Eating out - a cultural perspective

Last Wednesday, we had the privilege of having lunch with a missionary family with whom we will running our Big House English camp this summer.

As we sat under the tent-like structure on the town square and ate lunch, it occurred to me that eating out has become a rare experience for our family. I mused on that for a moment and realized that it was due to the drop in the strength of the US dollar, the increase in the cost of living in Slovakia and perhaps a few other factors.

In the past, we ate out regularly as a family. As a matter of fact, we had almost a ritual of eating out on Sunday afternoon after church so that Linda didn’t have to cook. It also gave us opportunities to be on the square or in town amongst the folks of our beautiful city.

Now, rarely we eat out. If we eat out 2x a month, it is unusual. In some ways, I miss it. In other ways, I don’t. We eat at home more together - at least once a day on the average. It’s a great family time connection, not to mention the money we save by doing so!

In the USA, it seems to us that most folks eat out on a regular basis - but more fast food than in restaurants. Hey, why don’t you tell me how often you eat out. I’d be curious to hear how the recent economic situation in the USA has affected you all.

Organic church planting

I went through my notes from Neil Cole’s Greenhouse that I attended in Cologne, Germany, with Linda & Martin. There’s a lot of good stuff in the notes, so I decided to make it into a .pdf and put it onto the web in case you had any interest in perusing my thoughts.

Here’s the link: http://www.bighouse.org/pnp_updates_2008/jun_2008/greenhouse_notes.pdf

Blessings!
Kelly

Church response to my announcement of resigning from elder board

Our church had a business meeting today. At the end of the meeting, I announced my resignation from the elder board effective Sept 15, 2008.

The responses were varied, but overall, I had the sense that most people were truly surprised and even shocked. The general impression was a feeling of loss (which, of course, makes me feel good from the perspective of have a place in the hearts of many of the people).

But, I don’t believe that the loss was a hopeless kind of loss. I assured them that the Lord has plans to care for them and encouraged them to see Him through all of this.

One of the seminary professors made a poignant observation that our church is in a dangerous place right now and that prayer is of the most crucial need. His statement went something like, “Whenever the church loses it’s leader, it is in a dangerous place where the sheep can feel abandoned and lost.” The elders, however, are already making plans to move things ahead with more elder selections and finding a replacement for me as chairman of the board.

It’s a good feeling to know that I’m doing what the Lord is leading me to do, but the “birth pains” of watching our church struggle with the transition is difficult.

I hope that you’ll be praying for direction, wisdom & men to fill the gap of leadership in our church.