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| TRAVELS WITH MY DINOSAUR 05 June - 05 August 2003 |
| Sunday 8th June Today was beautiful again. Afte the lat night last night, I lay in bed and debated the appeal of the 11.30am service at Calvary Chapel - the church I located last night after Karen called to apologise about not being available to meet today because one of her children has croup. After a few minutes I decided it would be silly to waste part of the day for the sake of a lie-in. and resolved to aim for the 9.30am service instead. Calvary Chapel is discretely located on the corner of 17th Street, at the end of a fairly shapeless building facing the main thoroughfare of Washington Avenue. A simple silver logo above the door proclaims this to be the home of Calvary Chapel of Miami Beach. I was greeted at the door by Henry, a welcoming young man who was wired up to the goings on of the church upstairs with headphones. He directed me to the second floor, where I met with other worshipers at the drinks table and then in the main sanctuary. As is the increasing custom of churches today, the song words were projected onto screens up front, and I wondered if my telescope would cope with the challenege, until I was handed a printed sheet with the words for the day's service. Wow, what a difference! The first one, I recognised right away from my visits to The King's Arms with Janine - Better is one day in Your courts. The layout of the service was very similar to that of the King's Arms - music fellowship first, followed by bible study and teaching led by Pastor Robert Fountain. The music ministry was superb, with some really lovely arrangements and vocal leadership from a small group. Pastor Robert Fountain has an engaging, informal style, one which I suspect played a great part in the building up of the Calvary Chapel which began as a small, weekly bible study in his home in 1993. He talked on our need to be ready for the Lord's judgement, and the great importance of setting our hearts and consciences to be right with him, to live, not just at peace, but In Peace with God. He reflected on a pastors' conference in California, from which he'd just returned. There, John Corson's son, Peter John, was one of the daily devotional leaders. When Peter John, the eldest of three, was five yrs old, John Corson lost his wife in a car crash. Not long ago, he also lost his 20yr old daughter, Jessie, to exactly the same injury in another car crash. Pastor Robert shared with us how John explained his struggle, particularly with the loss of his daughter, until God asked him if he had peace. He realised that having peace was the only option because if he tried to reason with God, to ask for answers, he would always challenge and say "no God, that is NOT a good reason to take Jessie away from me". Once he found peace, he was able to resume his life and set his heart right again with God, to live diligently and devotedly, steadily serving God without preoccupations hindering his walk in faith. That reflection was really helpful for me. I regularly still argue with God over his reasons for taking Nikki and Nyra and my father away from this world. I want to understand Him, even though I already know that I never will. I'd like to tell myself that I'm at peace about it, but I'm not really at that point yet. John Corson's uxorious has given me another to consider though. After the service, I spoke with Rufus, who was intrigued by my trip and the children's hospital visits, and asked many questions. Originally from Atlanta, he was impressed to hear the Emory and CHOA are on my itinerary. Robert's Danish wife, Lizabet, is a lovely lady who co-ordinates the women's bible study and church Home Groups. She made a point of coming to talk to me, as a visitor she'd not seen before. This happened several times and I was made to feel extremely welcome. I wa invited back to join the evening's Alpha course supper and session, but politely declined as I already had plans. After leaving the church, I walked south along Washington Avenue, all the way down to 5th Street then across to the beach, where I bought the makings of a picnic and sat under the gently swaying palms - my natural air-con, for lunch. South Beach is a mecca for the locals during the weekend, and as I took my time strolling back up Ocean Drive, past the hulloballoo of skyscraper hotels, small family groups passed me by on Sunday afternoon outings, couples cycled and roller bladed along the board walk and tourists watched the goings on through tiny view finders or grinned manically from the other side of the lens. I bought a newspaper from a food-mart on the way home - the Sunday Miami Herald for $1, with no less than 16 sections! That would keep me busy for the rest of the week, leave alone all the other dailies! The front page headlines with the dilemma of DRC's child soldiers - should the UN engage them in combat if the situation arises the journalist asks UN spokesperson, Madnoje Mounoubai. The response is resigned - "I imagine so. They are child soldiers, but they are carrying weapons and they are shooting". Where has the world's media been for the past seven years while this awful situation in Congo has unravelled? Do people believe this is a recent event? For every child soldier in Congo, there are many others across Africa who are unknown to the wider world. This evening I met up with Alex Davilla, the lovely lady from Coconut Creek (about 45mins drive from SoBe) who founded the excellent Make A Child Smile organisation. Alex was born in London (at the hospital where Alexander Fleming discovered penicilin, she pointed out), but grew up in S�o Paulo, Brazil, and has lived in the USA for the pas 7years. The idea of MACS came about from just one email that touched Alex enough to act upon, sparking the beginning of a wonderful opportunity for providing hope, joy and encouragement to children with serious and life threatening illnesses and their families. Each month, the MACS website features three children, sharing their story and inviting visitors to the sire to send them and their family happy mail to light up their path a little. I know some MACS featured children, and the impact the website has had on their lives is such a blessing. Please do visit MACS if you have the time. Again, late night now, so I'm off to bed. God bless. |