Hi Everybody!

I'm here at the Garden of the gods in Colorado at the ASI Executive Officers retreat which we have every two years after the national elections.  We're staying at the Glen Eyrie Retreat Center, a Christian facility.  I thought I'd share with you a couple pictures.

 

Last weekend was OHA's annual Fall Campout, and I really enjoyed being home and relaxing with everybody.  I also really missed all my former students and the OHA graduates.  Memories....

Early morning sunrise with God.

A beautiful beginning of the Sabbath.

Cockleburrs illustrating the truth of intelligent design.

Little Naomi and I.  She loves my digital camera!

Campfire was again a time of sharing God's wonderful leading in our lives.

It was a wonderful weekend to spend with God and each other.

Wow!!!!

Hurricanes.  Mudslides.  Earthquakes.  Terrorist attacks.  Economic woes.  Waning freedoms.

But the best and most certain sign that Jesus is coming soon?  The gospel is going the world.

Go One Million.  Sow One Billion.  The Elijah Project.  Each major thrust to carry the Three Angels' Messages to the world brings that day nearer when all sorrow will forever end. Millions are hearing the good news.  Thousands of lives are being changed.  And with every passing day, more and more lay people - young and old alike - are getting involved.

And now - Tell the World!!!!!  I'm so completely and thoroughly pumped about this latest global initiative voted by the Counsel on World Evangelism this week that I can't sleep!!  Its objectives include getting Adventists more into the Word (only 50% are having daily devotions), equipping lay people to do effective evangelism in some of the most difficult countries of the world, and utilizing the untapped resources of secular university students - especially in third-world countries.  The goal - to give every single human being the invitation to hear the message for themselves in the next five years.

I've got to be involved. ASI's got to be involved.  GYC's got to be involved. Ouachita Hills has got to be involved.  If we're not, we have no reason to exist. 

For that matter, YOU've got to be involved.

Details will follow.

Hi everyone!  I've finally been able to download my picture and show you a little of South Africa.  I don't have many pictures of speaking engagements - since I'm not thinking about pictures about that time. 

I arrived in Johannesburg on Friday morning, then went to the home of Howard Roussouw, the pastor with whom we were staying.  Israel was sick.  I was tired after two night flights in a row (Chicago-London, London-Johannesburg).  I took a nap.

Friday night we presented a program to the youth leadership at the Transvaal Conference.  Sabbath morning we went to the Johannesburg North church and presented the youth Sabbath School and a program at the beginning of the second church service.

In the evening we visited the parks around the Union building in Pretoria, where we had sundown worship.  It was so beautiful!

Sunday we drove from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein, where the South Africa Union offices are.  Ugh, jetlag!  Israel and I talked until 4 a.m. We spent most of Monday morning in the Union office, then drove about 1000 kilometers to the campus of Helderberg College, where we will spent the rest of the week.  We have various meetings with youth leaders during the week, and speaking engagements planned for the weekend.

Now, I have finally arranged for email access on my own computer AND have been able to download and edit some of the photos I’ve taken.  Hope you like them!

Here’s the plane at London Heathrow just before I boarded for the ten and a half hour flight to Johannesburg.

 

 

The South African flag.

 

 

The Union buildings, the historic site of the Dutch settlers and current federal government.  Here's where President Mandela and the rest of the presidents have been inaugerated.

 

A “bird of paradise” in my limited flower knowledge; called Straletscias in South Africa.

 

Yours truly!

 

Pretoria as seen through the park foliage.

 

Canon on Union hill overlooking the valley.

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed the many types of flowers very much – even after it was getting dark!

 

 

Israel, Shaun Lazarus, and me.

 

The Union buildings after dark.

 

Trevino, who drove us around Jo’burg, Jeannette his wife, who fed us delicious Indian meals, and little Edward, who never knew what to think of us.

 

Here we are with Pastor Howard, our host for the weekend.

 

 

The South Africa Union sign in Bloemfotein.

 

Yup, that’s me.

 

Fishing boats at Hout Bay.

 

Two sisters with an incredible presentation selling soap to raise money for charity.

 

The coastline of Clifton.

 

Beautiful waves.

 

Roadside souvenir vendors.

 

Shaun really enjoys bargaining!

 

“This is OUR pier!”

 

Table Mountain, a Cape Town landmark.

 

A beautiful sunset off the “Strand”, near Cape Town, as windsurfers and parasurfers get their last waves.

 

OK, so some people questioned my statements about Airbus planes.  Why shouldn't we fly them?  WHY?  Because I said so.   J/K.  Because they just imitate Boeing, come to America and build their "design" centers in places like Wichita where all the Boeing engineers live, offering them more money to work for them.  Then they build their planes in Europe with government subsidies so that Boeing can't compete.  Then some of the U.S. airlines buy airbus planes, Boeing lays off 5,000 workers at a time, the airlines get in trouble because the economy turns down and need the United States government to bail them out, and our tax dollars have in the end gone to subsidize Airbus too!  Airbus=Americans without jobs.  Flying Airbus=Unpatriotic.  Because I said so. 

Actually, I don't have a big burden on this issue. I've got a bigger soap box of late: Don't fly the low-cost carriers!  That's what's really unpatriotic.

Why?  Because the legacy airlines have made America what it is today.  They've given us the ability to see grandma at Christmas and connect seamlessly to London or Osaka.  They've been through thick and thin and in times of crisis or even bad weather inevitably take losses instead of passing the same to the traveling public.  In spite of popular misconceptions, the legacy carriers actually are operating very efficiently.  American Airlines, for example, actually operates at a lower cost than Southwest.

The difference in my opinion, is that the legacy airlines have a different business model, one that makes their long haul flights (transcontinental and international) their income streams.  In order to "feed" these profitable flights they have maintained a network of both profitable and unprofitable short-haul flights to cities where there's far less demand and less business (think higher priced last minute tickets) travel going on.  The profitable routes make up for the money-losing routes, and many of the passengers from the money-losing cities end up on money-earning flights.  This business model is in the best interest of the American traveler.  Especially if your grandma happens to live in Des Moines.

The so called "low-cost" airlines don't fly internationally.  Some, like Southwest, don't even connect in very many airports where you could fly onward internationally.  Instead, they have "cherry-picked" the most profitable routes and siphoned travelers on those routes from the bigger carriers.  Of course they are cheaper on those routes, because they're only flying profitable routes and only on the days and at the times when the demand is highest and profit greatest.

But will they take you to Des Moines for Christmas? Nope. But Delta will.  The big question is, What would happen if the "low-cost" carriers succeed in running the legacy airlines out of business?  I'll tell you what would happen.  This would be an America with air service only to the most profitable, highest volume routes, and only at the times and on the days of the week in the best interest of the airline.  It would be an America completely dependent on foreign carriers for international travel (that's right, you'd be flying Air China to Shanghai, not American Airlines, KLM to Amsterdam, not Northwest).  Or else... Southwest would start offering international flights, and probably the necessary service to Des Moines and other unprofitable cities.  And we'd be right back where we started.  Probably with higher fares.

OK.  I'll be quiet.  As you can tell, I'm bored.

I'm in South Africa.  Hoping to update with pictures soon.  I miss all of you!  Glad I can at least read your xangas and wish I was there.

Wow, I've been trying to figure out how to update this properly for a while.  I think I'll just have to put up what I can.

Been busy.  Teaching.  Construction.  Lots of planning.  Started traveling again. 

OK, maybe I can do slightly better.  My first weekend away from home this year was to speak for the Andrews University Student Ministerial Association retreat.  That was fun.  I got to know the theology, religion, and biblical languages majors and their professors.  Saw wonderful friends: David, Jesse, Esther, Hanna, Maria, Brad! Made new ones.  Grrr.... The worst part was that I didn't take a single picture!

Then last weekend I was in Texas.  Preached at the Fort Worth First Church with good response.  Met with the hotel and convention center people, Texas Conference administration, and the Southwest Regional Conference president.

I got home yesterday after a very hot ride in 102 degree heat with no airconditioner in my truck.  Went to the doctor and got five shots in my hand. He then made my finger bend all the way!  Yikes!  Needless to say, it was sore this morning.

I just watched JetBlue flight 292 and its emergency landing live on TV.  I had just got off a flight and ran into a crowd gathered in the hallway of the terminal.  Pilots and passengers alike were glued to the screen, and erupted in applause when the plane stopped safely.

The moral of the story - DO NOT FLY AIRBUS PLANES!!!  It is unpatriotic and dangerous.  Because I said so.

Right now I'm on my way to South Africa and Ghana. Pray for me!  I'll be praying for you.

Hi everyone!  I know, I know, it’s been a long time since I updated.  The last three weeks have been unreasonably busy, with lots of unexpected activities!  I miss having a social life though.  But then sometimes it seems that being aloof is the only way to emotionally survive in this work.

 

I will update with pictures from the summer, thoughts about New Orleans, etc.  – just as soon as I have a chance to get them in order!  

 

You know what I realized (again)?  I think God often uses my own sermons to convict me.  Or maybe it’s that I tend to preach on what I am myself convicted on.  But sometimes I think it’s more the former than the latter.

 

Last week I gave morning worships here at Ouachita Hills, and I shared on The Fear of God.  My main point was that we naturally are people pleasers, and seek human approval, but God wants to re-train our hearts to do everything as unto the Lord, seeking first and foremost to be approved of Him. 

 

But a new index to understanding how much of a ­man-pleaser or God-fearer I am just hit me.  Perhaps I think that pleasing my fellow human beings isn’t that important to me, but how do I feel when they reject me?  Do I allow people’s criticism of my words and actions, their incessant imposing of all kinds of undesirable motives upon my personal choices or shared advice (or even my facial expressions!) to discourage me?  Do I have a “right” to be hurt by the things I see and hear? Is the desire for human approval different from the disappointment of human criticism?  Or could it be that the pain I feel from human rejection is exactly proportional to the fear of man in my heart?

 

I’m still grappling with the veracity of that thought.  But one thing I do know: if it’s true, then I’m in deep trouble.  I need a miracle.  Like the one promised in Jeremiah 32:40. I read in the Desire of Ages that Jesus “was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure and disappointment.” 

 

Oh! To be like Thee!

 

“In the heart of Christ, where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace. He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, He was still of good courage. But many who profess to be His followers have an anxious, troubled heart, because they are afraid to trust themselves with God. They do not make a complete surrender to Him; for they shrink from the consequences that such a surrender may involve. Unless they do make this surrender, they cannot find peace.

 

“It is the love of self that brings unrest. When we are born from above, the same mind will be in us that was in Jesus, the mind that led Him to humble Himself that we might be saved. Then we shall not be seeking the highest place. We shall desire to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. We shall understand that the value of our work does not consist in making a show and noise in the world, and in being active and zealous in our own strength. The value of our work is in proportion to the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Trust in God brings holier qualities of mind, so that in patience we may possess our souls.”  Desire of Ages, pages 330-331.

Wow!  It’s Friday night!  I’m so thankful for Sabbath!!!!  Especially a Sabbath at home.  J

 

OK, I know it’s been a long time since I updated my weblog.  It’s been partly because I can’t type very well, and partly because I’ve been so busy.  It’s not because nothing’s happened.  I have so many things I could share on here; so many pictures to post.

 

But there’s another reason.  I get discouraged reading most xanga entries.  And then I ask myself the question, Are my entries any different?  I don’t know.  Weblogs probably reveal a more accurate picture of who a person is.  It’s hard to be a third party and read my own logs and discover what they reveal about the real Chester.  I wonder if others feel the same disappointment when they come to my site?

 

So again today I turned off my computer and wondered when this whole sin thing will end anyway.  Where is that generation?  But I must ask myself, Am I wholeheartedly committed to the city which has foundations… or will I actually miss heaven for the world?

 

I began reading Sanctified Life again, and found something on pages 91 and 92 I thought I’d share.

 

“If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord.  Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home.  Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth.

 

“Let none imagine that without earnest effort on their part they can obtain the assurance of God’s love.  When the mind has been long permitted to dwell only on earthly things, it is a difficult matter to change the habits of thought.  That which the eye sees and the ear hears, too often attracts the attention and absorbs the interest.  But if we would enter the city of God, and look upon Jesus and His glory, we must become accustomed to beholding Him with the eye of faith here.” 

 

OK, Chester.  Apply that to your xanga. 

 

Pray for me!

For those of you who have always wondered what a dislocated and fractured finger looks like - I'll insert a few pics below.  The doctor actually said I did a pretty good job of pulling it most of the way back into place when it happened (the bones had been completely side by side).  She finished it off. 

OK, some of you had good (educated) guesses.  Others of you had good (safe) guesses.    It was actually Atlanta.  There were storms.  Flights were late. I was bored.

Here's a trivia question for you: Which airport was this picture taken in? (Hint: Dated July 21, 2005.)