Saturday's Summary

It's been 15 hours since the day began, and it feels like it's been two days.

When our hotel phone rang with the courtesy wake up call my eyes could barely register the "5:03" on the clock. Time to roll. Within forty minutes 33 of us were piled into a shuttle, with a trailer behind carrying 66 bags (50 lbs each) of supplies. Things with American Airlines from Ft. Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince went smoothly. That's when the fun began.

At Port we were inundated with men wearing red caps who were anxious to help us with our bags. I'm not sure any of them even knew where we were trying to go; they just wanted to help in hopes of making a few bucks. Thousands of other faces stared in through the chain link fence with hopes. I'm not sure what their hopes were. It would be eye-opening to speak with any of them, I'm sure.

After several minutes of organized confusion our contact from Les Cayes arrived and huddled us into two busses, with a third for our bags. We drove three miles to a seperate terminal and eventually boarded our 15 passenger prop plane. That ride was wild, but we did make it.

After a few hours to drop our stuff we were on our way to the orphanage in Cambry. I still don't have words to describe what we saw there. It was quite a moment. Check my Facebook page for pic's.

We're being called for dinner, so this is all for today.

Mission to Haiti (Day 1)

We have safely made it to Ft. Lauderdale and are just about to creep into the sheets for about 5.5 hours of sleep before an early start tomorrow.

Today we really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know more about each other (that is the four of us from CWR). We grabbed a ride to Hollywood Beach and took in the waves for a few hours before enjoying dinner together at a place called the Moonlight Café. They had something called a stuffed cinnamon roll that was amazing (sorry, Weight Watchers). After dinner we met up with the other team members from Indiana, Washington D.C., Illinois, and South Dakota. Ted Powers, the lead for this entire team, took a few minutes to pray for the group and then to encourage us with something we all know, but needed to hear again.

His question: “Why are you going on this trip?” It was a great question, but rather than telling you what he said, I’m going to ask you the same question: “Why are you doing what you do as you play your role in God’s mission?” We can interact more on that Friday evening, July 24th during our “Storytelling from Haiti” evening that I hope many of you will make plans to join.

Tonight I know that each one of us is feeling our need for prayer. We want to be used by God. We want to show his love. We don’t know what to expect. We feel our weakness.

I was encouraged just now by reading Isaiah 58:6-11. There the prophet says that as we make ourselves available to the weak, God will cause us to be never-ending fountains of blessing. We don’t have to muster up the strength or the resources, we need only make ourselves available. On the heals of two very busy weeks and in the midst of feeling very much out of energy I needed to read that.

It's Tuesday

I know that I forgot to make my weekly weight announcement yesterday. It wasn't as encouraging, but progress was still had. This week's weight was 208.4, down from 208.8! The scale read 207 this morning, so maybe that's a good sign of things to come.

For reasons other than my waistline, I'm absolutely full of joy today. I have had many days in my life when I was so overwhelmed with despair, fear, and/or anxiety that I could barely function. Today I can barely function because of the amount of joy that is welling up and over within me. I can't give definition to what I'm feeling except to say that I feel as though I'm going to burst apart at any moment because of an inability to keep the joy that is within contained.

God is pouring out his blessing in measures almost too difficult to hold. Here are a few snippets:

1. We have received financial support for the month of July!
2. We are experiencing a flood of people who are asking for support and friendship as they seek further understanding about God and his word. With each soul this is such an honor.
3. Each one of our team members heading to Haiti this Thursday has experienced an outpouring of love and support from CWR that surpassed any expectation. 3 John vv. 5-7 speaks about the kind of support that should be given to God's ambassadors whenever we send them out. CWR has done that and much more to the glory of Christ's name.
4. Our family is benefiting from many rich friendships.
5. Our family is experiencing a season of unity and increased love for one another. It's been especially encouraging to see how Philip Jr. is loving his younger brother and sister by spending some great time with them. Because of his attention for them they are overflowing with joy.
6. I was once lost and now I'm found. I am loved by God apart from my performance!

I expect to be able to post short sound bites about our time in Haiti on my facebook page, assuming that the international phone connection I've signed up for works as it should. My facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/philip.glassmeyer .

I'll be preaching Sunday evening in Les Cayes, Haiti. I'm more than a bit nervous about that, but trust that God will somehow make it useful to His people there.

Catching Up

Here are a few quick sound bites from the past two weeks:

1. I spent June 16-18 in Orlando being part of a national conference of pastors with the PCA. I went there hoping to connect with some new financial supporters for our work of church planting in Las Vegas. God had others plans. I'm not sure if I made any connections that will grow into partnership with our work, but I my soul was deeply nourished through the preaching at the evening services of worship and in a couple of the breakout sessions. I also treasured the opportunity to catch up with some dear friends I've not seen in a year or more.
2. After the conference I headed down to Ft. Myers with Eric Phillips. We drove through several rain storms. That was nice. While in Ft. Myers we met with an older pastor who told us that he has only a few days remaining before his body concedes to the cancer he's been fighting for a few years. It was a rare opportunity to receive a life's worth of wisdom that's been refined and focused by these few years of suffering. This man is dying well because his faith is strong and his love for family is evident. I was honored to be a guest in his home that day.
3. Before we flew home Eric drug me out onto a 20' to go shark fishing with some of his buddies from the area. I ended up dragging in a 4' black tip shark. Amazing! I'm still waiting on the picture to be emailed.
4. Weight loss continues to be a steady fight. I weighed in Monday morning at 208, 14 lbs lighter than I was six weeks ago when this journey began. Angie and I are almost a combined 30 lbs lighter. Most importantly, the lifestyle changes regarding food are becoming second nature and our energy levels are starting to rise. I hope this translates into more stamina for service to our neighbors.
5. I continue to play basketball on Monday evenings with a group of guys from CWR, some employees from the Venetian Hotel and Casino, and a regular group of men from the surrounding neighborhoods. I'm pretty excited about where some of these relationships are going.
6. People at CWR are doing an amazing job of loving each other. I could tell stories for hours about the ways that folks simply recognize needs and work together to find solutions, trusting God for the necessary resources instead of being paralyzed by thinking that everything depends on their efforts alone.
7. Our missions trip to Haiti is only 10 days away. I'm really beginning to feel pumped about this time to serve, learn, and to do it all with my oldest son. Our church family is growing in their vision to be used of Jesus for kingdom expansion and witness. Again, amazing!
8. We are in the middle of a three-week project to sort through all of our five-year old's Legos. Slow going, but we are getting there.
9. I'm looking forward to the series on Ruth that begins in two weeks.
10. We praying for Jesus to send more workers into his fields in Las Vegas. We are especially hoping for some men and women who will more actively pursue the middle and high school kids in our community. They are very hungry for relationship, the gospel, and discipleship. Pray with us about these opportunities.
11. I'm in the middle of a book called, "Family Driven Faith." So far it gets a "Highly Recommend" rating from me.
12. We've had two cars break down in as many days. The immediate temptation is to go and buy a new car. I'm fighting through it and hope to have both cars repaired by week's end. I'm still not sure what the $ damage will be for the van.

Life goes on. The mission continues to move forward. We are growing in faith. To God be the glory!

Another Monday

Ok, first, I have good news to report on the weight loss front. Today's weight was 211, another two pounds less for my knees to endure with every step. God has been so gracious to allow for this to continue going well. Angie hit her first goal weight today, having dropped five percent of her total body weight in just 28 days. Way to go Angie!

The most encouraging thing has been the increased self-control that God has given us with respect to food. We are actually beginning to want what's healthy for our bodies. Don't get me wrong, the Snickers bar on Saturday while I was out with Philip tasted delicious!

I just read in the paper that police have arrested a 30 year-old woman for broadcasting live sexual assault on her children over the Internet. She has four kids, ranging from 18 months to four years, the article said. My heart aches. When will this evil stop? I have hope, though, for both this mother and her children. These are just the kind of souls for whom Jesus came--to seek and save the lost. Thank God for a Savior!

Just read Psalm 29 again. It's wonderful to consider the incredible power that God holds at his disposal. For 10.5 verses we read of His unending strength. Then we read why. It's all for the sake of bringing peace to his people. Amazing. Simply amazing.

Another Monday

Today was great! I was humbled to get on the scale this morning and discover a reading of 213.6! That's another 2.2 lbs for the week. I can't believe it.

I had to repent yesterday, though, with respect to my goals for weight loss. Motivation is fine. Goal is great. Level of time committed is also good. Trusting in my own efforts--bad. I don't know why, but when it comes to something like this my first thought isn't Jesus' words when he said to His men, "Apart from me you can do nothing." So I've added a prayerful dependence in my efforts to remain true to the menu plan and exercise schedule. Even something as basic as weight loss reveals the remaining streak of self-dependence my heart lunges for when left unchecked.

I played basketball tonight. Played three games. Won three games. Playing with the four guys on my team a golden retriever could have won three times. They are all very good. Fun to watch.

The gospel continues to run here in Vegas. I have heard from three or four friends who were engaged by others this past week to learn more about this "Jesus stuff." Hopefully they will experience the freedom of the gospel soon.

Angie is thrilled to be finished with her home school year for our oldest. They both did such a great job. He'll be in high school this fall. Angie doesn't know what to do with herself. I'm sure that the camera will get more use now that she's got the time.

The Desired Effect?

So, as part of my new diet and lifestyle I decided to finally give a colon cleansing routine a try. I'm taking the simple route with some all-natural capsules to be taken once each day until the bottle is gone. The notice on the side of the bottle nearly killed me due to laughter as I read. Here's what it says:

"Take two capsules daily with a large glass of water. If you don't get the
desired effect, add a capsule a day until you achieve the desired effect. Do
not exceed 5 capsules a day."

What exactly is the desired effect? I'm thinking, as a colon cleansing novice, that if I'm not getting the "desired effect" that the last thing I'm going to want to do is add to the number of capsules I'm taking.