The saga of over-the-road trucking for Joy and I to support ourselves and the ministry of MCOI continues. We have completed out company training and been upgraded to our own assigned truck. We have been on our own for about 2 weeks now. In addition to assisting in supplying our financial needs it also provides new and unexpected ministry opportunities that may not be unique to trucking but seem to be more pronounced. Loneliness among solo drivers is difficult to overcome. A few days ago while Joy and I were having lunch we struck up a conversation with a young man. Soon in to the conversation he talked about being single and asserted that no one wanted him, except his immediate family who only wanted him to pay their bills. Thinking he was overstating the case, as some of us do, we assured him this wasn’t true. He began to tear up (something truck drivers don’t really do in truck stops) and we realized he was really suffering an aloneness that Joy and I cannot readily identify with. We prayed for him and continue to do so. On the lighter side of this new “tent-making” experience, Joy weighs in with something she called “Yankee Doodle”: Continue reading …

Have Evangelical leaders brought the church into a place where non-Christians are more accepting. Isn’t teaching apologetics to youth only something that will alienate unbelivers from the gospel? Chris, Tonbridge from Kent, UK asks:

How would you encourage young people to develop their apologetics?

Continue reading …

I had a few days home from the road and while running some errands found myself at a counter with two registers and both had signs on the counter declaring “Register Closed.” At one the cashier was diligently counting out the drawer to close it for his shift. He didn’t look past the sign at the several customers who were stuck in purchase purgatory. For him we didn’t exist. At the other counter the young lady was counting her drawer and getting set up to start her shift. She too was oblivious to anything beyond the “Register Closed” sign. I can understand why neither cashier wanted to make eye contact with any of us. One was trying to go home and taking “one more” customer could become a never ending proposition. The other cashier needed to make sure everything was accounted for before opening. Management certainly could have done a better job of orchestrating the transition. Other than a minor inconvenience to each of us no harm was done and as a result we will tend to over look this and go back to the store again in the future.

While I stood there it struck me that our nation may soon be hanging a “Register Closed” sign out and then what will happen? After all, they don’t seem to be having a very good track record of addressing the economic problems we as a nation are encountering. Early last year the Bush administration and congress put together a stimulus package which extended unemployment benefits. They also mailed checks to citizens which, it was suggested, would be spent in such a way that it would stimulate the economy. It would be an exaggerated understatement to say it didn’t help. In more recent months the government created a 750 billion dollar “bail out.” A portion was to be used to buy “toxic” home loans and banks were supposed use the rest of the funds to lend to consumers and thereby stimulate the economy. Once this was approved the government decided not to buy the “toxic” mortgages and none in governmental leadership seemed think they needed guidelines as to how the banks should use the money. Instead of being used on lending, extravagant retreats for high level employees and multi-millions dollar “bonus” packages were given. If anything was left it seems to have been squirreled away by the banks. When asked for an accounting as to how the funds were used the institutions which were given the funds didn’t seem to know or refused to say. Of course, the banks would never give loans to those of us who will be saddled with repaying this massive give away in increased taxes based using the same criteria as they themselves are acquiring money. They did such a good job of losing track of the first half of the bailout with no benefit to the nation that the government has decided they deserve second half which is now being released.

The big three auto manufacturers showed up at the register looking for their bailout. They had no plan to show, they were following the example Continue reading …