On Vacation...

I am on vacation all week, so will likely not be posting much unless something really interesting comes up.

On Vacation...

I am on vacation all week, so will likely not be posting much unless something really interesting comes up.

The Trip That Just Wouldn't Start

June 9 was supposed to be the day that the Christison family left on their 3 week trip to Britain, Germany, and Austria...it didn't.  Bad weather on the East Coast cancelled our flight.  So we were scheduled on the next day's flight.  It too was cancelled.  You can live out of a suitcase when you're on vacation, but it's quite difficult to do so when you are at home!

Knowing we couldn't count on the weather, Dom and I decided to rent a car to drive to Dulles to pick up the overseas flight.  The people on the phone at United told Dom to GO to the desk at the Norfolk airport and ASK FOR AN UPGRADE TO BUSINESS CLASS!!!!!

I am sitting here writing this to you because that is just what we did.  We are in the Red Carpet Business lounge eating and drinking and surfing ...and enjoying this!  It's been years since I (Kat) flew business - again a bump up - and the rest of the gang has never experienced it.  Don't know if it will be nicer than before or not, but we'll let you know later.

What a sweet treat for this woman who has been anxious and worried and an all over mess the past 3 weeks.  Praise you Lord!

Wow!

Our girl is 9!

Our best girl in all the world is 9 today. Happy birthday Emily!

A few pictures of her growing up:

Hit By the Recession

Today Andrew was hit by the recession for the first time...

He and I (Kathryn) go run errands frequently.  We have our spots where we know there will be a lollipop for the asking  - the bank, the hair salon, the cleaners.  But today when we got to the cleaners, there were NO LOLLIPOPS!!!  We are only talking Dum-Dums here, but Miss Hilda at Zoots said there was no money in the budget for lollipops anymore...or toilet paper.  She buys her own now.  Andrew was mightily upset...As far as he's concerned the customer service has gone down.  WAY down.  I'm feeling sorry for the employees who have to bring their own squares since the company doesn't have a square to spare!

And now, this may cause a recession at the dentist's since there won't be any cavities to fill...funny how this stuff influences people :-)

Play that funky music, white boy!

Well, yes I'm pretty white (pink in the summertime perhaps), and I like funky music! But that has very little to do with this post.

While reading one of my favorite blogs, the guy quoted Augustine and I loved this quote, which is actually talking about music:

"The soul delights in what is learned indirectly"

What is the link between music and theology? Music is to listen to, to delight in for its own sake. But it still can teach, indirectly, powerfully perhaps.

If you have a few moments, check out the blog entry here:

I'm off to bring up Earth, Wind and Fire on my Nano....

Everyday Choices by Dominic (Kathryn wouldn't be this moody...)

This life is so short, and so full of bewildering choices...

Every day, I’m seized by thoughts of: what should I read today? What should I watch? What should I be listening to? It fills my mind much more often than thoughts of God, thoughts of blessing my family or phoning a friend, thoughts of praying for others in need. I do these from time to time and pat myself on the back for my sterling service…

Those thoughts intrude from time to time, and I may reflect on them with a guilty pause for a moment or two; then I’m distracted again by thoughts of – “Survivor this week! Who’s going to get voted off this week? Or “Amazing Race” on Sunday – it was good last week, wasn’t it?” Or, I must go off to the grocery store, so I can listen to a couple more tracks from that Coldplay album…

On Amazon, they have literally hundreds of novels for me to read! Their recommendations are excellent.  They’ve got enough to keep me entranced for years and years! I’m on “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and it’s good, in fact I’m reading a lot more of that than the Bible, that’s for sure.  There’s so much I should be reading! How about those Economists that keep coming in – I can’t keep up with them!

I’m a distracted 42 year old guy, with my days passing by ever faster. I’d like to project this image that I’m this spiritually mature guy, well-rounded in scripture and a deacon candidate for goodness sake! I just don’t  see it myself – at least not today. I do know God is faithful. He is so faithful. He already knows the end of my story – and my only hope is that I’m wrapped up in Christ.

And a few more photos from our week away...

 This is the first photo Andrew has ever taken - that you've seen anyway.  Super good don't ya think?
This is Dom the human stalactite/stalagmite.  Guess that makes him a column actually...

Dom is the photo chooser of the family.  He keeps the photo albums up to date and annotates them with sweet comments (note to scrapbookers - Dom is the one to invite to the party, not me).  But he leaves out a few ones I would pick every now and then.  He left out these two this time around, and they are just too good to pass up!  Hope you enjoyed!!

Spring Break at Massanutten

It was a refreshing week for the family, away from the pressures of job hunting, worship leading, course developing and for Emily - homework!

We stayed in a nice, 2 bedroomed apartment in Massanutten, a hugh village of fun near Harrisonburg and just a few miles out from Shenandoah Parkway. On site, we did some putting, go-karting, fishing and the kids loved the massive hot tub and singing "who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" due to the latest Spongebob marathon on Nick!

What's happening with us?

Early April and some, at least of the Christisons are in a regular spring rhythm. Emily is doing great in school, even ace-ing a math test which we were nervous about, laughing and joking with her school friends as I pick her up from school, being more aggressive in her soccer games and being such a delightful 8 year old. Andrew, too is energy and enthusiasm personified, especially when donning super-hero outfits or pajamas, taking entirely too long to eat at dinner time, relishing his weekly gymnastics lesson and too often being too cute for words. Well, he was always cute, but now he's learning eloquence as well!

As for the big people in the family - well, I'm going to have to encourage Kathryn to write her own entry, as I don't want to speak for her. For me, I haven't felt a quick or smooth transition back to normal Chesapeake life since coming back from the UK just over three weeks ago. Of course, we don't really know what "normal" looks like! As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my recent trip had the effect of bringing home to me just how much I enjoy living in the US and that it is my home more than anywhere else on the planet! 

I periodically go round in circles, trying to interpret what God has been saying to us and teaching us since September 07 when it was a No or not yet to church-planting in Europe. It's tiring and I probably overanalyze (will my wife giggle at this slight understatement?? I hope so!)

Having good friends to catch up with from church, ex-work and so on has been refreshing, but the ever present "are we going anywhere or not" question is always hanging in the air, along with the "I'm not paying the bills at the moment" question.

We need prayer. For anyone reading, please pray!

I'm going through Psalms at the moment in a fairly informal way, just reading and writing down verses that strike me. The one for this morning was Psalm 27: 14:

"Wait for the Lord; be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord."

I'm going to take this one to heart....

Finding the Four Corners

Kathryn and I think highly of this guy's blog and biblically-based but challenging articles on how believers can make a difference in the world we live in.

Think about trying to counsel a good friend, who is not a believer, to persuade him not to leave his wife and kids for this younger, fresh, interesting woman at work. You know that "the Bible says adultery is wrong" is not going to cut it. "The Bible says" doesn't have authority any more in most people's lives. So, what are you going to do.

Read the article and see if it helps at all! It did for me....

http://www.doggieheadtilt.com/four-corners/

UK Trip - Scottish pictures

A country lane, near Lochwinnoch, Greenock...

Rainbow over the ferry, Brodick, Isle of Arran

Italian rugby supporters before the Six Nations match, Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Dog in flight! Sandbraes beach, Whiting Bay, Isle of Arran

Early April Update

Early April update

Yes, it’s been quiet on the Christison blog, since in fact the early days of my trip to the UK in March. This is Dominic’s take on what happened, what I perhaps learned and where we are right now…

I’m really glad I made the trip. Three weeks, one funeral, two interviews (with a third by phone just after I got back), over 1,200 road miles, staying in and visiting Arran (my Mum and Dad), Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cambridge (staying with my brother Donald), Oxford and London. A close up chance to imagine us living, working and doing ministry in Britain.

It was an eye-opening trip for me in a couple of ways. First, I experienced a much stronger sense of reverse culture shock that I’d expected. It was unsettling to contemplate moving back to British life and society. It felt very alien, and the people I met very different to myself. I guess I shouldn't have felt so surprised, since it’s been going 18 years since I lived full-time in the country, but it was still a jolt. It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't done it themselves!

The second eye-opener was how expensive living there is compared to what I’m used to in the States. This especially came home to me when researching the price of homes to rent in the Oxford area and what you get for your money in terms of the size of houses. It became clear to me that I’d need to apply for higher-paying jobs than I’d been doing. A lot of families in the UK have to have two full-time incomes coming in to make it work.

So, this was a valuable trip, even if it sounds like I had a negative reaction. It was good to have a clear understanding of what we’d face financially and in terms of unsettledness for all of us if God called us over there by opening a clear, viable job and an opportunity to be involved in church-planting. It can feel overwhelming!

God is certainly at work in the British Isles, I have no doubt of that. The question for Kathryn and I right now is if He’s wanting us to be there and a part of that work right now or not. We’ll keep knocking on doors in applying for jobs, knowing that His plan is best and He will close or open in His good wisdom. That’s liberating in the midst of uncertainty!

In the meantime, there’s plenty of ministry going on right where we are with Trinity and worship, a new church plant in Chesapeake and friends and colleagues to catch up with and have over for dinner!

On a less cerebral note, some photos from the UK trip to come soon and also on Facebook….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weird British foods

Well, I have to say, there's some cool variety of spicy and exotic foods in Britain these days. A couple that I noted with salivating tastebuds were: A Chicken Tikka Cornish Pasty (a tasteful collaboration between south India and south-west England!) and Oizza Hut was offering a smashing sounding challenge for the nostrils in their new Piri-piri Pizza! (piri-piri is Portuguese chilli paste)...

Buzz is alive!

Last time we were on the Isle of Arran, where my Mum and Dad live, sharp eyes (I think it was Emily) reported that there was a tiny Buzz Lightyear toy bravely waving out at passing cars from a garage roof on the road from Lamlash to Whiting Bay! We first spotted him in August 2007.

Well, I'm happy to report that Buzz still proudly sits on his roof, exposed to the ravages of a Scottish winter, although I noted that he is now attached by a piece of wire to a heavy brick to prevent him from flying away!

Kats and Dogs

The history of this starts in high school when my sister started calling me Kat.  Then somewhere after college a few friends also started calling me Kat.  Then sometime after that - can you tell middle age must have already happened since I can't recall exactly when...not that you'd be interested - I started saying that I'm the only cat that I would ever love.  Then there was a missions speaker once who started his sermon with this:  There are two kinds of people in this world.  Can you guess?  Lots of people said lots of things, but I said to those around "Cat people and dog people"... and I was right...much to my hubby's chagrin :-) 

Now you have to also understand that Dom and I and my sister sit firmly in the dog lover camp.

Now speed forward to January 2009 when I'm at this women's meeting taking place at the home of a lady with a cat.  Lots of the women there wanted to pet this cat, but I ignored it since if I play with one my nose tends to stuff up and become rather unpleasant...

Guess whose lap this cat chose to sit in.  Yup!  Mine.  

Now go to February 2009.  Same lady's house.  Same cat.  Guess where the photographer took a photo of said cat.  Right again.  Mine.

So now comes the owwee.  I'm coming to realize just how cat-like I actually am.  Yes, I'm pretty me-centered.  And I definitely like it when I'm in charge.  I even have this thing I call the Ursula complex.  Think the end of the Little Mermaid.  Yes, not pretty, is it?  

Gotta just love this sinful-awareness thing...  All in all, I think I prefer thinking of myself as a cat as opposed to an Ursula.  It's just a little bit less disgusting...  Isn't that such a normal thing - trying to make sin seen nice.  

Gross...

A few first impressions

Okay, so here I am returning to the UK for a 3 week trip to do some job hunting and coming with open eyes to ask God if this is the direction we should be moving in. So I do feel a weight or pressure on me, but also am just glad to be here, and to let God do His thing and either open or close doors. I'm glad He already has something planned for us; but it is faith-stretching and sometimes wearying just to stay in the day to day and trust God for the future...

Okay enough of all that, since that wasn't my aim for this entry!

A few immediate impressions that might make me and Kathryn chuckle at least!

1 - The aliens have landed!

I was at Manchester airport after a dodgy night's sleep, waiting in a long immigration line to get into the UK, and I was surrounded, for the first time in nearly two years, with ho

ards of my fellow countrymen, all T-shirts and red skin, presumably back from a winter getaway in the sun. I was struck suddenly by my first symptoms of reverse culture shock - everybody looked so weird! I mean, Dads, Moms, kids, th

ey all had the weirdest shaped faces, strange pointy noses and squinty eyes. I was wondering at this moment if they were all aliens wearing stretchy human masks (if you're a new Doctor Who fan like Kat and I, think Slitheen!)

2 - What are those green things down there?

Well, I was coming in on the plane and I'm getting close to the ground in Manchester and I see these round, green or blue objects in practically every little back garden. I also saw them on the flight to Glasgow. My first sleep-deprived thought was, "swimming pools! Every one's got outdoor swimming pools. That's a bit ambitious in the British climate, isn't it?" As I got closer, though, I saw that these strange objects materialized into - trampolines. Now, that makes much more sense!

3: Vicar of Dibley at the Rotary...

I had a very pleasant evening on Monday, with dinner and a rotary meeting at Auchrannie Spa with Dad, who is a member. He advertising the evening as "a talk on wine and wine-tasting", which certainly sounded good to me. However, when we got there and sat down at the start of the meeting, there were three, completely empty wine bottles next to the speaker's chair! So it ended up as being a lot of talking about wine, minus any actual imbibing...

It was another reverse culture moment for me, as we all took our seats and the meeting began. First, in true Slitheen/Doctor Who fashion, everyone had strange and larger than life faces to me. In addition, I experienced this complete lack of curiosity about me which is so different to what I'm familiar with in the States. I was welcomed of course, and everyone was very polite, but I think if I'd arrived with a gerbil hanging out of my nose, I'd likely have got the same lack of curiosity reaction!

I also had a momentary flashback to a Britcom which the meeting triggered. Gradually it came to me - I had been catapulted into a village church meeting with the cast of "Vicar of Dibley"! (Actually, it turned out that they were an articulate and intelligent lot, which you couldn't claim for the residents of Dibley...).

Thursday morning on the Isle of Arran

It's been hard to get online in the Isle of Arran,Scotland. Not hard exactly, just a little tricky to get a few quiet moments...

Still, settled in against the drizzle and gusty winds, I am warm an in the comfort of the Cruize Bar, at the Auchrannie Spa resort in Brodick. The only place with free Wi-Fi! A warm and sophisticated oasis. I'm listening to Snow Patrol's "Engines" on my red Nano and trying to download an episode of "The Amazing Race" at the same time.

I was in the local library earlier and did a productive hour job preparing. It was an interesting contrast from my usual haunt, the Chesapeake public library. There were two one on one computer lessons going on at nearby terminals, including what looked like a lady of about 60 teaching basics to an eager lady in her seventies! Lifelong learning is thriving on Arran.

Next to me was a girl, using Gmail but typing in Polish I noticed. I'd heard that many Poles in particular have come to Britain for employment but many are in fact returning, because job opportunities have dried up here and are better back in Warsaw and Cracow.

Oh well, time to pluck up courage and pay 7 quid for a sandwich...

This was my reading for this morning, courtesy of John Piper, which I thought I'd share:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1643_knowing_the_nature_of_your_evil/

Life Update

For those of you who check in on the blog, sorry we haven't been here much, after a flurry of posts in January.

This is Dominic's subjective mid-February update, starting, humbly, with Dominic....

Dominic: I've been doing the following stuff, in no particular order of eternal significance: job hunting online in my home from home, the Chesapeake Central Library; playing around with spiking my hair, which the kids claim to hate but love playing with the spiky bits; listening to new music, including a fabulous new (for me) band, Snow Patrol and their latest album, "A Hundred Million Suns", leading worship at church and writing a new version to an old hymn, "All For Jesus".

Kathryn: Kathryn has been visiting an old friend, Sally on a weekend away in Roanoke; doing an International bible study on Wednesdays, befriending neighbors and arranging dinner and other stuff; going to movies and watching season 1 of "Heroes" with her hubby and taking Andrew to swimming and gymnastics...

Emily: Doing really well on her math; being a sweet presence at school, church and kissing her brother too much; playing her DS and watching copious SpongeBob episodes; doing gymnastics and playing with her friends as much as possible; becoming a great reader, especially reading out loud to her Mom and Dad before bed and slapping Dad's bottom too much....

Andrew: Being a charmer (gets it from his Dad of course); drawing, sketching and painting as much as he can; loving playing our new family game, the Cranium Hullabaloo DVD game; enjoying his new weekly pastime of kiddies gymnastics and watching so many SpongeBob episodes he can quote whole sections!

This is just a random snapshot of the Christisons, early in 2009....

Recession and Faith

Every morning we wake up to the news, and I'm beginning to wonder why. It's all crisis, turmoil and economic bad news. It's bewildering to dwell on it, or my temptation is to try and keep away and it'll all blow over eventually. Then there's our diminished inheritance and a lack of a job nagging away at me!

At this time in my life, I'm grateful for the sovereignty of God. Here's an article I read which I think is ultimately faith inspiring in the midst of the gloomy times:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/3566_What_Is_the_Recession_For/

Andrew's response to the economic crisis

Andrew clearly feels that the Christison household doesn't have any real extreme money issues at the start of 2009. He has his own wallet and his own money. The other day, Kathryn caught him with a pair of scissors, trimming a dollar bill very carefully so the money would fit in his wallet...

Strange New Worlds

To boldly go where no Dad has gone before.....

There is a strange planet on the galaxy of Lynnhaven Mall, called Buildabear...

In this alternate universe, girls take their Dads to a strange initiation rite. Girl picks up carcass of animal skin, then pluffs it up with stuffing, breathing life into its inert form with white foamy bits! Dad looks on with silent awe... Then girl takes a still beating heart, rubs it skillfully in her fingers, kisses it with reverence and then boldly thrusts it into the animals belly! Dad gapes in perplexity. Then girl proceeds to dress this newly animate animal in all kinds of colorful dresses and boots, finally choosing a flowery pink number with sparkly belt and snug beige booties.

After some pressing of strangely symboled buttons and swiping of credit cards, the animal is gratefully housed in a perfect box, a birth certificate miraculously supplied and dazed Dad and proud animal owner stride back to the car, our of the planet's warm and expensive atmosphere and home to safe galaxies called Chesapeake and Greenbrier....

You Just Gotta Laugh!

Here's the cover of the latest Discipleship Journal:

Most of our dear readers know that we've felt led to go live in Europe and have indeed made a couple of attempts which have so far come to naught.  As we have just recently returned to the drawing board and have been busy looking for the chalk (ah yes, some will ask "What is chalk?"), we have been looking at different avenues of job searching - more than we've ever considered looking at before.  We've been praying for what seems like ages for God's direction and guidance.

And here comes the Discipleship Journal with God's voice practically speaking - I think chuckling - from the cover.  The title of the special section is Decisions, Decisions, but inside the titles of the articles are "Guidance Systems", and "If Only God Did Skywriting".  What a sweet sense of humour God has sometimes - esp. since I usually think He delights in roller coasters instead.

New Year at the Beach

Tradition for us - to start the new year at Kitty Hawk....

Where are we right now?

Well, it's one year on from our first blog posts, my first online grading as a teacher without a full-time office job, one year on from that year of new possibilities. And we're still in Chesapeake, still dreaming about Europe and listening to God's voice for the New Year.

Of course, the days zip by and it's already the 10th of January. Our days have been filled with: getting Emily to school and helping her with her homework; connecting with friends and doing Trinity worship; lusting after and finally buying a Samsung flat-panel! Andrew's currently watching some "Indiana Jones" on it, while Emily and Kathryn and at "High School Musical 3" at Cinema Cafe, Greenbrier....

My days have been filled with times at the library, grading my papers and brainstorming on what could come next with the "trek to Europe" saga. Listening to Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" on my new red Nano. My car also pulsing to the beat of the soundtrack from "Slumdog Millionaire"...

This post is pretty off the cuff, just a record of a moment in time. Talked to my Dad today, and enlisted his help in looking for job opportunities in the UK. Kathryn and I had a great date last night, seeing "Benjamin Button" at the Commodore in Portsmouth. Before it started, we compared notes on our brainstorming on what to do next in job/ministry hunting. Kathryn had a 1 page mind map. I had 13 sides of scrawling, semi-legible notes. This is our different styles! 

It's a time of tension, as we're eager for God to give us our marching orders. But also an interesting time, when I'm praying more than I have in a long time, feeling the heat of spiritual battle, and also laughing unexpectedly more often (usually by a comment from Emily or Andrew!). 

I have so much to be thankful for, I can't even begin to put it in words.....

Andrew's Theology

Well, sometimes I wonder what God's going to do with Andrew. So much potential, so much energy!

He sometimes comes up with theological statements out of the blue. The other day, for example, after a reasonable silence in the car seat, he states to me, quite matter of fact:

"A Chinese yoyo protects you better than God".

Yesterday, it was:

"In heaven, God will be on the ground. And there will be lots of grass - fake grass, like a golf course..."