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October 29, 2004
Aunt Lillian Died
I’ve just had an email from my home town saying that Aunt Lillian died at 7 am Wisconsin time on October 28th. She had been in the hospital for about a week with congestive heart failure and pneumonia. She said she wanted to die and at 95, with failing eyesight and hearing, life must have seemed pretty empty. Her mind was sharp until the end and my brother’s pastor had been to see her the night before she died. Apparently she had also told Yvonne, my brother’s girlfriend, that she was praying now. My heart has been so burdened for her, knowing that she had to make a decision to follow Jesus before she died in order to spend eternity in heaven with Him. Now she no longer needs our prayers as her destiny has been determined. Lillian was very different in personality from our mother, but still she has represented a link with Mom’s generation for almost 30 years since Mom died in 1975. Lillian was the family historian with a brilliant mind for factual information. Her main hobby was playing solitaire, in recent years on the computer. And I was proud of the fact that in her 90’s she learned to use a computer to send and receive e-mails. That made communication with her and my brother so much easier. Lillian didn’t want to live in a nursing home, and thanks to Bill and Yvonne’s care for her during the past two years, she never needed to. Until then, with support from Bill, she was able to stay in an apartment and manage alone.
If losing a kitten brought back much of the pain of losing Ben, I reckon that as we process this new loss we’ll struggle again. I wish I had the same assurance that we will see Lillian again in heaven that I do for Ben. But all I can do is keep trusting in our merciful and loving Heavenly Father, knowing He gave Lillian every opportunity to accept His love. How she responded was her decision. My nephew Bill was able to visit her a few days before she died and I’m so grateful for that.
Posted by David at 9:13 AM
October 26, 2004
The busiest week.
It turned out that the week Wil was off school for mid-semester break was the busiest week Karen and I have had work-wise since our return in July. We did manage two days at the beach over the weekend at the beginning of the break. It was the first time we have been out of Manila and to the ocean since returning here on July 20th. We left Wil at the beach with friends while we returned to Manila on Sunday night for a 3-day Missions Trainers Consultation (Mon-Wed). This went very well, with 40 missions trainers attending. Wil came home on Wed. afternoon but Thurs. was spent preparing for a Missions Involvement Seminar we presented on Friday. We did have the weekend together and had some good time as a family before school started again.
Life seems to get busy in patches like that. This past week has been
more manageable. We had an office staff meeting on Monday but have been working from home the rest of this week - much less stressful, especially not having to drive or commute in on public transport. Karen is working hard to prepare for the class she will start teaching on November 10 on Teaching Principles and Practice. This is for students at All Nations College, a four-year Bachelors level school for those going into full-time ministry as missionaries or pastors. This 3 credit hour course will run through March of 2005. We have another Missions Involvement Seminar scheduled for Sat. Nov.6th at Faith Fellowship, the church we regularly attend.
Monday was Wil's 14th birthday. He had two of his friends overnight
Friday night for a small early birthday party. Wil is now as tall as
Karen and outweighs her by at least ten pounds. He is longing to be
significantly taller than his mom. The day of his birthday he got a
haircut (first since we were in Germany!!) and that led to tears and
slamming doors. We definitely have a teenager in the house! And today he's home sick with a fever and nausea. Maybe that was starting and triggered the temper. Wil didn't want to miss school because he's enjoying an art project and had soccer intramurals after school!
Posted by David at 10:35 PM
October 8, 2004
Off to the Beach!
We’re just off to the beach for three days. It rained hard last night
and still is overcast this morning, so we wait to see what the weather
will be like. It will be our first trip out of Manila since we returned in July. Hard to believe Wil is already a quarter of the way through eighth grade. We met with his teachers and were very encouraged by their reports. Several commented on the good circle of friends he has chosen, his creativity, and good contributions to the class. His math and science were still the lowest, but C+ is better than we had expected and it looks as though he’s capable of getting both into the B range. Thank You, Lord, for helping him to do so well through this transition.
He will be doing a paper in English on a significant day in his life and he’s chosen to write about the day Ben died. Pray that will be a helpful and healing exercise for all of us. It’s still hard seeing people for the first time since Ben’s death. We saw quite a number last night at the Faith Senior Class play. It’s good to reconnect, but the first topic needs to be Ben before we can go on to other things. One of our OMF colleagues has suggested to us and to OMF Literature that they print our website journal entries as a short book. Pray we’ll know whether this would be the right thing to do, and whether if it happens, it should include guest book entries as well.
Dave and I have been fighting colds all week, so with getting the six-page PMA Missions Post printed, folded, labeled and into the post (we won’t tell you how many hours that took!) we haven’t had a lot of energy for planning for this weekend away. It’s now 9:15 am our time and the last thing on our ‘to do list’ is an update. Dave and I need to be back Sunday night ready for a three day Missionary Trainer’s Consultation in Antipolo. PMA is sponsoring this so we will have numerous responsibilities during it. Also Dr. Met Castillo, founder of PMA and director of Great Commission Missions Training Center (GCMTC) in Antipolo, has asked me to teach a 3 credit semester course on Teaching Principles and Practice in the B.A. course he is now offering. That runs from November to March. I’ve not taught anything like this before and my own teacher training was over 30 years ago (!) so it is a daunting yet exciting prospect. As I do reading in preparation for teaching I’m getting more excited at the challenge and potential of helping a group of students learn to teach in creative ways when their own education has consisted mainly of rote learning.
Wil will stay at the beach until Wednesday with the Burdick family.
We’ll be together on Thursday, then we have another Missions Involvement Seminar on Friday. Wil starts classes again the following Tuesday. Pray for health and healthy interaction.
Posted by David at 10:15 AM
October 1, 2004
October Prayer Bulletin
Dear Team,
Thank you for supporting us in prayer through the past month. Feedback on our sharing on Sept. 5 was very positive, and since one of the things we learned through Ben’s illness was how much we needed the support of a small group, we have now joined a cell group at Faith Fellowship. Pray that we will be a support to others in the group, and they to us.
Groups met all over the Philippines on Sept. 11 to ‘Bless the Muslims’ (a day of prayer and fasting). The one we attended included presentations from four areas of Manila where Muslim ministry is focused. A collection was taken that day to bless those involved in this outreach and that enabled us to give one thousand pesos to each of those involved in this ministry. ‘Project Barakah’ (barakah means blessing in Arabic ) is another service project being repeated this year to purchase pails of food for Muslim families. These will be distributed on November 11, just before the end of Ramadan. We hope to provide pails for 700 families.
One of the projects our PMA director Bob Lopez has asked us to take on is editing the discussion material to go with a video series on M outreach. Pray we’ll be able to do this quickly as there are groups already wanting to use it! The first PMA Missions Post since our return is due out this week (we’re the editors). Articles have been slow in coming in, but we should get it printed on time. We’ve had to do a lot of work on the mailing list as well. It needs wider distribution and fewer copies being returned to us. We hope to be able to post it on PMA’s website soon. That is currently being redesigned.
Ed Darnell from Damascus Community Church has been helping us put together a family website and that is now up and running. We’ve also learned that we can continue to use the Caring Bridge site, so if you go to www.caringbridge.org/or/benlampinen or www.lampinenlog you will find news from us. We waited until we had the new one working reasonably well to tell you about the site. Let us know what you think of it!
Oct. 11-13 is a Missionary Trainer’s Consultation in Antipolo. That comes during Wil’s Faith Academy half term so we are hoping to all get away to the beach with the Burdick family (Brent is pastor at Faith Fellowship) for a couple of days, then leave Wil with the Burdicks when we need to return to Manila. On the 15th we will do another Missionary Involvement Seminar, this time for leaders from eight churches. Another is scheduled for Nov. 6 at Faith Fellowship. Dave has been working on a power point presentation to go along with this since we hope PMA will be able to purchase an LCD projector by then.
Thank you again for holding us up in prayer,
Dave and Karen
Posted by David at 12:53 AM