Nedra Kline Weinreich has tagged me to share eight random facts about myself. So here goes below…
1. I feel most like writing in the morning. Yeah, right smack dab when I need to be getting ready for work, I get the muse to write. I don’t think of myself as a writer and I don’t consider myself good at it yet, but when I wake up, I feel like putting printed words to my thoughts. I am always running behind and end up hustling out the door to go to work in the mornings after writing out a few of my thoughts (some things I blog, some I don’t). Why do we have to go to offices anyway?
2. One of my life goals is to be in Ainsa, Spain in August every ten years so I can pray in the bell tower in the church there. It started in 1989 when I was camping with some French friends in the Pyrenees Mountains. (I remember that trip well, because some French Boy Scouts told me I spoke French “like a Spanish cow.”)
Anyway, we all climbed to the top of the tower and I really was inspired by the view from there . I remember whispering prayers praising God for such an interesting and beautiful planet and giving myself over to him to do whatever He wants me to do.
I never thought much about it, until ten years later in 1999, I found myself again on a hot August day looking out over the valley and river that flows by the city of Ainsa praying from the tower and reflecting on how/why God brought me back me to that same spot in Spain. I remember again surrendering myself to whatever He wants for me.
Living in Spain transformed my life. I ended back in the US and eventually back to Oklahoma in 2002. But somehow I feel I may end up looking out and praying back in Ainsa from atop the tower in August of 2009.
3. Before I was in the ministry I was pursing a career in stand-up comedy. I started school on a theatre scholarship. Because I was a very thin and scraggly freshman (my high school class voted me “most likely to blow away”) I couldn’t get any parts in any of the plays. So I started going to open mike night at the comedy clubs. Later, after I got my comedy act together, I put myself through college partially from money I made doing various comedy gigs for local church groups. I used to wonder why God would take me out of stand-up comedy and put me in the ministry. Then someone said, “Well, maybe He saw your act.”
4. I don’t drink anything alcoholic ever. Not surprising as a Baptist minister, I know. But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the Jack Daniels Steaks at Friday’s Restaurant. I had to quit eating them for lunch though, one time I came back to the office “three steaks to the wind.” I had no recollection of the deep fried green beans I had eaten.
5. I have my own personal alphabet I use to write personal notes and prayers. Yes, very nerdish! I served in a ministry to commercial sailors in the port of Pascagoula, Mississippi in the summer of 1987. Some days when I had nothing to do when no ships were in the port I had find things to do to pass the time.
The ministry center had a room lined with bookshelves filled with Bibles in every kind of language. I used to spend hours in the room looking at the Bibles in various languages trying to see what I could understand. (That’s when I decided to learn French—it looked like it would be an easy language to learn. Ha!). I was fascinated with the various languages and alphabets.
One day, on a whim, I decided to invent my own alphabet to pass the time. I invented and memorized my personalized alphabet. Now, 20 years later, I still write memos to myself I don’t want others to see and prayers in my notebook in the alphabet. My wife and eldest daughter can also read my alphabet.
6. I have mad chop stick skills. I spent nine years in ministry with Asians, serving in various ministries. When my kids were little, they preferred Dim Sum to McDonalds. I love Chinese people and owe so much to them for what I learned from my Asian mentors about living in faith. But they never got my jokes either.
7. For some reason, I remember what I read on airplanes better than what I read anyplace else. Maybe I just think I do. But I love to travel and if I am on the road, I always have a book with me that I think is very important for me to understand.
8. When I eventually retire, I’d like to learn archeology. One of my favorite subjects in seminary was biblical archeology. In college, I really loved all the humanities courses I took. I have too many other things to do right now, but one day, I want to get back into it. Maybe, I’ll go and help on a dig somewhere. Sounds interesting!
I tag Gamaliel, Cory Miller, Kent Shaffer, Kem Meyer, Micah Fries, Jay Kelly, Mark Kelly, John Brimacombe and Ginger Sinsabaugh MacDonald to share eight random things about themselves.
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