The Field is the World (Matt. 13:38)

This morning's group session in the arena was once again very introspective. One speaker mentioned a catch-phrase of C.S. Lewis'---that Jesus was the great " Iconoclast ," or breaker of our "small" images of who God is. In Luke 7, people come to Jesus with major problems that no one else could solve. A dying servant, a dead son, a crisis of faith... We were challenged to bring our challenges to the Lord and expect Him to carry them... ...then we were shown a heart-rending film. Several years ago, a son was born, like our daughter Emily, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Only, unlike in her case, the result was devastating. The doctors told the parents there was no brain activity. He was mostly paralyzed and unable to communicate. The parents refused to believe the diagnosis and approached a university to have them create a computerized means for him to communicate. His first words were, "go, Bruins!" Over a period of years, he convin...

We first arrived at the conference last night--there was a carnival atmosphere for the kids; unfortunately, we didn't know that, and we didn't bring them...but what they don't know won't hurt them, OK? So please help us keep the secret. Anyway, Luke and Emily are staying with Mike and Joyce Willis, friends from Calvary in California. Andrea, the Willis' 7-year-old, was Emily's first friend, and their son Dustin has really hit it off with Luke. We brought gifts for the kids to smooth the introductions. The evening was a great time to "cease driving and know that He is God." We had a good time of praise and worship followed by fellowship with fellow staff members from Orlando and San Clemente. This morning's session, led by Steve Sellers, was a real challenge to confront anything standing in the way with intimacy with God: tradition, mechanical action/busy-ness, unforgiveness, pride... We had two afternoon sessions on developing further intimacy with...

Today we're in Longmont, Colorado, less than an hour away from Ft. Collins, where our National Staff Conference will be taking place the rest of this week. We will be staying the rest of the week with Mike & Joyce Willis here in Longmont. Cindy's looking forward to getting caught up with her good friend Joyce, who left California last November. It's been over 100 degrees through most of Kansas and Colorado. So much for it being much cooler here! Of course, I spent 45 minutes or so yesterday outside in that heat making the kids run around and act crazy while Cindy visited a health-food store to get stuff for Luke. None of us were really sweating, although the kids were a little red-faced. 15 minutes of packing in Aiken the Sunday afternoon we left (after a church presentation) had me dripping wet; and the temperature readout on the truck read 89 dregrees. Humidity makes a big difference! We don't know what to expect for the conference; all the CSU veterans love the ...

This morning, we're leaving from Hays, Kansas. We made it in really late last night, so we're later getting off. Lord willing, this will be the last day of our cross-country expedition. Yesterday, midway through Missouri, we visited what must be the world's largest Western store--the kids loved it. They had stuffed animals of every variety on a ledge near the high ceiling-Giraffe, Wolves, Deer, Lion, Cape Buffalo, Bear, Wildebeest, Sable: just about anything you could name. How exciting! Luke and Emily each got a cowboy belt, which they like to wear outside their shirts. We should arrive in Longmont, CO this afternoon and are looking forward to the long drive being over. Our excitement for yesterday morning was discovering the oil-filler cap had been left off when we had our oil changed. We'd already driven about 800 miles that way. We went to the Ford dealership to get a cap, but when we came out to check, we found the cap under the hood! Praise God we didn't lose ...

This morning, we're in St. Louis, MO. We were able (praise God) to get an antibiotic called in for Luke, so we're hoping his skin will improve dramatically and be better for the rest of our trip. We're also hoping to get on the road earlier so that we can make more progress today. Topeka is only six hours away, and is the next big city; but that makes for a 9 1/2-hour drive on the final day. So we're hoping to make it further into Kansas today: Salina, Hays or Oakley. We're grateful for such a reliable vehicle and for our relative health. Cindy hasn't been feeling too well and Emily has the sniffles, and of course, there's Luke's chronic eczema, but otherwise, we're very well.

We are in Chattanooga this morning, at a hotel with wireless internet. Lotsa things have happened since our last communication. Luke's allergies were confirmed at the Allergist's office--but they were categorized. Since he doesn't go into anaphylactic shock with them (he only gets hives, which aggravate his eczema but aren't life-threatening) we were encouraged to feed him some of the things to which he showed mild reactions. We are beginning the 2nd leg of our journey to Ft. Collins, CO and will need to find a pharmacy at our next stop, St. Louis, to get some oral antibiotic for Luke on the way. His doctor in GA mistakenly filled a prescription for Elidel cream, one we don't use much anymore. We're still praying for a (Divine) appointment at National Jewish Hospital in Denver. It has an 8-week waiting list, but maybe there'll be a cancellation while we're there. We are at 61% in our support-raising. The Lord has been doing some marvelous things. Last we...

I just got a few minutes to sit down and type again and share about the latest news with Luke's allergies. As I reported last time, we knew in California that he was allergic to Peanuts and Eggs, the previous blood test from the allergist indicated allergies to wheat, corn, soy, milk and shrimp. It didn't take us long to discover that wheat , particularly, is in practically everything. So we were experimenting with (costly) organic foods containing rice as a substitute. Rice cereals, rice breads rice cakes, rice milk and rice ice-cream. We now have preliminary results from a second round of testing, revealing that he is even more allergic to rice than to wheat. Wow. Some items in this test will take a little longer, but we already know he's allergic to rice, beef and pork. Until the allergist returns from his vacation, we've just reverted to dairy and wheat since rice is evern worse and we have to nourish the little guy somehow. Please pray for him: he would prefer to...