"We're talking to some French people"

Our daughter, Lauren, is on a mission trip to Paris, France, May 21-31. We have not heard from her in a few days, except that on Sunday night she sent a text message from a Mississippi cell phone number to Sarah, one of the youth at our church in Rincon. The text message asked Sarah, whose mother is a native of France, what her mother's maiden name was and what city in France she was from. Then Lauren said, "We're talking to some French people."

Walking the mountain path

Allow me to explain this picture.

I took this picture on a mountain path at Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina, where I was attending a Christian writer's conference this week. I met many publishers and other writers as I sought to find a publisher interested in my "Holy Humor" stories and some of my other writing.

One morning I decided to get some exercise by walking up Rattlesnake Trail. I got so tired that I had to slither back down the trail without reaching the summit.

The next morning I tried the Royal Gorge trail, which is not as long as Rattlesnake Trail. Again I huffed and puffed, but I decided I would not let anything blow me down the mountain. As I got more exhausted and time passed, I looked at my watch and realized that I would miss breakfast. But I was determined to see the view from the top, so I kept walking. Did I mention that Royal Gorge Trail, while not as long as Rattlesnake Trail, is nevertheless nearly a mile long? Most of it is much steeper than the path in this picture. I thought of the climb as a metaphor for my writing. I told myself, "I'm not going to quit! I'm going to reach the top!" Finally I got to the summit and walked to the overlook with my camera. I could see nothing but a few trees and a lot of mist. I laid down on a bench, gasping so rapidly that if anybody had been there, they would have called for an ambulance. Soon a car drove up the road, parked near the summit, and a car door opened. I didn't even know you could DRIVE up to the summit. Some lazy person got out of the car and walked toward the overlook where I was struggling for oxygen, so I sat up and tried to look spiritual as I gazed out at the haze. Then I started walking back down the mountain. Suddenly I noticed the things on the path that I had not seen in my quest for the summit. I noticed a tree that jutted straight out over the path, seeming to defy gravity by growing out more than up. There were colorful purple and pink flowers all along the way. So I took this picture.

Here was the metaphor for my writing. The beauty is not found in reaching the top; the beauty is found in the journey along the way.

Lauren's writes from Paris on Thursday

Below is a Lauren's email sent on Thursday from her mission trip to Paris. Sounds like she got to do a lot of sightseeing. Pray for her as they visit college campuses to witness for Christ:

ok. so we finally came to an internet cafe the day AFTER i talked to you... lol. If i have a bunch of typos it is bc the keyboards are so different!!! we are still having a blast. The food is WONDERFUL here, and i'm not being sarcastic. haha!! mmm... there is a lot of chocolate, but i'm walking it off! so far we've seen the eiffel tower, champs ellises, Notre Dame, Hotel De Ville, the Lourve, another catholic church, the National Assembly, Arc du Triumphe, the Heart of Paris (which is a church built way up on top of a hill where you can see all of paris), and of course PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN!! Today we ate lunch in Luxembourg Garden which is sooo beautiful. We visited 2 schools to try to meet students and we saw the Pantheon. This is soooo the koolest city in the world!! Keep praying for us. I love you sooo much.
Lauren

Lauren is in Paris!

Lauren sent my wife Mary a text message today and she got it at 1:31 PM. "Hey mama. It's Lauren. we're safe in paris! I love you! don't call or text back because it's expensive."

UPDATE ON WEDNESDAY: Lauren called her mother today to say that they went prayerwalking today and would start their ministry tomorrow.

Amazing turn of events for mission trip to Paris

Our daughter Lauren's trip to Paris with a mission team from her church in Mississippi was almost cancelled, but God did a miracle and she is leaving tomorrow morning!

Lauren is a student at Mississippi College, in Clinton, MS, and goes to Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton. She was going to Paris with a team of college students and three adults to witness to college students in Paris May 21-31.

When Lauren applied for the passport in Jackson on March 5, she was told that the "latest possible" arrival of the passport was Monday, May 14.

When it did not arrive on May 14, she called the toll-free number of the State Department and she was told that there is an unprecedented demand for passports, but that they would expedite it, and it would arrive on Friday, May 18.

When it did not arrive on May 18, I called the State Department again, and this time I was told that it had not yet been processed, and the person I talked to said that whoever told Lauren on Monday that it was expedited was wrong.

At that point, I got on the phone with our U.S. Congressman's constituent services office, and they called the processing center and explained the urgency of it. A wonderful woman named Evon Davis with U.S. Congressman John Barrow's office called the New Orleans processing office twice to pester them about Lauren's passport. The New Orleans office told Ms. Davis that they would try to get Lauren's passport overnighted to her that day, but they could not promise anything.

We heard nothing on Saturday, and when we called the State Department on Saturday to try to find out something, we got a recording saying they were too busy to answer the phones. At that point, we had resigned ourselves to the idea that she was not going to France. Her grandparents (my wife's parents) had driven to Georgia to visit us, with plans to take her back to Mississippi to catch the plane in Jackson on Monday. So her grandparents went to the early service with us on Sunday morning and then they returned to Mississippi without Lauren. I informed the congregation about what had happened. We heard that the congregation at Morrison Heights Baptist Church was praying about Lauren's passport during worship on Sunday morning.

Then at about 3:05 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Sunday afternoon, a FedEx truck drove up at our house. Lauren ran to open the door as he knocked, and my wife Mary ran to her side. The man handed her an envelope, and they immediately saw it was the passport, and they repeated the whole story to the delivery man as they cried for joy.

At that point, they had to find out how to get Lauren connected to the rest of the group, since the group was leaving from Jackson on Monday morning, and Lauren's transportation to Mississippi had already left (her grandparents were already on their way back to Mississippi). So they found out that there is a U.S. Air flight from Savannah to Charlotte that she could catch. She had to drive to the Savannah airport on Sunday afternoon, which is only 15 miles from our house, and personally ask them to change the departure from Jackson to Savannah. U.S. Air made the change, and did not even charge her anything for the change!

So on Monday morning, while the rest of the group flies from Jackson to Charlotte, Lauren will fly from Savannah to Charlotte, arriving there ahead of the Mississippi group. Then they will all meet up and she will fly with them to Philadelphia and on to Paris!

God is soooo good! He must have something special in mind for this mission trip to France. Pray for God to use them in a mighty way.

UPDATE MONDAY MORNING: Lauren has already left Savannah and called to say she safely arrived in Charlotte, and she had talked to the team leaving Jackson and they are already on their plane. So she's on her way!

UPDATE MONDAY AFTERNOON: Lauren is now with her mission team in Philadelphia, where they have an 8-hour layover before flying to Paris tonight. She got to visit Independence Hall and see the Liberty Bell. She is very excited.

Choosing God or Darwin

The famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, said in his book The Blind Watchmaker: "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist."
Why did Dawkins say this?
Because Darwinian theory claims that totally new species evolved by random mutation. Thus nature works by chance, according to the Darwinist, and there is no need for God.
Yet Darwinists are having a harder and harder time explaining DNA and so many other evidences of an Intelligent Designer. As Dr. William Demski says in The Design Revolution: "Like compulsive gamblers who are constantly hoping that some big score will cancel their debts, evolutionary biologists live on promissory notes that show no sign of being redeemable."

Forgetting Mom can be costly

I heard about a young minister who was preparing to preach his first sermon. He asked an experienced pastor for advice on how to begin his sermon.
"Start with an illustration that will grab their attention," the older preacher said. "For example: 'Some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife.' "He smiled at the younger man's shocked expression before adding, "She was my mother."
The next Sunday the young pastor nervously clung to the pulpit as he faced the congregation. Finally he said, "Some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife." He was pleased at the instant reaction--then became panic-stricken, and said, "But for the life of me, I can't remember who she was!"

Forgetting your mother can be costly. It's Mother's Day. Don't forget.

How can I believe in God?

I just finished a sermon series on objections to the Christian faith by ending at the beginning: the question of atheism.

If a person doesn't believe in God, all of the other arguments for Christianity don't matter.

So how can I believe that God exists? By three thoughts:

1. It is impossible to prove that God does not exist.

2. It is reasonable to believe that God does exist.

3. It is foolish not to seek God if He does exist.

[To read this entire sermon, click on the comments and read the first comment below.]