And open letter to a president or two

The following was submitted to President Bill Clinton and President Barrack Obama.  It is doubtful that it will reach either man, so I offer it hear as an open letter to the president and to all elected government leaders.

Dear Mr. President,

When Barrack Obama was elected as our nation’s president, I signed up for the White House electronic newsletter.  I did not vote for Mr. Obama, but he was elected and therefore he became my president and received my prayers and respect.

I was surprised that because I signed up for this newsletter from the president I was also put on every electronic mailing list for the Democratic Party.  This in itself was not something that I would expect from the office of the president, but worse than the deluge of emails from various democratic sources was the vitriolic tone of them all.  I would not have been privy to such acrimonious attacks on fellow public servants if not for the presumption that all people who signed up for the president’s newsletter were Republican-hating-Democrats.

This mindset has killed the attitude that our elected officials are public servants.  The Republican Party and the Tea Party are equally as acrimonious in their communications, but when I sign up for a candidate’s newsletter, I know that I will receive a dose of partisan horsehockey.  The same should not be true when I sign up for something from my president.

At any time I could have opted to be deleted from the mailing list that I was unilaterally placed upon, but I followed the discourse promulgated to see if it might finally put the American people and their needs ahead of selfish political interests.  My optimism was quickly dismissed as the vitriolic diatribe increased its venomous barrage.

I send this to you as perhaps the only living President or national leader from the Democratic Party that might be able to speak to today’s leaders that are addicted to extreme rancor and disdain for any thinking other than their own.  Senator Dole has issued some similar remarks to the Republican Party.

It is time to move beyond divisiveness and into true statesmanship.  I request that you take an active part in this effort on a national scale.

Semper Fidelis,

Tom Spence

Through the storms

The day has come despite the storms of the night.

People so scared and in hiding just hoping for light.

But then the storm passes and you are alive.

Is it wrong to feel thankful when others did not survive?

How often we forget that today is a gift.

Tomorrow’s not promised—just this day to live.

But too often we forget the blessings of this day.

Until tragedy strikes and takes lives away.

It is a hard question to answer, but we still ask ‘why.’

Why must bad things happen, why must innocents die?

But until the story is finished and God says it’s complete,

We will still have sorrows and tears and things seem incomplete.

But there will come a day with a trump and a sigh,

Following silence in heaven as a short times passes by.

Then Jesus will come and claim all of his own.

And wipe tears from our eyes for every sadness we’ve known.

But until that day we must walk by faith and not sight.

We must shine in the darkness and bring forth his light.

Through storms and quakes and when disasters abound,

We must be still and know that God’s always around.

For those who have lost loved ones, property, and more

Don’t be discouraged for he knocks at the door.

And says come to him when you are burdened and he will give you rest.

For he desires that your heart not be troubled, but that it be blessed.

Amen.

Mission to Kenya - To Equip the Saints

From 4 May to 16 May 2013, Tom Spence and Rick Ellis deployed to Kenya from Burns Flat, Oklahoma to lead a conference of pastors and church leaders in the areas of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership.  The two also visited a refugee camp, two schools for orphans, and some homes.

These are pictures from Eldoret, Kenya and the surrounding areas.

Africa - May 2013

Some pics from Kenya

Load Paper

It has been a crazy week as I am down to single digits on my calendar before I head to Eldoret, Kenya to speak at a conference of about 300 pastors.  I am very excited about doing this.

I am also working on preparing materials for my presentations and preparing worship bulletins and children’s bulletins for use on the home front while I am away. For the past several days I have been greeted repeatedly with the same words by my printer and my copier.

LOAD PAPER

At some point, I started to feel a little burdened about continually having to reload the paper tray.  Then late on Friday night following a somewhat exhausting but very productive fund raiser for this mission trip, I loaded a congregational survey that the Board of Missions asked us to complete.  It was 9 pages long and would take a while.  It could do its work overnight.

Just as I was ready to exit the church building, I noticed that the copier noise that I had grown to know so well over the past few days was absent.

I investigated, knowing full well that I had loaded the paper, but wondering if I had repeated that drill so many times that I just thought I had loaded it.  There was only one way to find out.  I reentered the copy room and was greeted with the message:

CARRIAGE JAM

It couldn't be, but it was.  I have cleared a few jams before and they always involved placing big hands through small openings to remove even smaller bits of paper that somehow register on the machine’s sensor network and tell the device to cease all operations.

It wasn't he worst of jams, but when you have been poured out like a drink offering and can hardly wait for God and a good night’s rest to fill you back up; it was surely the last thing I wanted to do.

The following day, I resumed my copying frenzy and sure enough, the machine demanded more paper several times that day.

With each LOAD PAPER command that the machine issued to me, I responded with Hallelujah!

Load paper meant that everything was working fine.  Nothing was broken or malfunctioning.  All was proceeding along the course set for me.

It is hard to see how I could have ever seen such a simple task as a burden when it was really a blessing.

Dirtouflage

The next generation of digital camouflage has come to western Oklahoma.  We will call it dirtouflage.

Old timers in these parts like to spot a newbie—that’s a newcomer in your old timer vocabulary—and then they ask the same question.

“Do you remember the Great Flood in the Bible?”

You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to know the answer.  All say, “Yes.”  Even the occasional atheist knows about the flood.  They may or may not believe it, but they answer in the affirmative as well.

One of the old timers will then reply, “Yup, we got 2 inches of that.”

Dry is the new normal in western Oklahoma.  It has been 2 consecutive years of very dry.  Wells are going dry.  Farm ponds are dried up.  Lakes and rivers are all low.  Pasture land is scarce.

But into every life a little rain must fall.  Much would be welcomed, but only a little fell yesterday evening.  In fact, so little rain fell that it was just enough to make mud but just not enough to wash the mud off of the local vehicles.

The result was dirtouflage.

Dirtouflage resembles modern digital camouflage but it is much more transient for the dirtouflage will blow away if it doesn’t get washed off first.

It is still dry in western Oklahoma.  Folks understand drought and dust bowl more than they like, but they are still able to laugh when the sky gives up just enough moisture to make droplets of mud.

Advent of the King

Advent of the King

Silent Night

Holy Night

I think I may

I think I might

Wonder if we've gone so wrong

Do we even know what is right?

The days are filled again with ads

Of 3D games and new IPads

Of things that surely we must have

To ease life’s pain and be our salve

So we may just keep going on

The road so wide instead of the narrow path.

But as we live so lukewarm day to day

Will we hear the one who says, prepare the way

Or just go about our lives in dismay

Blinded to the arrival of our hope and stay

With the victory already won

Will the words Jesus is Lord be what we pray?

But one will be taken and another left

Joy and sorrow in such glorious theft

Some shouting for joy and some bereft

Where do you stand in this judgment cleft

Without the Lamb of God, who is his Son

Or washed in his blood with steps both blessed and deft.

And one day we will see him coming on the clouds

The trump will sound much louder than loud

And heaven will celebrate with such renown

That every soul will in joy abound

When Christ the Kings comes and rules as the Son

Love has won the victory and all will astound.

We do so wish that this day would come soon

Even if trouble must first come to the sun and the moon.

For we know what to do in the words of a familiar tune

Let every heart prepare him room

And heaven and nature will sing on and on

And every trouble and tear will be long gone.