Street Cricket; Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
I have never really thought about what I miss most about my childhood – but I do remember the cricket matches I had with my brother. We used to play test matches – he would have the Aussie cricket team and I’d have the Windies. Good fun that.
My best friend is not around anymore. I would probably have not written about her tonight, except I have been thinking about her throughout the day. I have just felt a need to write something about her tonight.
My friend Rebecca died over two years ago now, but the memory of her continues fresh in my mind and in my heart. I miss her so, so much. I think of her often – there may be a smile, sometimes a quiet laugh, often there will be tears. Her place has never been taken by another & her place will always be her place.
I think this far down the track I am yet to say goodbye… I don’t want to say goodbye. I still hope that she is just around the corner and that we can continue where we left off. One more conversation, one more embrace, one more look – one more so much. But that would still not be enough.
I knew her – she knew me. We could talk with openness. We just went together so well. Her thoughtfulness, her heart, her being – Rebecca. That is why she was my best friend. She was Rebecca – she is Rebecca. There is no one like Rebecca to me.
I miss her so.
Encouraged by attendance exceeding 8,600 registered messengers on the first day of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 23 — twice as many as he expected — SBC President Johnny Hunt said there is a “sense of urgency” among the brethren, reports Baptist Press.
Hunt attributed much of the interest at this year’s meeting to his Great Commission Resurgence initiative. In a news conference following his re-election to a second term, he also addressed questions ranging from his opinion of controversial Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll to his view of Calvinism among Southern Baptists.
“I feel there’s a lot of energy in the halls,” said Hunt, pastor of Atlanta-area First Baptist Church in Woodstock. “Everybody’s talking the same talk: ‘We need this Great Commission Resurgence.’
“We are saying times have been desperate,” Hunt added. “Now I really do sense fellow Southern Baptists are saying we need to get serious.”
Asked about Driscoll, Hunt responded: “I don’t know him, never met him. A lot of young men like to follow his blogs and podcasts. It’s just been interesting.”
Referring to motions from the floor placing Driscoll and the network he founded, Acts 29, in a bad light, Hunt said, “[T]he entire premise of being a Baptist is sort of thrown under the bus when you start telling someone who they can or cannot fellowship with.” He said it is a matter that it should be left to the conscience and the priesthood of the believer.
About church methodology, Hunt said the SBC is a “great family fellowship” using varied methodologies which provide a healthy balance.
Hunt said it might be that some of the perceived tension across generations of Southern Baptists is rooted in several things, including methodology, dress and music.
Encouraged by what he said is the turnout of younger Southern Baptists, Hunt said, “[I]f we can move beyond our perceptions” and begin to “listen to heart of some of these young leaders,” Southern Baptists might be encouraged “to catch their passion.”
Hunt relayed his experience at a recent International Mission Board appointment service in Denver where 101 mostly young missionaries were sent out, with the “majority going to extremely hard and dangerous places.”
“With that type of commitment to Jesus Christ that they’re willing, many of them, to write their will before they leave with the understanding some of them will probably never return, I have a very difficult time spending my time talking about their jeans, whether hair is spiked or colored” or their musical tastes, Hunt said.
By building relationships with younger leaders, “if we see some areas of concern, at least we have earned the right to speak into them.”
On the continuing banter between Calvinists and those critical of the doctrine that attempts to describe God’s work in salvation, Hunt said the debate has raged for more than 400 years and is part of Baptist history.
“We have wonderful men and women on both sides. I think the Baptist tent is large enough for both,” he said.
Asked by a reporter if an invitation was made for President Barack Obama to address the SBC, Hunt said he knew of no such invitation.
But Hunt, the first known Native American SBC president, said, “I feel like we will have a resolution to really honor our president, especially in the context of being the first African American to be elected. We have much to celebrate in that.”
Hunt said he had ample opportunity to invite Republicans to speak, “but we felt that would send a wrong signal because we wanted to send prayer support to the new president and we are mandated to pray for our president.”
Speaking to proposed federal hate crimes legislation that some say could infringe on biblical preaching, Hunt said he was not overly worried as long as pastors “stay in the context of preaching biblical truth. And if the day comes that we would be imprisoned for the proclamation of the Gospel becoming that much of an offense, we would join about two-thirds of the rest of the planet.
“God forbid that I would travel to the Middle East to encourage those already in hostile settings while at same time being afraid to proclaim the message that I encourage,” Hunt said.
Returning to the Great Commission Resurgence, Hunt answered a question regarding media access to the meetings of the proposed GCR task force. He said media presence would be “counterproductive because we want people to be at liberty to share their heart.”
It could be “embarrassing where we’re just seeking wisdom,” Hunt added, “but we would love to have any and all of you at the meetings and as soon as it is over we’d be delighted to share what we came to by way of context.”
Hunt said he has “no desire whatsoever to touch the structure of the SBC and the truth is, I couldn’t if I wanted to. It would violate policy.” Hunt said perhaps more clarity in his early statements about the GCR document could have helped ease fears of drastic change.
Even if the GCR task force were rejected, traction already has been gained by efficiency studies at the Georgia and Florida conventions and at the Southern Baptist mission boards, Hunt said.
In responding to the first question asked at the news conference, Hunt predicted if the GCR were to pass that evening, he likely would name the members of the task force June 24 and it would include several seminary professors, a college president, an associational director of missions, pastors of churches of varied sizes spanning the country and ethnically diverse members.
“I don’t have all the names so I’d probably miss some,” Hunt said. “But I’d be quick to say it will be a very fair committee.”
Report from the Christian Telegraph
Yesterday (September 25, 2008) marked three months since the tragic death of my dearest friend – Rebecca.
I still miss you Rebecca and always will.
My tribute to Rebecca can be found below:
My friend died in late June and I still find it difficult to believe that she is gone. It’s probably more likely that I simply miss her I think. In circumstances like this you tend to think about an event or events that took place in the past – a special happening or something like that.
Something that happened with Bec has been on my mind the last couple of days. Every so often Bec would feel a little down – sometimes more than a little down. On this particular occasion she was feeling more than a little worthless – as though she had no value and no reason to feel she had any.
Now as usual, she was wide of the mark on this particular subject. Bec had heaps of value and worth, and I often thought she had more than I. But that is something that was known only to Bec and I – the whole worth and value discussion/s. I have no intention of revealing all of that, but enough to say we had plenty of discussions revolving around the subject which we both appreciated and dare I say it, valued.
So there was this one time when I had been speaking to her on the phone and via text messages – and it was fairly late at night. Bec was a little down and I didn’t want her to stay that way so I thought a little about what I could do. I had a history with Bec of doing silly little things to cheer her up, etc. So this sort of thing wasn’t unusual. Anyhow, I came up with a plan and set about to put it in place.
I knew Bec was going to work the next day so I wanted to do something that she would discover when she headed off to work – to make sure she went to work much happier.
So what could I do??? Well, I collected a whole heap of short garden stakes and made a whole heap of little signs that I tacked to the stakes. Each sign had a little message on it about what I valued about Bec and how much worth I felt she had. There must have been about 30 signs I suppose.
So off I drove to Bec’s place with my signs. Bec’s car was parked on the street as usual and her bedroom window was on the side of the house nearest the car. So the mission had to be a quiet one.
I parked the car up the street a bit and quietly wandered down to Bec’s place with the signs. I then placed them from the gate down to her car, so she would have to see each of them – all over the place on the way down to the car.
Anyhow, to cut a long story short – Bec of course found the signs the next morning and rang me, thanking me for the gesture. It was only a silly little thing that I did, but it meant a lot to Bec and she held onto the signs, keeping them under her bed. It just gave her something to always look at when she felt a little down about her value and worth.
I know it was nothing extremely special and it didn’t cost a lot of money – but it doesn’t always have to be about money. It was about how I felt about Bec and she really valued that. It was just something special that we both shared and always remembered. It meant something to us both, as did other similar experiences that we shared – working both ways.
I miss her.
Random Thoughts 