Elders Hard At Work

There is no better place to have an elder retreat than the frozen cornfields of Iowa in January. Twenty current and former elders working on the vision of their church body looking five to ten years into the future, praying for that body of believers, for each other, sharing their joys and their sufferings. Doesn't get any better than that. More than a few tears of pain and joy were shed. If you are one of those who must check out every detail, you will find only nineteen men pictured in the portrait. One of our men had to leave on Saturday and the photo was taken on Sunday. We should have thought ahead a bit more, I guess. We were so focused on five years out that we forgot about today. It can happen to the best of us.

What does vision mean? What are the values that our church embraces? Is there a connection between vision and values? Is a vision statement like and advertising campaign? Or is a vision statement something much more? What will it help us do and why is it important?

I must admit to this weekend being about the best weekend I could imagine having. Some of our men went out pheasant hunting at -10 degrees F at a wild game farm. I passed on that. Didn't want to shoot anyone or "pull a Cheney." I am totally inexperienced at hunting. Never done it. But, more importantly, I love fire places so, so much when it is cold outside and we had a good one the Inn which we stayed at. Hot coffee, toasty slippers, warm fire, soft reclining chair...hunt at -10 degrees F. No way! Be assured, this blogger is "Smarter than the average bear!"

Israel Attacks Gaza Strip: What Do You Think?

I downloaded, from The Boston Globe web sight, these three photos that I thought said something. The mainstream media is effectively being censored by Israel regarding coverage from Gaza and Israel during the current war. Two of these photos were in fact taken from Israel, but the photo of the legs and feet of the dead child was downloaded from Al-Jazeera, which pretty much has exclusive coverage at due to the fact that they have at least eight reporters stationed in the Gaza strip. These reporters were in Gaza before hostilities broke out. Other media sources are not being allowed in by Israel.

On the bottom we see an American made Apache Longbow (latest, greatest version of our front line attack helicopter) flying towards the fight (quite an impressive photo artistically, I might add). In the middle is a photo of what appears to be an American made bunker buster type bomb exploding after having been dropped by an American designed and built F-16 Fighting Falcon (this information was taken from the byline of the Boston Globe). Finally we see the legs and feet, in death, of a Palestinian child brought about by this conflict. As of the typing of this post the body count is 4 to 5 Israeli civilians randomly killed by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip along with approximately 10 Israeli soldiers killed in action. The death toll in the Gaza Strip among the various Palestinian groups now exceeds 900. That is approximately a 57 to 1 death ratio. Certainly this is not what one would call a fair fight. At the same time fair fights can kill millions as the world experienced and found out in World War I and II.

There is an interesting equation beyond death ratios that is visible in these photos. Here it is; American fighter jets, attack helicopters, rockets, bombs, and bullets kill Palestinians. America equals dead Palestinians. Do you see that? Is that fair to state? Are we responsible at some level? Are we war enablers? Is the United States, we, right or wrong? Are we being controlled by what President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about in his last State of the Union Address (1960), the Military Industrial Complex? Is the Jewish lobby disproportionately influencial in our government? I would appreciate your input on these matters. What do you think? What should our next administration push for? What should "Followers of Christ" do and say about this conflict in the Middle East?