Wonder of wonders

I still can't believe it. That's all it takes for it to be a miracle, right?



Another video from the same moment, and a photo of us shortly thereafter.

Now then, onto a new awesome phase of life. Wedding planning! :)

p.s. I love Cathy Grill!

Encountering Embodied Humans

A couple nights ago I went to Theology on Tap to hear John O'Callaghan speak about "The Church & Science and Technology - Are Science and Technology the Enemy?" He didn't refer directly to the Catholic Church at all throughout it, but referred more implicitly to the body of Christ which the Church consists of. I'd like to summarize my experience of it rather than a comprehensive overview of all of it.

• Regarding the ethical dilemma of creating technologies that may be used for evil, there are two things to consider:
  
  
  1. We need to remain concerned about the big picture and not just the work on our desk. I work in a small division currently which forces me to be aware of the business opportunities and risks rather than just the programming that has been assigned to me. This needs to be equally true of our moral ethics.
  
  
  2. The relationships we experience in our work are quite possibly more important than our work may be.
  
  
• We struggle with whether the variety of emerging web technologies are good or evil. The internet was created to give the war machine access to academia, and it's first popular privatized adoption was in the pornography "industry". But now I can communicate with friends and family on the other side of the world. Technology is something creative and unless it's use requires an inherently evil act, it's morally arbitrary. We should always consider whether our particular use of a technology "promotes an encounter with an embodied person." I found that ideal to be a good summary of how technology should be used, and how it often fails to do so. For instance, do you withdraw from a spoken conversation when you get a cell call or text message?


• John shared about how much he encouraged his children to read while growing up, and how much that has impacted their ability to focus. He said their capacity to write a paper in high school is better than many of his college students. They were and are given very little opportunity to watch TV or use facebook. He insisted that these technologies are resulting in weakened attention spans and an inability to focus long enough to be very creative or productive. Though as proof that he's not anti-technology, when he spent a lot of time in Rome he frequently skyped and used a GPS device to superimpose his walking route onto Google Earth and annotate the route with his reflections.

Fluttering Heart

Yesterday a man died on Silver Beach in St Joe, Michigan. Here is my experience of it.

I was on the beach with a group of friends, it was close to 90 degrees and sunny, and the sand was scalding hot. So hot that despite the dense sprawl of people enjoying the day and the cold water, the multiple volleyball courts - usually packed - were empty.

Mike & Sarah left to go for a walk in town, and when they got close to one of the entrances to the sand, they found a man laying face down in the sand. Other people noticed him too, and somebody rolled him over and discovered that his bowels had vacated. Pete G and Liz, both nurses, began assisting another nearby nurse in assessing his vital signs. As Dan B and I became aware of the situation, Dan suggested that perhaps our umbrella would help with what we presumed was some degree of sun stroke. I took the umbrella over and held it angled to shade the mans face and chest, and I remained there until the later-arriving paramedics took him away.

The three nurses began administering CPR. Liz poked a hole in a ziploc bag so that Pete could perform sanitary mouth-to-mouth. He appeared to be in his 50s and had a scar across his sternum. His wife who had been down by the water while he went to the bathroom eventually came and identified him, and that he had had multiple open heart surgeries before and was scheduled for a valve-replacement in two weeks. She was crying and very upset, and Liz was comforting her while assisting Pete. Others from our group were farther back, praying. We were all praying, especially those of us who didn't feel that we were helping in any other way. There were also lots of people gathered around. The closer they were to the center, the quieter they were.

Two police officers arrived and took over CPR from Pete. It was a relief to see Pete and Liz knowing what to do and smoothly handing it off to the officers. The officers continued CPR and prepared the AED they had. It indicated that he was not shockable. A few minutes later two paramedics arrived and took lead on the CPR, allowing the officer to continue with the chest compressions. They tried an oxygen mask with a pump, and a device for clearing his airway. They hooked up some IV fluids and allowed Pete to hold the bag up for them. A park staff member brought a medical board for them to use to load the man - Craig - onto their gurney to wheel him up the path and into their ambulance.

Afterward, our group stood together and collected ourselves and prayed together for Craig and his wife Donna and the paramedics. We cleaned up some of the defecation and the scrap paper and plastic from all the sterilized medical equipment that was used. We ended up staying at the beach for another 30 minutes or so. I don't yet know if or when he was pronounced dead.

I am thankful that we were nearby, of all the places we could have been on that packed beach. I am praying about ways we could have more boldly trusted in the Lord and acted with the power of the Holy Spirit. But I think we have to remain focused on today more than yesterday.

(Update: I was a little vague. His heart was varying between "fluttering" and not beating the entire time we were there, and he never breathed.)

(Update 2: His name is Craig Shreiner and there is a guestbook you can read.)

I can't get over how much fun I had

It's about 2AM and I'm finally home for the day, but I still feel like posting my thoughts.

This afternoon my former roomate Ricky married his best friend, Allesha. I was one of the groomsmen so I got close contact with the entire proceeding without necessarily having much responsibility throughout it. I tried to support Kevin Connolly - the best man - as much as possible, and get to know the other groomsmen and ushers that I didn't know as well. It was a great experience to share with my roommate Pete and with the so so so many other people that took part in the wedding in various capacities.

They had friends in from Louisiana, Minnesota, Portland, Rockford, Muncie, Indy, Evansville, Toronto, Northern Virginia, California, and Florida, from the people I knew at least. They also had a wide variety of friends from around town. There was standing room only in one of the largest Catholic churches in South Bend, Holy Cross Parish. The wedding party intentionally had no time allowed at the church for greeting guests; I'd never quite experienced that before, but I felt it really allowed the ceremony to be all about the marriage, while still allowing for a huge amount of greeting time during the reception.

Just like at two previous People of Praise weddings, I entered the reception reluctant to dance, and ended it feeling very carefree and enjoying both my own opportunities to dance and also just to see the huge range of people out there on the floor, from 4 year olds to middle-schoolers, high schoolers, college students, young adults, middle-aged couples, and older couples - the best ones out there. It's really a unique experience to be out there with all those age groups mixed together. I am repeatedly struck by how healthy and clean it can be while still attracting even the coolest of high-schoolers. :) A very enjoyable experience of unity!

And, like usual, it makes me yearn for the time when Christ will be all-in-all, when all divisions will cease. It's both a taste of it, and a taste of only having a finite amount of time to divide between all the wonderful people there.

Of bachelor parties and brothers

Try to imagine 100ish guys filling the screened-in-porch behind the People of Praise center, overflowing in fact out onto the grass, with Ricky Thomas sitting in a chair in the middle. The party had miraculously quieted down so that a few guys could publicly honor Ricky. Now imagine me stepping forward and pulling out a folded up printout and reading it's contents to Ricky right next to me, in an awkward sort of way, while attempting to speak loudly enough for all to hear.

Ricky, I'd like to honor you for living in the moment. When I met you two and a half years ago in Allendale, we quickly struck up a friendship. We went for a few evening runs together and it was easy to share openly with you. Then when you moved back to South Bend the following summer, you continued showing us how to live in the moment. You fostered friendships with the Kottkamp boys and excitedly shared about them whenever you had a chance. "Excited sharing" is a familiar thing to those who spend increasing amounts of time with Ricky. I see the joy of the Lord in his excitement.

I'd also like to honor you for caring for our sisters. You've taught me a lot by your example. They were served in a new way when we put together a formal dinner for Valentine's Day at your suggestion. They've been protected numerous times by your responses during and after large co-ed games of soccer. You've shown me how to take the initiative in group settings while still seeking the preferences of our sisters. I can't thank you enough for showing me this particular way of being Christ in the world today.

Lastly, I'd like to encourage you in your competitive spirit. I don't always have a good experience in competition, but I've been very honored and built up whenever I have the opportunity to compete with you. I recently noticed this on the soccer field that whenever we're going head-to-head, I put more into it than I do with anybody else, and was wondering why. The Holy Spirit is very active in you, and I see that in the way that you are a intensely passionate athlete, yet still charitable and considerate while playing. It's a great model for all life in Christ.

Praise God for what he's doing with you Ricky! I look forward to seeing his hand at work in the new family you are beginning with Allesha. God bless you and I love you man.

LFT

A couple days ago I took part in a health screening offered to all LaSalle Company employees, which was fun. It included sampling for blood tests, and yesterday I got a call from my doctor's office that they had already received results from those tests. Apparently the liver function tests show elevated numbers for me, so they're asking me to wait 4 weeks and then take the test again. They didn't have any other information to give me, they said that the waiting would allow for any anomaly to pass, otherwise some more tests would be in order after that.

The cool thing is that they are giving me a month to pray for the Lord to clear up any condition! I randomly came across a favorite video of mine yesterday, a Ted Talk titled Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?, and I thought perhaps it was a little reminder from the Holy Spirit.

Update: My LFT numbers are normal! Praise God!

Always remember these 3 little words...

"You're right, dear"

Yesterday I drove down to Muncie for 6 hours to witness the wedding of Ron & Sandy Mixell. I arrived at the same time as my parents and walked in with them and Terry & Patti Bomkamp in from Rockford. The deacon who had "prepared" them for marriage said that they were both the oldest couple he and his wife had ever worked with, and that they had scored the highest on the "pre-marriage inventory" quiz that he gave them, the highest in his 35 years of giving that quiz!

When they each lost their spouse recently, I regretted not making it down for the respective funerals. Barb & Karl were powerhouses in the Muncie branch. Surely they still are in a different way. So when Ron & Sandy announced their engagement, a shock of joy rippled throughout the community. This new step they are taking is some combination of "weird" and "perfect".

There were numerous honorings and thanksgivings at the reception. Tom Schmitt pointed to the beatitude, "blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Debbie Mixell highlighted the love that she experienced growing up, and concluded with the title of this post, to a roar of approval from everyone there. We all know how important those words are to all married people.

I know Ryan!

Over the years at the lake cabin, we've grown close to the Daman family two houses down from where we are. My dad in particular has spent a lot of time with Brad, but we all pretty much share everything we have, from our time to our belongings. Their two sons have always called my dad by his first name, a pattern I'm not used to seeing since they're only just now in & approaching high school. Anyway, one of the boys, Ryan, has been pursuing a career in refereeing, and I just heard tonight that he had an article written about him!

We've got some cool photos of him here, here, and here, and the article is Teenage basketball official isn't kidding around on the court...

Awesome, Ryan!

Bangkok

A week ago my brother moved to Bangkok, and yesterday The Boston Globe's popular photo blog, The Big Picture, ran a Protests turn deadly in Thailand post. Greg follows web sources closely, and has even compiled a Twitter list, @gregory_walters/thailand-journalists, of some of the amateur sources. A journalist relayed this perspective:

Getting some traffic from farangs (foreigners) asking if their loved ones are okay. Farangs are in no danger so long as they avoid the fighting. The fighting is localized. There is no general state of war in Thailand. Farangs are safe. Normal Thai life is going on outside the danger zone and normal Thais are very ...friendly. (They are friendly even in the danger zone.)

Greg is about 11 hours ahead of us in the U.S., and he posts photos to flickr. It sure makes you more interested in foreign events when somebody you know personally is very close to them!

Update: Another photo post: Crackdown in Bangkok

The Lord is listening to you.

I sat in a chair on the deck at my parents' lakehouse, surrounded by 7 other guys, ranging from 9th graders to a soon-to-be freshman in college. They all had their hands on my shoulders and head, as I had asked for their prayers, for the Holy Spirit, that I could take more leadership when I see the need. That I would know what to say when I see that something needs said. As we prayed, one of them told me that the Lord is listening to me. Another told me that the Holy Spirit would give me the words to say. Another asked if we could pray for my neck which I had mentioned during our earlier game of football.

When you speak, do you speak as if you are speaking to Christ?