Tubin’ the Chatahoochee: Lessons on Life, Leisure, and Lost Soles

“I think I learned something today,” commented our oldest son, Adam. “And I figured it out when Liz went scooting right past me so many times.”

Adam spoke up as we climbed into our minivan yesterday, soaked but supremely happy after an afternoon spent tubing the Chatahoochee, a river in north Georgia not far from the mountain cabin where we’re staying near the Great Smokies. This is the final week of our shared sabbatical before I return to work next week, and we’ve eagerly anticipated spending these precious final days with our grown kids.

Adam and his wife, Liz, both 28, have joined us from their home in northern California where they both serve on the staff of a church. Amber, 26, flew in from Tacoma, and her Air Force pilot- husband Ben is due to arrive in Asheville tonight to start his leave after returning from a mission to the Middle East.  Our kids are our best friends, and to have the oldest four with us along with Jordan, 23, is the best gift we could have this summer.

“So what did you learn?” I asked, grabbing the back of a map to write on. We loved it when the kids shared teachable moments as they grew up, and it’s even more fun discovering them together now that they are young adults.

Adam thought a minute and said, “I kept trying to paddle my tube to get ahead, but it was totally pointless. I could never figure out in advance the best way to get around all the rocks. And then I’d see Liz just relax into her tube and let the river take her where it will, and she’d get there before I did!”

“So what advice would you give your junior highers from your time on the Chatahoochee?” Mike asked.

“The river is sort of like the stream of God’s will,” Adam said. “When I tried to steer my own tube, I ended up on the rocks. If you stay in the center and trust it, it will take you where you need to go.”

Jordan entered the conversation. “But sometimes you do have to paddle,” he observed, “and you better stay balanced on both sides or you’ll end up going around in circles.”

Gosh, been there, done that, I thought. And it wasn’t in an inner-tube either.

Now we were all talking at once.

Liz: “Remember when we got to the quiet place in the river where the water was deeper? The current was slow there and it didn’t feel like we were going anywhere, but we were still making progress.”

Mike: “And bigger is not necessarily better. Did you notice those guys who kept getting grounded? They were the ones carrying the extra weight and the poles.”

Amber: “The people who had the best trip downriver were the ones who did it together.  When you get stuck, a push from a friend helps.”

Liz again. “I’m glad we listened to the woman who sold us our tickets and we all bought water shoes. The people who entered the river unprepared or improperly equipped were the ones who cut their feet or lost their sandals.”

She was absolutely right. We had all noticed the huge tree along the riverbank with dozens of colorful flip-flops nailed to it with others hanging on a clothesline alongside. Someone with riverfront property was trying to be helpful. Or were they making a point with their Tree of Lost Soles?

“The Chattahoochee looks so safe and slow,” Jordan said, “but it’s moving faster than you think. When you lose something, you can’t go back to get it.”

Maybe the owner of the tree had a point after all.

Sacred Companions

Greek men playing backgammon

Which would you choose if you had your druthers: visiting tour sites with a private guide or as part of a group?

With an individual guide, you move quickly and bypass the larger groups massing to enter tour sites. WC (water closet) stops are brief, and you have your guide’s attention and expertise totally at your disposal. Who would want to travel any other way?

We do, and here’s why.

On our recent trip to Turkey and Greece, Mike and I had private guides in Turkey who showed us around Istanbul and took us to the sites of the seven churches of Revelation. We went at our own pace and didn’t have to consider anyone else’s needs, wants or preferences. Totally positive experience in every way, right?

Yep, but one.

When we joined our “Footsteps of Paul” group tour in Greece, we were no longer traveling as individuals, assigning our own spiritual significance to the sites we visited. Now we journeyed in a cluster of 42 people, adjusting our pace to the rest of the group, and sharing our guide’s attention with several dozen others.

It didn’t take us long to appreciate what we had been missing: community. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve been missing till you find it again.

One of our travelmates, Kim Weidner from New Jersey, expressed our feelings so well in an email this week to “Cloud 28” (the location someone in our tour-group suggested that we meet for a reunion someday): “David [our tour leader] said it best when he described our group as a divine society, a group of likeminded pilgrims on a journey together.  During our first week home it has become clear to me that the lasting value of the trip was (in order of priority) the fellowship and mutual edification among believers, the deepening of my understanding of the ministry and heart of the apostle Paul, and experiencing so much natural beauty in the many places we journeyed. We were diverse yet so connected!”

One of the books we took with us to Greece was Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction. Author David G. Benner notes that the life of the Christ-follower is not like running a metaphor: “No one can make any real progress on this journey alone. Journeying together is the only way to effect the personal transformation that is the goal of the adventure.”

Our fellow pilgrims in Greece got along splendidly, but what about other groups: the ones we all work, recreate and worship with? Isn’t occasional conflict and disagreement inevitable? And when it happens, haven’t you been frustrated when people you’ve known for years suddenly bail out, deciding that they’d rather go it alone?

As Benner points out, our sacred companions on life’s spiritual journey are the ones whom God ultimately uses most to change us into His image.

Community. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve been missing till you find it again.

Our International Exploration Comes to a Close

Theologian Karl Barth once said, “Gratitude follows grace like thunder follows lightning.”

It is Monday, July 05, and we are preparing to return to the States tomorrow. It was exactly one month ago when we flew into Istanbul so excited to begin this month of walking in the land where the Word was written. How can it already have come to an end? A day has not passed without our hearts swelling with gratitude to God for this opportunity, our church family and Tyndale for granting us the time away to accept it, and the Lilly Foundation for providing the funding through Mike’s Clergy Renewal grant.

We’ll be back home in Wheaton for several days this week before heading southeast on a road trip to spend time with our families: a week celebrating a milestone birthday for my mom with the Wallem siblings in TN, our annual Rowe “Family Camp” in WV with Mike’s parents and six sibs and their kids and grandkids, and then a final week in NC with just our own kids and their spouses.

We have many more Greek and Turkish stories to tell, but for now Mike’s photos again bear witness to some of the beautiful places we’ve seen.

Soli Deo Gloria – glory to God alone.

The Next Time Someone Calls You a Donkey…

Having a heart-to-heart with my ride

There is a Yiddish proverb about this:

If one man calleth thee a donkey, pay him no mind;

If two men calleth thee a donkey, get thee a saddle.

 OK, point taken. But these days people don’t use the word “donkey” anymore in reference to their fellow human beings. If you accidentally cut someone off in traffic or otherwise become an object of contempt, you are likely to be called the King James equivalent instead. (Quaint, isn’t it, how people quote scripture unawares.)

Here’s what I’m wondering: where did donkeys get such a bad reputation? I grew up on a farm, but I never got up close and personal with a donkey until I came to Greece.

The evening before our floating classroom returned to port in Athens, we made our final stop at the fabled island of Santorini. By the time all the passengers on the Aquamarine disembarked and were transported by tenders to shore, we only had two hours to explore the island. Just enough time to get to the top of the awesome volcanic cliffs of Fira, marvel at the incredible view, and come back down.

There are two options for quickly reaching Fira from the dock: cable-car or donkey-back. The first sounded much too tame, so despite the ship’s disclaimer that Travel-by-Donkey could be dangerous, Mike and I chose the latter.

It was the best five Euros we’ve spent on this trip. You simply cannot take yourself too seriously while hanging on for dear life to a bored beast responsible for getting you nearly a thousand feet straight up the side of a cliff.

Here’s what I learned from my Santorini donkey-rental:

(1)   Donkeys deserve their reputation for stubbornness. No matter how many times I tried to sweet-talk or swat mine to direct him away from the edge or the herd descending downhill, it was useless. He got this, well, mulish look on his face as if to say, “You tourists are all alike. If you don’t like it then take the darn cable-car next time.”

Ascending Santorini the old-fashioned way

(2)   Donkeys are aware of their position in the pack. My ride refused to pass the animal in front of him even when the leader took his not-so-sweet time answering nature’s call while the beasts behind us played Donkey- Pile-Up.

(3)   Donkeys are strong for their modest size; I saw them carrying 250 lb. men without a whinny of complaint.

(4)   Donkeys are significant enough to be mentioned multiple times in the biblical record. Jesus himself traveled on donkey’s back at least twice: the first time in the womb of his mother on the way to Bethlehem, and 33 years later entering Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. And God opened the mouth of a donkey to bring a word of warning to the prophet Balaam as recorded in Numbers 22.

So is being a stubborn mule who follows the rules really so bad when God clearly has a purpose for you?

The next time someone calls you a “donkey,” maybe you should consider it a compliment.

View from the top with our ship in the harbor

Pondering Paul – and Paulines

Wall icon of Apostle Paul - Philippi

What do Mosab Hassan Yousef, two women from First Baptist of Wheaton, and Ron Hutchcraft have in common?

They remind us of the Apostle Paul.

Following the departure of our “Footsteps of Paul” tour group, Mike and I are spending our final weekend in Greece in the port city of Nafplio, the former capital. There are lots of Greek families here on holiday, and we are resting in the extraordinary beauty of this elegant city that boasts 17^th century Venetian architecture and marble streets.

Our hotelier recommended an inexpensive outdoor cafe called Alaloum where we enjoyed one of the finest meals of our lives. (When we expressed our gratitude later, she nodded and said, “Neh, neh (yes, yes) Alaloum is where the Greeks go – not the tourists!”) So maybe we’ve become a bit Hellenistic after our sojourn in this gorgeous country.

As we lingered over our late meal and I fed bits of chicken to a stray cat, Mike and I talked about the Apostle Paul. We’ve been studying his letters to the churches of Greece and Asia Minor (now Turkey) on site for a full month now, so I asked Mike which of Paul’s personal characteristics most impressed him.

He mentioned the following three, and as I scrawled them on a paper napkin I thought of people back in the US whose lives reflect these same qualities:

(1)   The breadth of his personality. “Paul was so powerful in his theological apologetic that he infuriated his opponents,” Mike commented, “yet he was so tender in his love that Ephesian believers wept when they parted with him at the beach of Miletus.”

 When we logged onto email last night for the first time in nearly a week, Mike and I rejoiced at the news that Mosab Hassan Yousef, a dear friend to the Tyndale publishing family, has been granted political asylum in the US. The author of the recent release Son of Hamas, Mosab was under threat of deportation back to the Middle East where he would have faced almost certain death due to his activities on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Mosab’s boldness in sharing his Christian faith could cost him his life, yet when he shared his testimony at a recent chapel service his heart was so tender with love for his family that he choked on his own tears.

 (2)   The depth of his endurance. “Paul was a middle-aged man who was stoned, beaten, and imprisoned multiple times, yet he traversed thousands of miles on foot out of sheer love of the gospel message,” Mike reflected last night. “How does a person do that when they are so battered and bruised?!”

Last night’s email also brought word to us of two women in our local church who are enduring heavy trials. One nearly lost her son in an industrial accident and now her husband is urgently in need of a heart transplant. The other has suffered greatly due to the behavior of her former spouse who is presently using the legal system to emotionally batter her. Yet both women are strong in their faith, committed to their work, and a testimony of endurance to those around them. In my eyes they are modern-day Paulines.

(3)   The scope of his relationships. “As a Pharisee, Paul was a Jews’ Jew, and in his day Jews only related to fellow Jews,” Mike said as we finished our meal over slices of local melon. “But before the end of his ministry, Paul had built relationships with nearly every variety of person this planet can produce. When he sat in the marketplace of Corinth, he didn’t care what ‘class’ people belonged to as long as he could share with them the good news of Jesus Christ.”

 Every time we hear evangelist Ron Hutchcraft speaking on WMBI or teaching at a seminar, we are struck anew by his passion for Christ and the reach of his relationships. We just heard last night that over a dozen young Native Americans came to Christ at a Native Leadership conference this past week in Missouri. Like the Apostle Paul, Ron has traveled countless miles in less than ideal conditions to share the hope within him.

As our time walking in the land where the Word was written nears its close, we are thanking God for these modern-day Pauls…and Paulines.

The Bema where Paul stood before Gallio - Corinth

Our Traveling Classroom Returns to Land

Mosiac outside of John's grotto on Patmos

I was so excited this past week my mind was jumping like a jackrabbit. Our traveling classroom moved out to sea!

The Aegean Sea, that is. Until now Mike and I have never been on a cruise, but our group tour of Greece included a four-day visit by ship to six Greek islands, including Patmos (where the Apostle John was in exile when he received and recorded Revelations), Crete, Mykanos, and Santorini. We even had a chance to return briefly to Ephesus.

The Greeks have a wonderful term for the “starter” portion of a meal: mezedes. That’s what visiting the various islands in just four days was: not a full feast but rather a tantalizing offering of mezedes.

The study portion of this trip, like everything else, has been excellent. Our tour leaders and guides for the past two weeks have been David and Elizabeth Sparks of Footstep Ministries out of Dallas. David was a classmate of ours at Wheaton as well as Gordon-Conwell and then went on to receive his D Min from Drew University. In addition to Mike’s photojournalism and my personal journal, we have each filled a spiral notebook with outlines of David’s thoughtful talks on Greek culture and history, the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul, Orthodoxy and our own descriptions of the various places Paul mentions in his letters.

Some of our lectures took place in the conference rooms or the rooftop of our hotels, but most were delivered on the bus or on site. We’ve read the Acts of the Apostles countless times, but it truly comes alive when you hear the familiar words while standing in the places where the actual events occurred. Last Sunday we visited the ancient site of Corinth. Celebrating Communion there was such a holy experience that Mike and I both choked up when our companions began to sing When I Survey the Wonderful Cross.

Learning on site reminds me of God’s instructions in Deuteronomy 6:6-8: “Talk about [these commandments] wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.”

Our tour group left this morning to return to the States, and we miss them already. We could not have asked for finer traveling companions. Mike and I have a final few days of exploration and reflection in Greece before we conclude this chapter of our sabbatical. We’ll share more of what we’ve been learning personally tomorrow.