A Day with Romica Iuga

Speaking to us today has been Romica Iuga, a minister in Romania. He and his brother lead one of the largest churches in Eastern Europe. His church has done a lot of work with children in an attempt to make a dent in the orphanage problem.

He fascinated us with tales of life in the church during the communist regime. He also pondered whether the church had more difficulty under the yoke of communism or under the new wave of materialism that followed communism.

One of the nicer moments (for me) came when I asked him if the push by American churches to get Bibles behind the Iron Curtain was helpful and/or welcome. I just remember many such attempts being reported to our church when I was young. He revealed that his dad used to be one of the Christians in Romania who distributed the Bibles the churches sent. He said they were a great blessing for the Romanian church.
Romi and I had lunch together at Jose's Mexican Restaurant. I was pleased to discover that he has spent time in Vienna at TCM's Haus Edelweiss. He knows Tony Twist, Bruce Shields, Henry Webb, and Eleanor Daniel.

Borrowing a Night from India

Last night was a good one. Dad and Wendy brought family friends (and missionaries to India) to visit us in Lexington. Bana and Marguerite Uriah are in the US for a few weeks and Lexington was a good exchange point on their way to Johnson Bible College. Dr. Templar from Johnson came to pick them up. We all gathered at Masala, an Indian restaurant in Lexington. Dad also invited the international Beeson Pastors who are from India.

Cindy and the girls were there too. They serve some American food, which made Anna and Cora happy. I really love having the opportunity for the girls to meet people from all over the world.
The Uriahs are missionaries in Megalaya, the northeast of India. Their daughter, Helen, attended Milligan College while I attended Emmanuel. Their son, Richard, has been a part of a distance degree at Johnson Bible College. Our families have known each other a long time. They named one of their auditoriums after my mother.

Here Bana and PC Matthew are chatting. PC is an outgoing and entertaining guy.

Victor on the left, and George on the right. They are both a part of the church in southern India. This is Dr. Templar sitting next to my dad.

The conversation was wonderful . . . then we all took pictures.

More Preaching in the Kalas Class

I failed to report on last week's preaching laboratory, so I will combine it with a report on yesterday's preaching class. Actually, I will just post these pictures. The sermons continue to be goood. I remember thinking last week how nice it was to get to hear my calssmates preach. This time I will just label the pictures.

Matt Scholl
Scott LayerNolan DonaldBryan Bucher

Jason McIntosh...and Aaron Wymer

Here is a picture of the congregation . . . each person engrossed in the messages!

I Got to See the Gators Play--Live and In Person!

It has been about 12 years since I made it to a Gator football game. Being in the ministry tends to limit one's ability to travel to Gainesville, Florida on a Saturday and then make it back to Johnson City to preach on Sunday morning. When my college roommate, Rob, called and told me he had tickets to the LSU vs. Florida . . . I decided to go. It was, after all, a very big game for us.I got a cheap flight out of Indianapolis. This allowed me to visit my brother and his family on Thursday night. I got to see his kids on the new bag swing that they call the "Vine." This picture is from the bottom of the hill looking up at Ethan and Marcus at the apex of their flight. Pretty high for a couple of kids, eh?
On Friday morning I went to breakfast with Eric and his friend, Phil. Phil goes to the former church of my fellow Beeson Pastor, Matt Scholl. It's a Methodist Church in Mooresville, Indiana.

Then I went by Eric's office. I thought I had a lot of paper work! My wonderful sister-in-law, Missy, then took me to the Indianapolis International Airport.

I then flew to Jacksonville, Florida where my host family, the Dillards, took good care of me. Here they are taking me out for pizza (and it was really good pizza, too!). Rob is driving, the boys are Dalton (on left) and Jackson (on right), and waaaaay in the back you can see Joelle.

Jackson used visual aids to predict a Gator victor over the LSU Tigers.

Rob and I made the trip to Gainesville on Saturday morning--courtesy of four LSU fans who let us ride in their car. Rob is an IRS attorney. I am a minister. Nothing kills a party like having to haul the two of us someplace. Special thanks to the LSU fans who all treated us well.

Below you can see ESPN GameDay's Chris Fowler signing the back of somebody's shirt.

I had to make a trip to Century Tower, one of UF's landmark buildings. I'm not mad, I'm just trying to aim the camera and take the picture!

I also wanted to get a picture of Peabody Hall. This is the building where I met Cindy (in class) 21 years ago . . . it was just before the LSU game that year. Cindy and I met in Anthropology 1101 (Dr. Rice was the professor).

Rob and I got lunch at Leonardo's Pizzeria (I know . . . pizza two days in a row . . . I was in heaven). Then we met up with Joelle. She drove separately because it was important to her to be a good mom. She stayed in Jacksonville on Saturday morning just long enough to coach one soccer game, then attend another. With Jackson and Dalton's soccer careers firmly established, she made it to Gainesville just in time for the game.

Cindy used to be in the band, so I thought of her when they came out in formation.

Then I got to enjoy a sight that has been a long time in coming. The Swamp came alive for the big game. It was the second largest crowd ever.

Rob and Joelle kept me safe in the midst of ravenous Tiger fans.Just like old times . . . well, not exactly like old times. These two roommates have aged just a liiiiiiittle bit.

Gators Win! Gators Win! Gators Win!
It was good to be back on campus, but the students look the same age as when I left! While there I was struck by how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to attend the University of Florida. If I applied today I wouldn't get in. The average applicant admitted to the 2004 freshman class had a high school GPA in the range of 3.8-4.3 and SAT scores in the range of 1200-1370 and ACT scores 26-30. My scores were . . . ummmmm . . . less than that.

When I got back to Indianapolis my dad picked me up. We had a nice lunch (just the two of us, that's a rarity!) and then I was off to Wilmore.

Multi-Site Churches

Please allow me to introduce you to Marv Vose. He is the minister of the Sunrise United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is leading a day-long seminar on multi-site churches. One of the nice things about today's seminar is that the International Beeson Pastors are with us in class for the first time. Discussion was slow at the start of the day but as we've grown more comfortable with each other we've talked more. It's good to hear an international perspective.Our classroom has a lot more people in it today, and it's nice.

Travis has all of his buttons.

Isaac is from Nigeria. I haven't had a chance to get to know him yet. The program keeps the International students very busy.

Here is Bryan Bucher. He is the one who will be coming to Johnson City to do the ethnography for us at Grandview.

P.C. Matthew is from India. I'm hoping to get together with P.C. and the other pastors from India when Bana and Margurite Uriah are in Lexington on Tuesday, October 10.

Preaching Days: Round Two

Dr. Kalas' preaching class resumed on Tuesday. His classes are my favorites (you've probably already figured that out!). I look forward to any occasion to learn from him. He is a stickler for the details of preaching, right down to things like which buttons you fasten on your suit coat.
Which is why Travis was less than thrilled when his top button fell off right before class. Fortunately, Kent was there to console young Travis.

He opened his sermon by making sure Dr. Kalas knew he was at the mercy of broken thread.

Kent began by praying for the families in Nickel Mines, PA. Which is something that became even more important to me once I got the word (this morning) that Grandview's own Mattie Stoltzfus lost a family member in the shooting and had another injured. Thanks, Kent, for remembering to open us up with prayer.Jim preached as well. He (like the two before him) did a fine job. It was a good Tuesday of sermons--sermons that challenged me personally.

The week in review. . .

I've done a poor job of taking pictures lately. I promise to return to my pesky, always-taking-pictures, self. I sort of took last week off (as far as blogging goes) because . . . well . . . how exciting would reports of me reading and writing really be?

I'll try to fill-in some details this week. Below you can see that the statue of John Wesley was fitted with armor by some of the students (one presumes it's students) . At first I thought it was just one of those silly things students do from time to time (something I was never prone to doing at Emmanuel!). However, I've since wondered if the action was meant for humor or for protest. The president's situation at Asbury is still quite up in the air (or crashing to earth, as the case may be).As far as I can tell, the heart of the matter is that the board of Asbury is not unified in the direction they would like Asbury to go. Apparently there is a faction of the board that treated the president in a heavy-handed fashion. This upset him and he resigned. . . and then he didn't resign. . . and then a waiting game began.

Those of you who are on the board at Emmanuel or Milligan can imagine how difficult this situation has become for professors and administration and students and board members. At this point I don't know how the president could come back, but that appears to be a possibility.

I wonder if our next class (Leadership!) will advise us to lead in a fashion similar to the current Asbury president and board. . . probably not.

Speaking of classes, we finished our Anthropology for the American Church class last week. Our final report is supposed to be an ethnography of a local church (that means we have to sit down and figure out what the people of a town/church are like).

My first thought was that I would go back home and do an ethnography of Johnson City/Grandview. Then I had a better idea. I asked classmate Bryan Bucher if he would be interested in switching with me. He is the only other Beeson Pastor who is returning to his previous location. The plan is this: I am going to Lima, Ohio to do an ethnography of his church/town and he will be cruising into Tennessee to get a stranger's view of Johnson City/Grandview. He has a great mind and he has promised to be brutally honest. I know you will show him some fine Southern hospitality. I'll make sure the Allmans know when a fellow Buckeye is in town. They may have a secret handshake or something.

On a totally different note, below is a picture of a "game gathering" at the McIntosh's last week. We had a good time playing board games and chatting and eating.


Yesterday (Sunday) we finally made it to Tate's Creek Christian Church in Lexington. I've heard a lot about Tate's Creek over the years because their former minister, Brad Walden, is on the board at Emmanuel. I always enjoy chatting with him. Also, there are some congregational connections (via the Nippers).

Cindy, the girls, and I really enjoyed Tates Creek. There was a guest preacher yesterday. We didn't get the normal week, but it this is the first church we've visited that felt at least a little bit like home.

We'll be back there next week, even though it's a little farther away than we would like.

I have to mention that the Gators are 5-0. They haven't looked unbeatable. And yet, here they are! They beat Alabama on Saturday. They play LSU next week. If they don't play better than they have the past two weeks then they will get beaten by the Bayou Boys. Geaux Gators!
John Parker Wilson is the quarterback for Alabama. I put his picture on the blog because he was talking a lot of smack during the game. He's a risk taker. His gun-slinger attitude served him well several times. He completed some amazing passes, BUT it was his recklessness that cost Bama the game. The Gators intercepted him three times. If he were a smarter quarterback Bama would have won.This picture is just for my Auburn friends here at Asbury. They have to deal with Bama fans on a regular basis. I love this picture. I've never seen a shirtless guy with pits before!