Synergy 2009

As women's events go, Synergy is my favorite. Take a racially diverse group of women leaders from across the world, throw in meaty content, and add a generous helping of rockin' music. If you didn't get to go this year (and even if you did), you can still listen free to audios online or downloaded to your iThingy.

Plans are already underway for 2009 in Orlando, where we'll explore "Your Relationships in the Story: The Blessed Alliance." So block off Friday-Sunday, March 6-8, and join us in Mickey's city, where I've been asked to "co" again with Lesa Englethaler heading up the writers' track. For more info, go here: http://www.synergytoday.org/

Stranded on Omnipotence

So my hubby is considering a career change... He's thinking and praying about becoming a project manager with East-West Ministries Int’l (EWMI; www.eastwest.org), based in Addison, Texas. The job is a stateside position that involves overseeing humanitarian works in Kenya such as the building, development, and operations of AIDS orphanages; primary and Bible schools; and widows’ skills training programs in Kenya.

I love the idea of helping to empower the marginalized. By providing humanitarian aid, we have the opportunity to bring glory to God as at-risk people experience the love of Christ expressed tangibly. A church-planting ministry is part of this effort, with fellowships established and led by national pastors trained at a Bible school in Kenya.

Before my man (or EWMI) signs on the dotted line, we’ve been invited to Kenya July 7–18 to see the existing work and meet the field leaders with whom he may be working. In addition to visiting the AIDS orphanage sites, schools, and churches, we’ll also share our testimonies and show the “Jesus” film in the local language at various places.

For most of the trip, the team will be with two people groups—the Maasai, who live in the plains of SW Kenya at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro; and the Pokot, in the Rift Valley north of Nairobi.

Our friends who have worked in the Maasai and Pokot regions have found that the people want to hear more about Christ once they see His love demonstrated through aiding widows, caring for orphans, educating children, serving AIDS patients, and providing clean water. We hope to be a part of meeting these needs long-term.

So I'm asking a favor: Please pray for them and us.

And also... some of you, my readers, have expressed an interest in participating. So here's the skinny on how you can if you want to: Our total need is $7,800, plus the cost of immunizations. (We're covering our daughter's costs, so this is the total for Gary and me.) You can give online by credit card by following this link. In the “special instructions” box, type “Glahns trip ID# KN01. (All contributions deductible.)

The New Testament defines faultless, true religion this way: “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (Jas 1:27). In the face of enormous needs we can work together to make a difference.

Go girls!

Kindred Spirit, the magazine I edit for Dallas Theological Seminary, received an Award of Merit from the Evangelical Press Association in the "Cause of the Year: Hunger" category. The award-winning contributors within the issue were Kelley Mathews for an interview article titled "Why Feed the Hungry?" and Shannon Brasel for her two-page photojournalism spread.

Back Again

I rolled in from Portland late last night. My flight was due in shortly after midnight, but it got delayed, and I think my head hit the pillow around 3:30 AM. (This after a long layover in San Francisco. Ugh.) Fortunately, we had a hotel room near the airport so I wouldn't have the one-hour drive home and a one-hour drive back this morning to march with the faculty at DTS's graduation. Boy, was that decision worth every cent! (Also, our girl loved the pool, and my husband liked the part about the free hot breakfast.)

Today was worth every minute of sleep I missed to book 'em back to town! It is so cool to watch friends receive their doctorates and master's degrees after years of hard work. The day had so many highlights, most of which will remain private moments with the students I was celebrating, but a definite high point was when my former student Bernadette from Rwanda (and one of my heroes) received her master's in counseling and introduced me to her friends as if I were the celebrity of the day. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Tomorrow's Mother's Day. It's a great time to honor all women who nurture. And for moms to give thanks for their kids.

It's also a good time to remember the infertile (who often call it M-day); people who've lost moms; moms estranged from their kids; kids estranged from their moms; moms who've lost kids; and birthmoms. Same with grandmothers. Today's a day to give thanks; to appreciate; to forgive; to restore; to pray for healing; to mourn but remember with gratitude.

And if you don't have kids, why not love on other people's? I've never met a child who couldn't benefit from more love.

More from Portland

By the way, my mom served elk for dinner. Are my peeps foodies, or what?

I promised to come back to Oregonian Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz, so here goes.

He reminded us that story does something in our brains that proposition can't do. And our lives are stories in which God hands us the pen. He provides the setting* and the other characters, and He gives us "self" as protagonist. Then he tells us, "Make it good." The goal is that at the end, God can say, "Well done. Good story." That's the climactic scene--when we stand before the Almighty and hear "well done."

So how do we get there? We write the journey so He can say, "I like it. I like your story." It's not enough for that character to want to pay off his car and accomplish that goal in the end. The final scene can't be the character driving away in a debt-free car. That's not a big enough goal. Yet that's often the sort of goal we set when we sit down and write "What I want to accomplish this year." So we need to set loftier goals that make a difference in the grand scheme.

Now, the Audience has to want the character to succeed, and the character of the protagonist matters. There's a fine line between hero and villain. The hero can't think of him- or herself as better than others. (Nobody wants a totally smug character to succeed.)

He reminded us that when we walk out of bad movies, we don't say, "Movies stink." We say, "That movie stunk." And in the same way, when people say, "Life is meaningless," the reality is, maybe that person's life is meaningless. But that doesn't make life meaningless.

Our choices have a lot to do with making our story meaningful. And the more obstacles we face, often the more satisfying the ending.

*P.S. Speaking of setting--In today's chapter of my life, I'm looking out on gold-gilded clouds breaking over the Columbia River. And I have Mt. St. Helens in view. Pity, eh?

From the City of Roses

Internationally speaking:

Congratulations to Israel on celebrating sixty years as a nation!

Did you read the Evangelical Manifesto? Lots of folks are talking about it. What do you think? Ever wondered what the heck the word "evangelical" means? Now you get some answers. And you'll be relieved to know it's not supposed to be synonymous with right-wing political agenda.

Personally speaking:

I flew into Portland, Oregon, on Monday to attend board meetings for the Evangelical Press Association, followed by the national conference. Last night Portland's mayor kicked us off with an introduction of Luis Palau, who was fab. (And afterward I went out for a chat with my brother, who lives here.)

Today Donald Miller addressed us and I attended a workshop with him afterward during which he answered lots of questions...about writing and finding his father and his next project and how he doesn't even know (or care?) what the emergent church is. More on all this soon.

Then tonight my sis and her son picked me up and drove me about 40 minutes to have dinner at my parents' house. My brother and his girlfriend joined us, and we celebrated Mother's Day a little early.

Two of my closest friends lost their moms this year. If your mom's still alive, tell her you love her!

Bigtime Transition

In February in my capacity of Kindred Spirit editor, I taped a two-hour interview with friends we've supported in Kenya for six years. During their time there, they've established a number of humanitarian efforts that include AIDS orphanages, business grants for a widow's business co-op, well drilling, and building churches (both physical and spiritual).

After this interview, we had lunch and interacted more. And the following week, they asked my unemployed hubby to consider taking his combo of theological and business experience and putting it to good use with this ministry. We were stunned. But then it made sense. It would not require a move--it's a Dallas-based position. And it seems a perfect blend of all his experience and passions.

The vision is for someone in the Dallas office to serve as the home office point person for field leaders; develop business plans; manage projects; provide short-term team support; and in the longer term, plan for implementation of this model in other parts of the developing world.

At this point we are leaning toward "yes." The main obstacle is that we'd have to raise the funds for a salary.

So before we make any commitments to such a huge change in our lives, our family has been invited to go on a ten-day "vision" trip to Kenya this July 7-17. It would allow my hubby to meet with the field leaders with whom he would be working, should we decide it's a mutual fit. And it would allow us to have a lot more facts about what would be involved. In addition we'd be working with teams showing the Jesus film in several locations, giving us opportunities to minister rather than just observe.

Three other kids are going--all girls--and, interestingly, all within a year of our daughter's age. So this is a great chance for our girl to see a part of the world's needs in a context where she's not just a kid tagging along with a lot of grown ups but actually serving alongside some of her peers. And because the kids will be with our team of about 14, we are scheduled to go only to locations considered "secure."

We felt strongly that we're supposed to take this step. But it is a step of faith because it means we've committed to travel with a big price tag. And--did I mention--my man is unemployed?

But perhaps he lost his job "for such a time as this"?

Arts II

Yesterday I included a link to my thoughts on the arts. But today I'm going to make it easy for you (apparently some of my readers see my words on blog services but don't get the links, eh?). Instead of following a link, just keep reading, and I'll just tell ya here what I think. It came about because a fellow writer, LeAnne, asked, "Why do you think Christians should care about the arts?" And I had some opinions on the subject (Opinions R Us):

The Bible is filled with places where we see God's passion for art. In Genesis He makes the world, animals, humanity. In Exodus we see Him giving fantastic instructions for a beautiful tent complete with a wardrobe for those who serve in it. In Leviticus we see him creating all sorts of symbolic ways to express His holiness. Fast forward to Ezekiel or Hosea where we see him giving bizarre instructions to serve as object lessons...

Christians should care about the arts because God created us all to be artists and to appreciate art. It's a human thing and humans are made in God's image. The first verb/second word in Genesis is "created," and the subject is God. Part of reflecting God's image is creating. We were made for this! Have you ever handed a preschooler a piece of paper on which to draw and heard, "I'm just not creative"? (Only when we get old enough to compare our work with that of others do we shut down creativity.) God reveals himself through special revelation (the Word) and through general revelation (creation in its many forms), and we learn about God and express the works of the Almighty in our lives through interaction with both.

And think of Jesus using metaphor--I am the way, the door, the bread, the good shepherd... And communion with its bread and wine engaging our senses of touch and taste and smell and sight as we partake, and sound as we hear the familiar lines "This is my Body." Even the least literate societies can "get" communion and baptism.

I saw an exhibit of Early Christian Art not long ago at Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum, and the predominant image was of Jonah. Much more than crosses, images of Jonah's three-day entombment and deliverance were the favorite images of Christ-followers in the first few centuries of the church.

And that's not to mention the Sistine Chapel.

Where would art historians be if they knew nothing of the Bible? How much sense would Rembrandt's Prodigal Son make without the story it illustrates?

My brother is a curator for a museum in Oklahoma and when he was in art school, he saw a painting of Bathsheba holding a pomegranate--a symbol of faithfulness. His classmates had no idea what that meant. But he had enough biblical tools to discover the painting was probably not intended to express irony. Many scholars believe Solomon wrote Proverbs 31 and that he wrote it about his mother, Bathsheba, who was--as a righteous woman--taking a ceremonially cleansing bath when a sex-starved king sent his troops to bring her to his palace. Art--including storytelling--and theology intersect beautifully.

Not long ago I attended the funeral of a former boss for whom I'd prayed for more than a decade. To my delight, I learned at that service that he had come to faith in the past few years. As his son-in-law described it, he had walked into a country church and heard the strains of "Amazing Grace," and he knew he was home. I love how God uses art to move people!

Why Care about the Arts?

Why should we care about the arts? In fact why should Christ-followers especially care about the arts? Read my answer over at the Christians in the Arts blog.

Also, today is the national day of prayer. Remember to pray for yourself that you would do justice and love mercy; for our country and her leaders that they would act wisely; and for the world and its suffering.

The Shack--Your Opinion?

Yesterday I received my fifth request for an assessment of the novel, The Shack. But I'm at semester's end (getting grades turned in) and gearing up to teach an intensive class daily during the month of May. So it'll be June before I can think about reading fiction again.

So it's up to you to tell me.

If you've read it, what did you think?

And why?

They Like Us!

ForeWord Magazine has announced the finalists for its 2007 Book of the Year Awards. And numbered among this year's finalists is the Cutrer-Glahn collaborative effort, Sexual Intimacy in Marriage (3rd Edition) in the Family & Relationships category.

This is the tenth year that ForeWord has awarded their Book of the Year Awards, which focus on works coming from the independent press community. Winners are determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers selected from ForeWord's readership. Winners will be announced at BookExpo America at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on May 30.

ForeWord employs professional freelance reviewers from all over the United States and Canada. Most of them have “day” jobs at universities or libraries and many of them review for the magazine's peer journals, Kirkus, Booklist, Choice, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. They describe themselves this way: "ForeWord affects the choices of booksellers and librarians across the country who tell millions what to read. We also put the magazine in the hands of agents and editors at larger houses who are looking for leads to bring into their fold from the independent press sector."

Excerpt

The "You've Got Books" site is running excerpts from Cappuccino with Colossians starting today. Here's a link to the first installment. The site, a service of the Christian Authors' Network (CAN) runs excerpts daily so readers can "test drive" a book before buying it. Feel free to subscribe while you're there.

Got Shots?

Thursday afternoon my husband came running into the house grasping his thumb--which he had cut with the table saw. We had no idea how bad it was because when he realized he'd done it, he grabbed it and wouldn't let go.

He was in enough pain that the doc thought he'd hit bone, but as it turns out, the x-ray showed he missed by a hair. (He cut his thumb the long way, not across.) Doc said, "Somebody must be watching out for you." Somebody, indeed.

My man got six shots and six stitches. Which brings me to my point... If you do immunizations, are you up-to-date on your shots? Adults should receive a booster shot for Tetanus every 10 years, along with diphtheria immunization according to the CDC, which now recommends an adult immunization visit at age 50 years.