop and to make a motorcycle trip into a mountain village where the family of one of his employees lived.  It was a time of real uncertainty and change.  In July their family returned to KTM, not sure what ministry would look like without a team and with changes the earthquake had brought.  This season of change, however, has also proven to be a season of joy and restoration in many ways.  They are working with a local pastor and doing village work, as well.  The coffee shop is smaller but easier to manage.  They are now living through a blockade on the southern border of Nepal next to India, which has limited supplies and especially gas.  They are adjusting to the changes this has brought, as well.  Ajay, who will be 5 – actually tomorrow – loves his home and country, claiming to be a little Nepali boy.  His latest interest is in dinosaurs and he is captivated by documentaries, preferring them to cartoons.  He is doing pre-school work with his mom and loves learning.  Ari will be 3 in January.  She is a soft-spoken girly-girl, who is fearless and trusting.  She eyes her brother for any prompting for what to do – quite the little “me too”.

The Moore Family - Chase and Lacey, Ajay and Ari Dear

Mickey and Betty Gail’s biggest changes have occurred at Compass.  In June we began our “good-byes” to our dear friends and comrades on Compass Staff, Chad and Jessica Grigsby and Ezra.  Though it was like being kicked in the stomach, we knew it was the right thing.  Chad is now a church-planting strategist with Arkansas Baptists, helping others do exactly what we did together at Compass - only in Northwest Arkansas.  We are so very proud of them!  God had already provided for Compass, unbeknownst to us.  We had a secret weapon waiting in the wings…Jeremy and Kerrie Sullivan and Jack, who is 6 (and Maggie who was just a bun in the oven – now 9 weeks old), stepped up to seamlessly fill the role of Teaching Pastor.  It was change, but also God’s provision, and we knew it.  We so love the Sullivans!  This news came about as we were in the beginning stages of building a new building in which Compass will meet.  At this present time, the building is being framed out inside and we hope to occupy it in the spring of 2016.  We are so very grateful that God’s plans are not thwarted by change.  

Mickey and Betty Gail

Mom has seen some changes this year, too.  At 90 years old, she stays closer to home in this season of life and has a few more difficulties with health issues.  But many days are good and she especially enjoys when her children, grand children and great-grandchildren visit.  Her fourteenth great-grand child was born in the summer.  Katie Jo – Jo Karen’s granddaughter (Luke’s daughter), our surprise miracle baby came early, weighing in at 2 lbs. and 10 oz.  What a blessing that she is now over 10 lbs. and a very healthy growing baby girl!  There are 36 of Jane’s family living and she counts that her great blessing.  She will see many of them at Christmas this year.

Jane - 90th Birthday party in April 2015

Hurt and pain often accompany change.  We are uncomfortable and reject it when we can.  We think of change as an enemy to our way of life.  However, our God often uses change as an agent to propel us into a greater good, a spiritual revival, and a way to open our eyes to what He desires for us.  When we come to know Him, we are changed.  The old things pass away, and we become like Him.  We cannot change ourselves and others cannot change us in the way that He changes us.

During this season, we invite you to answer His call – He is seeking you.  Bring your way of life, your baggage, and your struggles with you.  Jesus is the agent of change and He will show you how to lay down your burdens.  He will be the author of your “new normal”. 

Spirit of The Living God…

Because When You Speak, When You Move. (When You Come in the Room)

When You Do What Only You Can Do

It Changes Us, It Changes What We See And What We Seek

                      MERRY CHRISTMAS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

                                                OUR LOVE TO YOU ALL!

                                                Mickey and Betty Gail Jones

What I Think...and the "like" Button

We live in a strange and tumultuous time.  It is a time when we can instantaneously see the opinions of others.  Our opinions are charged with an immediate jump to support or argue others’ opinions – driven by hot un-thought out conclusions and mindless Stepford-wife-like responses stemming from modern day clichés or the traditional American values, which have molded our thoughts. 

Our defense of our rights and the fear that they may be taken away is driving our senses and compelling our fingers to type what our lips have refused to say.  We are celebrating with complete abandon that which we can lose with a stroke of a pen.  We are calling names, pointing accusing fingers, and compromising our firm foundational beliefs – all in support of a media-driven frenzy... allowing it to control us.

I have read more explanations and reasons and responses to others’ opinions in the past two days, than ever in my life – in an effort to understand subjects that are almost as old as mankind and have never been resolved.  In more recent times past they have been hidden and swept under the rug – the butt of jokes, the shame of peoples and nations, and everyone’s worst nightmare.  Yet, here we are with them unresolved.  There have been Supreme Court rulings on them, but they are still not resolved.

I read articles that support the Supreme Court rulings and I think, “Yes, that is right.”  I start to click the “like” button, but something stops me.  I read articles that take a hard nosed view of “our Christian heritage,” and I think, “Yes, this is right.” I start to comment in agreement, but my finger freezes over the button. I don’t know if it is the fear of retribution, or the fear of being wrong – but I just can’t click that button or comment to anything anyone is saying.  I want to be reasonable and understand where my friends and Christian brothers are coming from, but I also want to make sure that I don’t regret any firm decision that I have shared with the world. 

I know my own true position – that which I think is a Biblical position and a personal position.  I just don’t know, in the long run of things, how important my position and opinion are to the listening and reading world.  Sometimes I just want to post something because I want others’ to know where I stand.  But honestly, would that be helpful or profitable for the cause of Christ, whom I represent? 

Perhaps these issues will cause more people to look to God’s Word and read more about Him.  Could it be?  He states His love better than anyone I know, if people will only take the time to read what He has said.  The Bible is its own defense.  I recently heard a woman on a panel say that as she prepared to write about the futility of the Christian faith, she was compelled to read the Bible seven times in two years and what she found was Jesus.  She claimed that she wasn’t saved from her former life - she was saved from unbelief.  Now – I can hit the “like” button for that statement!

Brokenness - Uselessness?

My children have endured the unspeakable – a 7.8 earthquake in a third world country.  Their apartment and their business fared much better than most.  The team with whom they served came to an end with a literal “bang”, their employees have lost livelihood for the time being, and many of their neighbors and friends have suffered more personal loss.  Their city is in chaos with people living in tents outside and afraid to go back into their compromised homes and businesses.  Many of the buildings in the city will most likely have to be torn down.  Historic sites have crumbled.  Tourism has bottomed out with the avalanches experienced on Mt. Everest due to the recent quakes.  Home for them may never again be the same.

My grandson, Ajay is four years old.  When he got off the plane after evacuation, he was clutching the body of a yellow toy passenger jet with no wings.  The tail fins and also the main wings had been broken off.  Lest you think differently, it had not lost its wings due to the massive destruction of a natural disaster, but due to the natural disaster of a four-year-old boy’s play.  I pondered it.  He had a firm grasp upon this fuselage and one knew it must be precious – for he had not thrown it aside nor left it behind as they began their long journey to the United States. (I dare not say “home”, for he has already corrected my erroneously alluding to the US as his family’s home.  There is no doubt – Nepal is home).

Why would he have kept it?  Surely, knowing that he has crossed the ocean on such a plane not less than 8 times in his four and a half years, he is aware that the main component, which would enable this plane to fly, was missing.  It was a broken toy.

He had a couple of other nice planes that were whole and complete, yet, he carried this small crayon-shaped piece of tin, across the ocean as one of his choice toys with which to play. 

One day, when all was quiet and he was having “down time”, I observed his intense personal playtime.  He had all of his cars lined up as always and had created a masterful airport out of blocks.  The planes were docked at their gates.  The cars and planes moved at his will.  As I glance over my computer, I could see the broken plane lying on the ottoman airport in front of me.  A finger driven truck rolled over to the plane under Ajay’s keen supervision.  In a soft voice, not meant for by-stander’s ears, he said in his best ‘truck” voice, “OK, now we have to move this broken plane over here to get fixed.” Ah-ha! I had a great revelation and a great application!  The broken plane was not only cherished, but could still fulfill the purpose for which it was intended!  It was made for the purpose of play and even in its broken state, it could still be played with.

I began to think of what I had previously pondered in broader terms.  What if we treated people like Ajay had treated his plane?  He could have thrown it away when it became quadriplegic, in its own way.  When the first wing broke off, really even then, it was useless as a toy plane.  As it became more and more damaged, he could have thrown it into the bottom of the pit of broken toys and never played with it again.  When scurrying around gathering the most precious items to evacuate a devastated country in a possibly compromised apartment with the ground still shaking violently moment by moment, he surely could have overlooked this already shattered toy.  Side by side with the complete and whole airplanes and other precious treasures, the fuselage went into the backpack.  And now, he was using the airport crew of his own making to support and fix the yellow passenger plane, which was broken.  There was no doubt of its beauty and usefulness!

Later, I took that little yellow body, got out my scissors and some black foam board, drew my best idea of what an airplane wing might look like and resorted to assembly with my trusty hot-glue gun.  It wasn’t perfect and we had several repairs that had to be done over the course of a couple of weeks, but that airplane was now fit to fly in any little boys imagination!  

A Car Ride and The River

I am rarely completely alone, but yesterday I went to pick up pizza and found myself alone in the car.  I found myself talking to God – out loud with no inhibition.  I suddenly realized how often I do that.  The car is one place in my life that affords complete isolation – one place where I can sing as loudly as I choose, say out loud what is on my mind, and be completely transparent.  And so, I do.

It is winter just as we all knew, but with a couple of weeks of glorious misplaced spring-like temperatures and gorgeous sunshine we had forgotten it was only February.  It is bleak and very cold.  This week we had rain, sleet, ice and snow.  The trees are still bare and there are no crocus spouting up through the half thawed layers of icy snow left in the yard.  But hope springs eternal is what they say!  And I began to look around.

The first was the river that winds through our little town dividing north and south.  It rolls merrily along and most of us don’t give it much thought.  We daily come and go across the bridge and vi-dock never looking left or right.  Today, I did…I looked left upstream from where the river flows and watched as the meandering sticks and gentle current poured without anxiety toward the lock below.  I asked out loud – “Where have you been and what have you seen, lazy river?” I looked right and said, “Oh, there you go!  Headed downstream for more adventures and barely tipping your hat as you pass by!”

That sent my eyes on a discovery adventure.  I began to look all around and be reminded of the wintery beauty that exists on a cold and blustery day.  The naked trees usually look lonely and haunting, but on this day they were more like a work of art.  The twists and turns of their gnarly branches created interest against the plain gray sky.  Although they are bare of their spring and summer glory, the squirrels still call them “home” and the birds still find a perch.  I am so glad that God’s plan for them included a rest from their foliage burden and allows them to be free for a season.

Everything is brown and gray.  But what a great reminder that life is not always sunshine and flowers and that it is ok.  Even nature has moments that don’t appear so lovely and appealing, yet it’s plight has purpose.  It also is a reminder of hope.  Tomorrow will probably be brown and gray, too – but there is another day coming and another season on the way.  The world will burst forth in greens and blues and yellows soon enough – when it is time.

I have crossed the river and trekked past the open fields where young calves (four of them) are staying close to their mothers and waiting on warmer days when they can frolic and graze in the sunshine.  The watering system in the crusty field across the way gives a cold industrial look to the rows of empty mounds of dirt where a corn crop or soy beans will cover the ground in a few short months. 

Yes, there is beauty where there is hope that is why we can still smile and enjoy life when there is no sunshine.  So I will choose to look differently today, at the world covered with what I began thinking as “wintry hopelessness” – and find not only hope, but also beauty.