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a flat story.

Posted on by Wick

Long ago, in a world covered completely in maple trees, a thought was thought. This thought was one of the most powerful thoughts ever known to man, but it couldn’t be contained in a single mind, and so it was shared. In those days, there was a serious problem that was growing more and more urgent every day. Gravity was growing more powerful.

Every day brought new stories of how the increased gravitational pull was impacting this world and it’s inhabitants. Birds were now walking around on the ground, causing massive disturbances in traffic flows as they didn’t know how to use common cross-walks. Baseball fields were forced to shrink the size of the playing field, as the ball wouldn’t go nearly as far as it used to. Elevator cables made strange noises, and weary people began getting healthier as they were forced to use the stairs on a regular basis.

But one thing that began happening without much notice — were the cakes. Only slightly at first, but over time it became more and more noticeable. Cakes were not rising. No matter how many eggs were added, or how fluffy the batter seemed; as a cake was baking in the oven, gravity pulled at it to the point of become simply a flat cake. Not much taller than a shallow pan.

Well you can imagine the chaos that ensued. No one wanted a flat cake. It was too difficult to get the perfect “frosting to cake” ratio once the cake became deflated. It was always either too rich, or not enough. Birthdays were lost to tragic fits of childish rage. Parties began to be things of the past, as too many embarrassed mothers saw a flat cake as their own personal defeated attempt at motherhood.

That is, until one woman saw an opportunity to change the world.

It was, after all, a special occasion. Her daughters’ birthday. Her daughter, Phoebe, deserved to be celebrated by everyone. Her mother loved her with a love unparallelled in any other stories illustrating motherhood. She was special, and the world deserved to know why. But her mom knew this would only happen by solving the problem of the flat cakes.

That’s when it hit her. Maple.

As a child, she’d read an ancient story about a people at the beginning of time who’d purposefully planted maple trees all over their planet. How this tree that literally “bleeds sugar” could be used to do great things for humanity. She labored intensely to brainstorm the perfect combination until finally she emerged triumphantly from her kitchen, yelling to the world, “I’ve done it!!!” (Which also happens to be the phrase engraved underneath the giant statue of a Shortstack on that same planet, if you ever happen to visit.)

Sure enough, not only had she solved the problem, but she had done it in such a way that these flat cakes covered in pancakessugary maple syrup have become a staple. A meal to be eaten all year long, in celebration of the girl who inspired it all. Phoebe.

And now through circumstances that are hard to explain in a Craigslist ad – God has not only allowed us to know of this amazing recipe, but has also given us a sweet little girl named Phoebe to bring home from Africa. The problem is….it cost about as much as traveling to Planet Shortstack to adopt a daughter from Africa. Thankfully, God has been providing so far, and will continue to. We hope that you will consider coming to celebrate this incredible little girl (our Phoebe, not the fictional Phoebe from the silly story), and help us raise money to bring her home — one plate at a time.

Details: Help us raise money to bring our daughter home from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa. We hope to travel in 9-12 months. We’ve paid over $14,000 already as God has provided….and are trusting Him for the other $17,000!!!!

7:30am — 11am
Moundford Free Methodist Church — 1803 E. Mound Rd (Next to LSA)
Breakfast — Pancakes & Sausage, Drinks

Adults – $8/plate
Kids – $4/plate
Kids 5 & under — Free

Espresso Drinks – $3

TELL YOUR FRIENDS! Join the event on Facebook!

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shaken.

Posted on by Wick

We had a great morning.  Beautiful weather on a laid back Sunday morning, eating breakfast outside in almost 70 degree sunrise. Slowly cleaning up from a weekend of “Sabbath” with a small group of our teenagers.  Once we were all packed up, we gathered down by the beach for a few words and final moments of silence before getting on the road.  Some clouds began to move in, but we were thankful for a peace-filled morning…

teensbeachThen we loaded onto the bus.  I was excited to be making great time.  We’d be back to the church parking lot with enough time for me to clean off the bus before my family was even out of worship.  It was beginning to sprinkle, and there were some clouds to the south…along with some gusty winds…but nothing we haven’t seen before.

Then it happened.  Something you don’t want to happen when you’re driving a tall 25-passenger wind-blown bus full tornadowarningof teenagers in the middle of Illinois.  An alert went off on several phones at the same time:

All of a sudden, the gusts of wind and darkening clouds all seem a bit more dangerous.  A bit more “real”.  Driving through small-town Illinois, surrounded by cornfields and farmhouses.  There was a split-second chance to stop at a church, but gone before I realized it.    Finally, I saw a sign for a “Rest Stop”, and decided to pull over.   The bus was getting tugged at pretty good.  It was much smaller than I thought it might be, but as we unloaded the bus and piled into the building full of vending machines, I felt I’d made a good decision.  (Even as the maintenance gnome came out of his closet to see what the noise was & laughed at our fears.)

We waited for 20 minutes or so, until the “Tornado Warning” was downgraded to a “Watch”.  Things looked like they’d settled down a bit, and we headed back out.  Only 30 minutes from home.  A few minutes out on the highway, we tornadowarning1noticed a rainbow on the left.  It was a cool moment.  Until we looked on our right and saw the coming storm.  Around this time, a new alert hit all the smart-phones:

Awesome.  By this point, we were truly in the middle of nowhere.  Nothing but cornfields on the right and left for many miles.  The next exit was 5 miles away, and there was nothing there to seek shelter in.  Here the wind was not simply gusting….it was a wall of force, pushing the bus to the left every few moments.  Water began to come in sideways through the closed door.  I asked someone to locate the nearest….anything.  A gas station was located at the next exit, but was a few miles off the highway.  We finally made it to the exit, but turning right into town meant turning directly IN to the storm.  Still, the exit was incredibly high ground, and I couldn’t stay where I was.  So off we went, toward what definitely seemed to be a mass of clouds that wanted to make contact with the ground.

White knuckles gripped the steering wheel in prayer so filled with adrenaline, I was shaking when we finally stopped at a gas station, under a shelter not much more than the bus itself.  But still, it felt safer to be on low ground, surrounded by structures.  We waited the storm seemed to pass around us.  I breathed slow.  We were all obviously relieved just to be what felt like  “out of harms way”.

After 20 minutes or so…we heard reports that the threat had passed.  Blue sky was beginning to appear, and rain was sparse. We got back on the highway, and by this point I’d pretty much decided to go as slow as legally allowed.  So tornadowarning2driving about 45 MPH, we entered our county around 11:58am, when these alerts hit all the phones:

Thankfully, it was almost 12 Noon.  The weather looked incredibly ominous still, but the rain had stopped and we had visibility.  We were almost home.  I took the first exit, deciding to drive through the city instead of around it on the corn-field surrounded highway.  We finally made it home around 12:30 as the sun broke through on the rest of the day.  We hugged our families, so very thankful to have made it.

As we watched updates on areas impacted as the storm continued to travel northeast…our thankfulness continued to grow.  We were shaken, for sure.  But we join in prayer for those areas hit so much harder than we were…

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10 year reunion…

Posted on by Wick

(you’ve walked in on me giving words to friends at our 10 year class reunion this past week….)

…So many of us have gone so many different directions. Some have pursued careers, some families, some life experiences, some giving themselves for others, and some all of the above…but all of us have experienced one common reality: The “real world” contains things we never completely understood…and many that we still don’t. Words like “fatherhood”, and “family”, and “full time job” are all things I thought I knew about 10 years ago. Life has continued to teach me…that I have so much yet to learn. But 10 years ago, I thought I knew a lot…

Here are a few reminders about the things we all knew 10 years ago:10yr

– In 2003, the average price for a gallon of gas was $1.60
– Cameras actually IN cell phones were the status symbol of the high-tech.
– We were all going to keep in touch forever on this new website called “MySpace”.

But with all that we knew, there were plenty of things that life would teach us after we crossed that stage to get our diplomas. I’ve written a little poem/spoken word/thing highlighting some things I’ve learned since that day 10 years ago:

I’ve learned.

I’ve learned that life gets hard, as credit cards piled up we had our fill of spilling ourselves out on merchandise and eating nice food. Now Macaroni & Cheese is usually our mood.
I learned that becoming a father does a lot more than give someone to call you dad, but makes you realize the preciousness of the world you already had. That smiles and hugs,
and cutting a rug with a 5 year old,
are more fulfilling than any event ticket ever sold.
And that it takes bold people to stand up when there’s injustice and strife
I learned that one of the boldest people in my life, was my wife.
I’ve learned that Iowa smells like Illinois, and teenage girls and boys need silence from life’s noise.
Youth ministry still makes me tick, although today it’s less about neat tricks and more about
time with God.
I realize it was Odd to spell Praise with a “Z”. 🙂
I’ve learned that Wheel of Fortune really exists, and that Pat Sajak isn’t all that funny
But when he gives you money, you smile.
And that miles from where we thought we’d end up, we are.
That a car is less cool than a van when you’ve got a small clan to drive around.
I’ve learned the beauty of the sound of being held to the ground by my own children
And I’ve found that family is a lot more important than I ever knew.
And I’ve learned that many of you a more important too.
You see in college I collected friends like badges, and my vest was overflowing
All the while, my wife was focused on knowing a few.
And over the years, it’s rubbed off on me too.
I’ve learned that relationships are more than information, that stations of life are always moving,
And that proving our identity with titles is a race none of us can win.
I’ve also learned it’s never too late to begin.
Because the same God that many of us worshiped in school, is still with us through the drool,
When life makes me the fool, all the diapers and messy moments of brokenness are exactly the times He’s promised to be around.
And I’ve found Him.
Time after time, throughout the highs and lows, I’ve found him close
Even in the days when I’d rather walk away. He’d stay.
I’ve learned I can say the word “Hope” without worrying if it’s real
And that even if I feel frustration, I can offer it to His New Creation.
Because throughout each of these 10 years, God’s been taking tears of brokenness
and trading them for tears of redemption. I should probably mention, he’s not done.
We decided our family was still lacking by one.
God has called us to reach out to a child in need of a family.
If you know much about me, you know God’s been moving.
And proving just how powerful his Story can be, to look at me and think
“Here’s someone who’d make a great father.”
That my identity was not fastened down by the story of my past, but speaking His last words,
Filling our home with the story of His tomorrow.
Not borrowing hope of a day that some think might come,
but building foundations on what already is…
And that’s one thing this morning you don’t want to miss.
No matter who you are, and what’s happened ’til now, the power we wield is not in what was in ’03,
but what will be. And He
Invites us to see a part of it today.

As we moved to our first “Adult home” in Iowa, we had no idea we’d find ourselves in huge credit card debt. We had no idea we’d get out of it thanks to Wheel of Fortune. We didn’t know we’d end up moving to be close to family, or join the Free Methodist Church. We definitely didn’t realize we’d have a house full of girls, and be looking forward to adding a 4th…this one from Africa. But here we are. And 10 years from “here and now”…I have no idea what our updates might be.

There are thousands of stories that each of us could tell about how our lives have changed over the past 10 years, and hopefully you’ve already begun sharing many of those stories. We have an advantage many previous generations never had – the ability to stay easily connected to (or creep on) our friends from college, seeing everything that is experienced, celebrated, and mourned. We also have a disadvantage many previous generations never had – the ability to know everything “about” the people we care for, without ever letting them know we care.

My offer and invitation to you is this: reconnect. The people sitting around these tables may not have everything in common with you. Some of us are so incredibly different. But each of us shared an experience of community during our time here at ONU that will never go away. Not just because Olivet will always be calling us, asking us for donations toward the future of our Alma Mater. But because all of it…the laughs, the tears, the anxiety, the celebrating, the high moments, and the difficult moments – will forever be a part of who we are collectively. Because if there’s one thing these past 10 years have definitely taught us, is the value of community as we face these next 10 years learning all that life has to teach us. I look forward to celebrating it all with you again….

I would like to close this morning with a quote from the late Millard Reed, who spoke at our Graduation ceremonies back in 2003. About learning in life, he states, “I recognize that all scholarship, all invention, all discovery, all exploration – which is truth – is God’s Truth. Christians are to have a passion for learning based on the supposition that all truth is God’s Truth.”

Whatever comes, may these next 10 years fill our lives with such Truth…and may we be transformed by it as all things are becoming New….