Caribbean Homecoming

This past week a longstanding dream came true for me and I am still pinching myself to see if it was real.  After 33 years I had the privilege of returning to the Island of Trinidad where I spent six year as a child.  I was invited to speak at the CLC Eastern Caribbean conference and jumped at the chance to visit the people and places that were so much a part of my memories of growing up.  It is amazing how much has changed and yet how much has stayed the same over all these years.  Enjoy some of the pictures below from my time with these wonderful people.

The whole team posing for their “casual” picture in really colorful outfits.

Some traditional Trinidadian favorites for breakfast – Bakes and Saltfish

Port of Spain (the capital city) from a well known overlook.  Lots of new high rise buildings.

Arah and Cecilia from CLC Antigua

Ernie, Davis and Janet from CLC Dominica

Alice, our only worker at the southern most CLC location in Trinidad – Point Fortin

Helen and Marva from the San Fernando branch in Trinidad

Michelle and Delrine from the Arima branch in Trinidad

Marsha, Lester and Violet from the Port of Spain branch in Trinidad

Our Leader for CLC in the Eastern Caribbean, Marlene Ramroop

The welcoming CLC sign outside the Port of Spain store that has been at this location, 50 Abercromby Street for over 40 years.

A great selection of books effectively merchandized to serve the many customers that come in each day.

Lots of important reference books to supply the needs of pastors and lay teachers on the island.

The cashier’s cage made necessary by the high level of violence and crime in Trinidad.  Even this is painted a beautiful purple.

The house I lived in as a child in Trincity- it has certainly improved with age as many modifications  were made in the past 30 years.

The field behind my old house where I learned to make and fly kites for the first time.

Most of the team dressed up for our celebration banquet.

Eurel Hodge, a 33 year CLC veteran who is retiring, moments after the dramatic surprise presentation of his wife and family who had come for the event without his knowledge.  His wife was actually hidden in this box in the middle of the picture.  It was the first time that I had ever seen Eurel truly speechless.  What a great gift for a dedicated servant who has committed so much of his life to CLC.

This was certainly a week that I will never forget.  Thank You Marlene and all of the Eastern Caribbean team that made this week so special.

The Influence of a Man

On June 29th 1995, my life changed profoundly.  That night, I had the joy of welcoming into the world my first child Kenny.  As I stood there for the first time holding him I had this startling feeling of joy, anticipation and the sense that my life would never be the same again.  All of a sudden I realized that I was now responsible for the life and well being of another human in a way that I had never imagined.  This little person would be counting on me to provide for his every need and I was not sure how I would ever fulfill this role – it was simply overwhelming.  Even at that moment, however, God had already been preparing the way for this new season of my life.  Kenny was named after his great-grandfather Kenneth Adams – a man who had been a huge part of God’s work in me.

As his oldest grandchild, I had the privilege of getting to know him well.  I lived with my grandparents for two summers as a teenager and absorbed as much of his quiet, pointed and passionate wisdom as a teenager could.  He always expected more of me than I expected of myself.  At the age of 14 he provided me my first opportunity for public speaking when he called me up in front of a church to share my testimony when I was least expecting it.  Later he taught me to drive, despite my grandmothers wishes and spent time teaching me by example.  For that and so much more, I will always be indebted to him.

On this Father’s Day weekend, I have been thinking a lot about the men who have been closest to me and shaped me into the man that I am today.  On the top of that list is my own father who has lived a life of servant leadership for as long as I can remember.  This picture was taken after he had finished doing some painting that needed to be done and just wanted me to see what he been up to.  My Dad grew up in humble circumstances and was the first in his family to come to faith in Jesus and had a great influence on the rest of his family.  His love for God has influenced me deeply and I will always be grateful for the family devotions he led as we grew up and for the many conversations we had when I was a willful and curious teenager.  He always made time for me and I always knew I was an important priority in his life.  My Dad’s love for my mother sets a standard that I aspire to.  He modeled sacrifice at home, at work and in his ministry to other people.  As he has begun a new season of life after leadership, his servant heart continues to bless me as he now volunteers to do whatever is needed to support me and the CLC ministry, regardless of whether it is packing and sorting books or stuffing envelopes.

I am so blessed to have had a brother who is close in age to me.  We grew up together as missionary kids, shared the same room and went through many of our most important life experiences together until I went off to boarding school and later college.   In many ways we are very different and yet we both share a passion for people and the way the gospel transforms them.  He was greatly affected by our shared boarding school experiences and has made teaching young people his life’s calling.  Even at a very early age, Jim’s compassion for other people was a powerful example to me.  Growing older has allowed us to bond in new ways and I am grateful for his listening ear and his willingness to speak honesty into my life when I need to hear it the most.  We will always share a love for Philadelphia sports team and Chick-Fil-A.

Every man needs a contrarian in his life and my Uncle Tom has been that person for me.  As a precocious young teenager, I can remember arguing with him about infant baptism, never suspecting that one day I would become a Presbyterian too and have both of my boys baptized into the covenant family of God.  One great thing about contrarians is they see things differently than other people and don’t always take things at face value.  He has pushed me not to give the easy answer to challenges in my life or to do what seems to be obvious at the moment.  His leadership in his family, ministry and my life has stood the test of time.  No matter how long we have been apart, he asks some of the most insightful questions whenever we do meet as if we had not really been apart for that long.

Each of us can probably remember a teacher who affected us and shaped our lives.  For me that man was Roy Lowrie, Jr.  who was my 11th grade US History teacher.  He was also my coach in three sports and a man who knew how to reach a struggling and curious teenager.  When I was sure that I knew everything there was to know about my faith and theology in general, he asked me penetrating questions that I could not answer.  Instead of leaving me to wallow in self doubt and confusion, he invited me to study God’s word with him and to discover answers for myself.  We spent many hours talking, debating, and pushing each other.  No other man has affected my intellectual life as profoundly as he did.  His greatest legacy may be the love of Christian literature that he fanned into flame in me as we discussed great authors and books that are still some of my favorites.  For some reason, we lost contact after High School and I was saddened to hear that God called him home at very early age.  I am sure, however, that his legacy also lives on in many other young men besides myself.

For the last 16 years I have been part of a wonderful church that has many men in it who have influenced me.  None more so than Dave Solt and his family.  On one of the first Sunday’s that we attended the church, he invited us home for lunch and showed a genuine interest in me and my family.  Over the years, I have been in several small groups with him and have had the “joy” of being mentored by him.  He is not one to pull punches or sugar coat what he is thinking.  His methodology of always asking piercing questions usually starts with “How is your marriage?”  and he won’t accept a simple OK as an answer for some reason.  At one of the most challenging moments in my marriage to date, he asked me just the right questions that got me out of a the fog of foolish thinking that had allowed me to prioritize my work over the people I was called to love and lead.

As I have now been a Dad for a few years, I look back with profound gratitude to those who have influenced me the most.  I truly stand on the shoulders of giants and know what it means to see Godly manhood in action.  May I live my life in some small way that I will pass on that legacy to my children and theirs in the years ahead.  My Father’s Day will be a celebration of all those who have poured their lives into mine and a day that I pour myself into to the life of those who I love and now call me their father.

Memorial Stones

If you are like me, most of life is made up of small routine events that seem like pebbles in the road.  Every so often, however, things happen that represent markers or memorial stones in our lives.  They are so important that they help us to stop and recognize the enormity of what is taking place.

I have shared before that I do not like surprises, but I may not have mentioned that I am also not very good at keeping secrets.  This week we celebrated my son, Mike’s 8th grade graduation with a big surprise.  Several weeks ago I was asked to be the speaker at this momentous event and felt compelled to keep it a secret.  On the big day, my parents were able to attend as well as my sister and her family and Mike’s brother Ken.  Somehow, I had done such a good job in keeping this secret that neither my mom nor my dad or Ken knew what was going to happen until they opened the program booklet and saw my name.  Mike was so surprised that he thought it was a misprint at first.

What a joy it was to share with these bright young graduates about the value of making wise choices.  They have been blessed with a great education at Open Door Christian Academy and are well prepared to be ambassadors for Christ wherever they attend High School.  As I was speaking, I could not help but remember the many parents and children in Liberia (where I visited in February) that so greatly value education that they regularly prioritize school over other basic necessities of life.

Twenty three years ago tonight I was preparing for one of the most momentous days of my life.  Rain was predicted for that night and I was worried that my wedding day would be a total wash out.  Instead, we woke up to a beautiful sun filled day that can only be described as glorious and was made even more so by the rain having stopped just in time.  Little did I know what the years would hold in store for Deb and I, but I did know that I did not want to experience one moment of them without her by my side.

Marriage is one of the biggest commitments that you can make in life and as a young 21 year old, all I knew was that I could not imagine growing old with anyone other than Deb.  This may have seemed a naive thought for such a young person, but it has proven to be more true with every passing year.  Doing life with my best friend has been a remarkable adventure so far and each season of life gets more interesting.  As in any good friendship, there are ups and downs, but the enduring love she has expressed over these years has been far more than I could have ever anticipated.  I am a truly blessed man.

While we often try to avoid the boulders in the road before us and generally prefer the smooth ride of a newly paved highway, I think that God often uses these big events to get our attention in ways that the routine things of life do not.  I am so grateful for the 14 years that my boys spent at ODCA (Open Door Christian Academy) and will miss many things about this period of our lives.  The reality of my life is that things do not remain the same.  Children grow up and graduate, siblings get married and have children of their own and parents move away from where we grew up.  In the midst of all this change, I have the privilege of experiencing each day with a spouse who brings new joy into my life at every turn and serve a God who has been faithful to my family for generations and will continue to do so as I learn to trust Him more and more.

One Extraordinary Week

Life seems to move so fast these days that I rarely have time to stop, reflect and thank God for His goodness to me and our ministry in CLC.  I am sure that it is this human tendency to focus on the future that led God to insist that the people of Israel build altars and monuments to His faithfulness.

This past week, three events converged in my life that are all markers of God’s goodness, love and watch care for me and the CLC ministry that I lead.  I kicked off the week by joining a group of sixty people who helped to move our Chestnut Hill store to its new location at the Cedarbrook Plaza.  This plan had been in the works for several months and lots of preparation had been made for this day.  As normally happens in these kind of events, there are couple of glitches.  In our case, I showed up at the the new store with all of the Bibles and my key did not work on the door.  Once we got the door open, we discovered that the air conditioning did not work yet.  (It did finally get fixed by Wednesday).  Despite these challenges, everyone pitched in and the vast majority of the fixtures and products were moved in one day.  We were all exhausted, but also gratified at how we had been able to work together. The new location is smaller than the old one, but very strategically located to meet the needs of our customers.  We were able to open again for business on Thursday and are still unpacking boxes to find where we put everything.  There is still more work to be done as we seek to display things in the new surroundings.  On Saturday, I stopped by the store and was delighted to see that lots of people had found us already and were excited about this new place of ministry.  Many of them commented that our new location was even more convenient than where we had been and some even said that that they looked forward to helping us in the days ahead and volunteering when possible.

On Tuesday, a long standing prayer was answered as a container was delivered, filled, inspected and sent on its way to Liberia.  We had been waiting for many months for that day to arrive and had to see many obstacles overcome for this to be possible.  We had hoped to have been able to ship the container much earlier in the year, but that was apparently not God’s plan.  Instead, we learned a great deal about shipping to Liberia and how things must be inspected properly which will help us with all our future shipments.  This container is filled with the books and Bibles that will allow the CLC work to begin again in Monrovia after 15 years of being closed due to the devastating civil war.  What a great irony that the week this container was sent on its way, Charles Taylor (the leader of Liberia during some of its darkest days) was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his war crimes.  Many people all over the United States contributed to this project by donating their quality used Christian books, their time (as volunteers) and their money.  May God speed this container on its way so that it arrives in time to allow the store to get opened this September.

In the middle of the week, I had the joy of training our new summer interns – Matt, Jen, and Richard.  Matt and Richard are students from Cedarville University and will be working in our finance department.  Matt will be working in the UK and Richard will be working with our team here in the USA.  Jen will be working with our editorial team.  Each one of them represents God’s faithfulness in bringing young people to be a part of our ministry.  Every year our interns learn about what God may have planned for their future and we learn much from them about how God is working in this emerging generation.  I look forward to seeing how God will bless them this year and how they will be a blessing to us as we work together.  We serve a good and faithful God.