Happy for Sabbath Calm

It is about 5:00 p.m. and normalcy (if such a thing exists) is beginning to return to my life, at least for the moment. I took an afternoon walk around the campus of TAA after having taken a short nap after coming home from my morning preaching commitment (and a tasty pot luck). I have no commitments this afternoon, although I am planning to be present to make a plug for TAA at the Jesus Loves Jeans Youth Event this evening.

My evangelistic meetings ended this morning at the Central Valley SDA Church. I realized this morning that the 35th Avenue church is the same church I visited when I was an 18 year-old back in the late 70s. I had come to spend the summer with two friends who had convinced me I should sell religious books door to door in Phoenix. In Phoenix! In the summer! In spite of the apparent lunacy associated with that decision, the summer ended up being a watershed time in my life. I met some fine people who still live in the area. Tom Bledsoe I believe was treasurer of the conference at the time. My immediate literature evangelist supervisor was gentleman by the last name Reedy, I believe. He was enthusiastic as all get out!

I met Mr. and Mrs. Parra, who welcomed my friends and I as family. They were wonderful people. I found out a cousin of mine who I had not seen for many years was student at TAA. My canvassing buddies and I spent a good portion of the summer living in a trailer with no air conditioning. The swamp fan had no water attachment, so it served an alternative use—clothes dryer. I do remember spending at least a couple of nights in the comfort of the TAA dorm. That was incredible! I didn’t sell many books that summer. But I had a spiritual reawakening. In the long run that was a more valuable result that the money.

It’s interesting how things that seem to be totally disastrous often end up changing the entire direction of a live—for the better. Others, for the sake of full disclosure, end up being outright disasters. But I have learned that even those may reap collateral results that produce something positive. Life is a string of events that together form a tapestry of our lives. Some of those patterns or designs appear at the moment they are taking shape to be dissonant or out of place. But when the entire masterpiece of our lives is seen from the perspective of eternity, they will make perfect sense or have a unique beauty to them in the context of the whole. I am thankful for that. God is good—all the time!

I, for one, at this particular moment, am delighted to be enjoying the Sabbath hours without the cacophony of life. There is a calming effect to the Sabbath that God knew we needed at least once a week. Happy Sabbath, everyone! Enjoy it while it lasts. The work week begins in a few hours.

That Friday Feeling

Hallelujah! It’s Friday! I am sitting in my office at the Conference Office working on the day the office is closed for business. I am not alone. There are other people here who, like me, find the quietness of the office on Fridays an excellent opportunity to catch up on some work.

Of course it helps that I am typing on my new Sony Vaio Computer. What is Vaio, you ask? It stands for Video Audio Integrated Operation. Pretty cool, huh? My old ASUS computer is going through a rebellious stage and has been sent in for a major overhaul. Maybe they’ll gut it while they are at it! On a positive note all my files and pictures survived the transfer. The IT guy was able to move every file from the server and from the old computer on to the new one. All I had to do was to load on my programs in order to utilize my files. (I actually worked with a person in the Philippines on the transfer of my Intuit business program.) I am up and running!

Personnel Committee is slated to meet on Monday to begin the process of going through resumes submitted for the positions opening up at TAA. It is a daunting task, considering we are already entering the month of May. Resumes are coming in occasionally, in addition to names being recommended by various sources. It’s interesting when you see certain names appear on more than one list. Those are the ones that call your attention. I have been making phone calls all week between my other duties. The responses to my calls run the gamut from “that’s interesting,” a polite way of saying “are you crazy?” to “tell me more,” a good sign that will not always translate into “keep me on the list.”

The phone calls have led to some very interesting discussions about the direction Adventist Education is headed and the need for new approaches to funding, student work, vision, and such things. It is refreshing to hear people all over the country who are passionate about education. It is possible to fall into the “Elijah Syndrome” and believe you are the only one fighting the battle. That’s crazy! There are people everywhere that want something better for our system. It will be exciting to see how and where God will lead through and often times in spite of our interference.

I am finishing my “Good News” Series at the Central Valley Spanish Church tomorrow. 25 Fundamental Beliefs down and only three more to go after tonight’s meeting. I’ve had a hoot! I am surprised people come coming back night after night. I’ve made some new friends (I need some right now!). I am all too aware that God once used a donkey to convey His word for the day. I am only too happy to allow Him to spread some good news through me wherever there are people willing to hear them (and we could all use some good news!).

Sabbath is a welcomed friend. Even if Sabbath is the busiest day of the week, it still is different from the rest if for no other reason than the fact that it is Sabbath! I miss the family! My daughter, Amanda is preaching her final sermon at the Garden Grove Church. She’s preaching on some topic related to the new heaven and the new earth. Wow! She has a gift. I don’t know how she is going to do it, since she is also moving homes today, even as I am writing these words. God bless you, Amanda!

Stretched, but Not Snapped

Off and running on Tuesday morning. I went through a list of possible candidates for the position of Principal at TAA. Made the calls and spoke to a number of them. People are hard to find—I guess people are busy. What’s that about? Come on---busy? In some ways it might be problematic to have candidates just sitting around waiting for someone to call them.

My sermon series at Central Valley Spanish Church keeps developing as I go through the week. Tonight I will be speaking on the Sabbath. We are in Exodus 3:4. That is the verse that will launch my message. I am pretty excited about the direction the messages are taking. I am trying to keep all the themes Christ-centered and anchored in love, not fear. Maybe a book will come out of this series. I have been tempted to do something like that for many years, but I have always used my busy-ness as an excuse for not submitting a manuscript of some sort to someone. Who knows?

I get my car back tomorrow—hopefully! I have been riding around in a blue Honda Insight. I don’t like it. It smells funny. I am beginning to feel a bit of pressure to find the time for a final visit to all the schools before the end of the year. Just one more thing to do. One last observation. Summative evaluations. Contracts. Campmeeting planning. Town Hall planning. Securing personnel for Thunderbird. Find a Principal. Find a Registrar. Science Teacher. Math Teacher. Sabbath School at Campmeeting Planning. Hispanic Campmeeting planning. Family Ministries. Hurry, call the “whambulance”!
Actually I love it—it leaves little time for waste. I find myself doing my 24 Hour Fitness routine after midnight. And let’s not forget Penny’s Swamp Smoothie Recipe I concoct for myself every morning.

Irony of the day-- My boys threaten to kill me if I don’t take care of myself better….oh well—let me take a last swig of my lukewarm Swamp Smoothie I brought to work in my 200 oz. 7-11 plastic drink container. Yum yum!

God is Good-- What a Concept!

Another new week! It’s been an exceptional week already and it’s only Monday. I began my evangelistic series at the Central Valley Spanish Church, which is on the west side of Phoenix. The pastor is quite a character and the members are warm and inviting. It’s a new experience for me—all over again. It’s been years since I last conducted an evangelistic series. Back in those days we still called them “crusades,” which seems to politically incorrect today in light of the negative implications that word carries for many fine people of the Muslim persuasion.

In any case I am trying a new approach to evangelism—a 100% guarantee of good news the whole week. No beasts. No plagues. No arbitrary rules. Just Good News! It doesn’t seem far-fetched since the belief that God is good all the time is at the core of my picture of God. If there seems to be an occasion when God appears to be less that good, I would submit that the misperception lies in us, not in God’s act. Our limited understanding of God’s omniscience will keep us from grasping decisions God has made, which in the big picture and provided His knowledge of the end from the beginning, would in fact be loving choices. I recognize it is a personal choice to hold to this worldview, but the option is to concede that God has at times (and presently) acted in ways that are not loving because He is sovereign and we just have to trust Him when he acts “strangely.” You can see I have strong feelings about this. It’s a character of God issue to me.

Oh, by the way, my entire series in anchored in the story of Moses in Exodus 3. Oh yeah, I am covering all 28 fundamental beliefs of the church (as good news) out of that story. I’m quite excited about the journey. Every day a new message with a new slant on my core beliefs flowing from a unmovable tenet that God is good. Good News!

Personnel decisions at TAA are beginning to crystalize. The principal announced to the conference committees that he and his wife will not be returning next year. I believe they have been offered a new position in Texas. The Science teacher announced in class that she will not be returning next year. That opens the possibility that the Athletic Director for the school may not return, although he is more than welcomed to remain. The Math teacher is not returning for the new school year. On a positive note, we have secured a new Music Director for the school. The new music teacher will be an amazing asset to the TAA staff. I am delighted. There is a formidable list of candidates for the principal position. It will be busy week. Lots to do!

But God is good…all the time!

Penniless in Phoenix

It’s almost 10 o’clock on a Friday night and Penny is not here in Arizona as she would otherwise be on weeks I am not scheduled to be in California. Amanda is having her big Children’s Cantata tomorrow afternoon. It’s the same Easter cantata I directed when my children were young. I’ll miss seeing my granddaughter in the play with my daughter directing. Duty calls here as well.
All my children have ministry genes in them. It’s a special thing to see them use those God-given gifts to impact other lives. I will keep praying that God will find a place for all of them to use their gifts to impact the church for the Kingdom of God. Penny won’t be back next weekend either. It’s Amanda’s final sermon at Garden Grove. Maybe I’ll get to see it on a DVD. Bummer!

Speaking of bummers, I had a close encounter with some ill-placed debris on northbound Interstate 10 between Tucson and Phoenix last night. I had not thought that much of it when it happened since it did not seem to affect the drivability of my new Prius. I was minding my own business when all of sudden I see what appears to be a pile of somewhat shining refuse on my lane. I was on top of it before I had a chance to react. Had I swerved to miss the obstacles I fear I may have lost control and impacted the cars following me.

I actually imagined, in that moment when the world seems to go into slow motion, my transmission flying in different directions or my tires being flattened by some sharp object hidden underneath the unexpected obstacle in my path. Alas, all I felt was the feeling of the car going over a blanket—a sort of muffled thump. I looked out my rear view mirror and saw a cloud of dust and cars trying to swerve around the debris that I had spread over the highway. No air bag deploying. No tires rolling past me. No metal-crunching sounds emanating from my undercarriage. Just a smooth ride as if nothing had happened.

I did not think about it for quite a while, since the car was performing as if nothing had happened. It wasn’t until I felt a need to stop at a 7-11 to purchase some refreshment to keep me alert (I bought a Payday candy bar) that I saw the damage. Apparently there was something hidden in the bundle I ran over. I don’t know what it was, but it left quite an indentation on my bumper, grill, and spoiler. My baby had taken the beating for me and kept on running like a trooper!

All that remained was contacting my resident lizard insurance representative to find resolution for the carnage administered to my auto. In brief, my car is in the vehicle hospital being mended back to health. She will remain there until next Wednesday. I am saddled with a Prius wannabe—a Honda Insight. Can you believe it? It actually suspends air conditioning when in idle! What’s with that? This is Scottsdale! You can’t change air conditioning into ventilated air at will simply because you are at a red light! The car smells like something crawled in and died underneath the seat somewhere. I was tempted to complain to Enterprise, but I was afraid they would discover it was me.

Happy Sabbath!

To Tucson Too!

I just got back from Tucson, Arizona, where I attended a school board meeting at the Desert Valley Christian School. That may not seem like much, except it came at the tail end of a day that began with a conference Personnel Committee at 8:00 a.m. That meeting, in turn, was followed by the conference Executive Committee which began at 10:00 a.m. and ended around 3:00 p.m.

I would have had a brief break to catch up on email and such before leaving to Tucson, but I was called to intervene in a sudden and unexpected conflict between some parents and a teacher at a local school. It wasn’t until after that situation was calmed down that I was able to begin my trek to Tucson.

While on my way to Tucson I made various calls to begin the search for a new principal for TAA. When I send this off I will go home and change into my workout clothes. I don’t know if I will have a chance to blog anytime this weekend since I do not have email at home. The IT guy did not come fix my computer this week as he assured me he would, so I have to work around this technical shortcoming.

I begin my one week evangelistic series at the Central Valley Spanish SDA Church on Sabbath. It will run until next Sabbath, April 30. That is the one downside of the week—I will miss my daughter Amanda’s final sermon at the Garden Grove SDA Church in California. She is moving her base of ministry to Orange, California. She has plenty to keep her mind occupied in the meantime, since she is directing a Children’s Choir Easter Cantata this Sabbath at 5:00 p.m., at the Garden Grove SDA Church. I will miss that event as well. I guess those are two downsides to this coming week! She’ll do fine. I am very proud of her. Come think of it; put that on your calendar if you are in Southern California—go watch the cantata and tell me about it! Tell me if you can see some of my Children’s Choir Director genes in her

At the End of the Day

It’s 10:30 p.m., and I just got back from the gym—24 Hour Fitness! I joined a couple of months ago and I am nowhere near 24 Fitness! I am maybe 15 minute fit—tops. This evening I ran on some contraption that is supposed to get you in shape. It forces you to chug along with your legs pumping while your arms are pulled opposite directions as if quartering a fifty-pound chicken (not that I have ever quartered a fifty-pound chicken). The truth is that making such unnatural motions was quite a distraction to my TV watching of ESPN SportsCenter NFL Live, which didn’t really interest me, but it was better that the alternatives—WWF Wrestling and Hockey (some team named the Coyotes or something like that).

In any case I served my time on the death-chug machine and then did “crunches,” which is the technical term to describe when you yank your lower body forward by pulling with both hands behind you head and neck so as to produce a “crunch” sound emanating from your spine. To add insult to injury I tried doing these crunches on a board that was set up on a 45 degree angle, so as to cause your back to go into spasms and your snap your neck veins into cardio-distress. I did not notice during my out of body experience that my iPhone had once again ceased to function. Pandora had ceased playing my music. As I was exiting the building I noticed that there was no service. Actually, as I touched my iPhone I noticed that there was a “No Service” text on the top left-hand corner. I will have to go outside to hopefully catch a signal and call Penny before I call it a night. Otherwise she will try calling me and not get an answer.

Long day of meetings today—Education Board for the Arizona Conference. The meeting flowed well and the agenda was completed in record time. Personnel decisions were confirmed and new initiatives received the imprimatur from the committee. Exciting things lie ahead for the conference school system. I get excited thinking about it, but my enthusiasm is tempered by my occasional reminders that people are not always as genuine as I believe them to be and that in spite of my best intentions or efforts I cannot gain trust when there is no real desire to give it. It is enough to make a person become disenchanted with the system that engenders such dynamics—that is until I am reminded that I am part of that system and I choose, for now, not to surrender.

I will choose to do what I believe is right and accept situational quirks as occupational hazards. It is a reality I must be prepared for but not resigned to that not everyone will react appropriately or agree with my decisions—that alone does not make them my enemies or threats to my plans. God is still in control. Given that reality such events simply strengthen my resolve and crystalize my thinking through the process of opposition. “All things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose….”

Good night, my back is hurting!

Pinched for Time

Forgive me, friends; it’s been five days since my last confession…. Actually, I don’t have much time to blog at the moment. I have meetings all day—Curriculum and Accreditation Review, followed by Education Board. But no meetings tonight! I will finally have a moment to focus more on my evangelistic sermons for next week.

Just Another Long Day

Boy, was this a long day! I shouldn’t whine, after all I am sure there are many people who worked longer days that the one I lived through today. I am sure there are an even greater number of men and women who did not have any work available to fund their personal obligations. So, thank God for this long day!

Come think of it, it really wasn’t any longer than anyone else’s—I had the same number of hours and minutes. It doesn’t even have to do with the amount of work I did, since I even had a few moments to share a lunch date with my conference president. He paid! I had my iPhone worked on by a colleague who has a knack for technology. He spent the better part of the afternoon trying to normalize my recently acquired auditory gizmo, which had developed a serious hiccup since I tried to sync it with my ITunes program. I did not succeed. I sunk it instead. It was a mess and thus chaotic when I tried to sync it with my auto Bluetooth. I actually got that done. How did I survive in the meantime is beyond me.

The truth is that while my phone was being worked on, critical messages that I should have seen were falling unnoticed into my exiled telephonic contraption. These were not run-of-the-mill messages. These were messages from the Alumni Awards Foundation, who is still mulling over the potential for an association with Thunderbird Academy. I spent a couple hours in serious discussions about their two-day visit to TAA. In the end certain decisions that were affecting me personally began to crystalize in my mind. The end result is that there will be a larger turnover in personnel next year at Thunderbird than previously planned. That will undoubtedly create more ripples in the community. There is a price for change, I guess. We are losing good people—but it’s still the right decision.

In any case, as a result of that longer than expected meeting, I ran over an hour late to a personnel committee in Glendale, Arizona. Thankfully that meeting and the ensuing school board meeting flowed with little turmoil. Nonetheless while in transit to that meeting I was caught up in a tense phone conversation with teacher who has decided to part ways with the system. It was hard to hear how my best intentions to help were misunderstood. The end result is a fractured relationship that I had been cultivating all year. It’s tough to try your best to do the right thing and to have your efforts misread.

Life would be so much more pleasant if we just talked to each other and not at each other. I will have to find comfort in the assurance I have from God that He will be faithful to me. He will make my intentions come to light in time. In the meantime—Thank God for this long day!

New Wheels!

This was a very long day. It involved a late night returning from Cottonwood , in an auto that seemed to be on its final breath, followed by a hectic morning taking my car to the car doctor, then renting a vehicle to get me to a scheduled meeting in Tucson with area pastors, while taking care of the niceties associated with the anticipated visit to the campus of Thunderbird Academy by the members of the Alumni Awards Foundation.

The Tucson meeting went well. It was positive and constructive. The expectations are rising and people seem to be willing to work towards a common goal. Yet, soon after the conclusion of that meeting I was informed by the mechanics that indeed the condition of my 2004 Toyota Prius, which had served me for close to seven years, was on life support. I returned in time to sign the release papers for my dying car, visit a local dealership, and ultimately depart the lot with a newer version of my old car—a 2010 Toyota Prius! May God preserve this car as well as He did my first Prius—243,000 miles! Amazingly I got $3,500 dollars trade-in on it! That alone is a small miracle, considering it was on its death bed.

I am about to go home from the office at about 11:30 p.m., after having produced and sent out my weekly newsletter (two days late!), in addition to returning phone calls and taking care of some overdue paperwork. The pace will pick up tomorrow. More AAF meetings are slated. Personnel and School Board in Glenview follows a full day of meetings at the conference office. Good night, folks! Tomorrow will arrive soon enough.

The Garden Club

I am in the office at 11:44 p.m. No email service at home. Must blog! Must send output! Must type date entry! Must fight sleep! I just got back a few minutes ago from personnel and school board meetings in Cottonwood, Arizona. It was relaxing trip—there and back. I had a great time doing what I needed to do to get a teacher hired locally in order to take the name to Education Board next week for an official vote confirming their decision. I have one more meeting Thursday night to complete the list of teachers being rehired for next school year.

I also got a chance to bring the Verde Valley School Board up to date on the shift to more teacher accountability through more official observations and evaluations—something that has been sorely lacking in the past. They were delighted to hear that teachers were going to be evaluated. This seems to be a recurring theme across the conference. While chairing the committee I got to know a couple of new people on the school board in Cottonwood. However, that is not what made my evening most memorable. That distinction is reserved for the Gardening Club of Cottonwood.

I arrived about an hour early to my meeting. This is obviously better than arriving an hour late. Nonetheless, since I was there so early I wandered into the church multipurpose room, which was open. There I met Sharon and Valerie, two friendly and enthusiastic members of what I discovered was a club that meets once a month on Tuesday evening in the fellowship hall of the church. I introduced myself as Ruben. They asked if I had come to the Garden Club and I said no. They asked me why I was there to which I responded that I was there to meet with the Verde Valley School Board. Somehow it did not register that I was a church official, even after I told them I was the Superintendent of Education for the church school system in Arizona.

I know they did not grasp my connection to the church because they proceeded to try to convince me of the superiority of their vegetarian diet, including tofu cheesecake, to whatever meat-based diet I was presently adhering to. I politely asked questions which they were delighted to answer beyond my expectations. They told me about the Garden Club and the class that would be taking place in the hall in a few minutes.

I helped them set up chairs for about 50 people. They kept trying to “convert me” to gardening and to a vegetarian diet. I did not let on that I was a lapsed vegetarian, or a pastor, for that matter. I was enjoying the conversion experience too much. Suddenly the members of the Cottonwood Garden Club began to arrive. Quickly I was surrounded by a very colorful array of people with friendly dispositions and quick invitations to join their movement. What movement you ask? Well, obviously the movement to prepare for the day the New World Order comes marching down our streets trying to occupy our secret underground bunkers built in preparation for the inevitable invasion from outer space, of course!

I had never been surrounded by such a unique contingent of doomsday-preaching, conspiracy-laced, garden-variety raw organic food consumer evangelists in all my life! I even met a lady who claimed to be a radio personality in the late night radio world. Her business card stated her name as Aurora Light! She was into “aeroponics,” or farming without soil. She wanted to connect with people who would like to establish a collective of aeroponic famers, to counteract the government plan to control our minds through Monsanto chemicals by producing their own crops on private land in preparation for “The Landing.”

I was left wondering what our hope in a soon coming Savior in the clouds sounds like to people who don’t understand what we are talking about. Does it just sound too strange to make it believable? What would cause them to share in our conviction? I was lost in a group of believers in a parallel worldview and I wanted no part of it. There has to be more to what we believe than what we expect in the future, as essential as that is. What is it about our life that draws people to want to share in our experience? “We have not believed in fancifully contrived fables,” is the way the Apostle Paul worded it. Food for thought….

I'm Baaaaaack!

No time like the present to begin to blog again. I am in my office at about eleven past ten o’clock at night. I came into the office to take care of some business items (after having enjoyed an entertaining basketball game between the Phoenix Suns and the Minnesota Timberwolves—both which I believe to be actual professional basketball teams) and it occurred to me that I had not produced a serious blog since January 31! What kind of blog it that?

So here it is again. I convey my sincere apologies to all the millions of people who depend on this blog for inspiration and insight—O.K., O.K., to the ten people who may have used this blog for treatment of their chronic insomnia. The important thing for me is that I have made a decision to begin this blog again. Funny how life has its ebbs and flows—each transition bringing with it a new set of variables and priorities. I really wanted to keep this simple pleasure going, if for no other reason than to have sort of life chart to refer to when life demands some introspection.

A lot has taken place in my little world in Arizona since my last blog entry in January. I have spent four weekends in Riverside with the love of my life—Penny, and my family. She, in turn, spent four weekends with me in beautiful Scottsdale. During those four weekends we camped at a Pathfinder Fair, we ate out a lot, and she listened to eight new sermons at various churches in Arizona (most in Spanish). But we also spent a week enjoying beautiful Arizona and another week on vacation in beautiful Hawaii. Those were great times!

On my work front, organizational and personnel decisions have been made across the conference school system that will impact the face of the Adventist Education in Arizona. The Pacific Union leadership is transitioning between Kelley Bock, who is retiring, and Berit Von Pohle, who is exchanging her role as superintendent of the Northern California Conference for a new and more expanded role as superintendent of the Pacific Union Conference, which includes the five western states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.

Personnel decision are always tough; mostly because they occasionally impact people’s lives in ways that are perceived as negative—and often carry negative financial and interpersonal dynamics. It is not a pleasant process.

All in all, I still feel a strong sense of purpose as pertains to the role I have taken in Arizona. At times it is daunting because of the multiplicity of items that require attention in addition to the tasks already imbedded in the fabric of the daily schedule. God is good. I have made that statement of belief a non-negotiable tenet of my picture of God. It is a choice—I know, but why would I not give God the benefit of the doubt (as if He needed it!), if I am so prone to give it to fallible and imperfect people like myself on a daily basis. I recognize that giving people the benefit of the doubt carries some intrinsic risks, but the alternative is to live my life indiscriminately questioning and doubting motives and judging things are unknown to me. Life is too short for that! And likewise, I believe that faith is too precious to base it on any premise that allows for God being anything but good at any time. Any scenario that puts that tenet in question I choose to see as my failure to consider what He alone can see—that unknown scenario or perspective that we will not see this side of heaven.

I have written enough for tonight. A busy day awaits me tomorrow. I wouldn’t have it any other way.