Santa to the World

I was asked by Ean’s school to be Santa. He attends Frank McCoppin Elementary School that has 215 students attending. I got to sit with every kid and ask them about what they want for Christmas. Every boy but maybe five said that they wanted Bakugan. It seemed like every other little girl wanted an Easy Bake Oven Microwave. The other girls wanted a stuffed puppy, cell phone or iPod. It was a thrill to see the excitement in all of the children’s eyes.

A couple of observations I thought were interesting besides the uni-mind that kids get around Christmas presents. First there is such a difference between the age groups in regards to Santa. The pre-schoolers were students in the special education program. One of them was in a diaper and had a load in it. Anyway most of those kids were petrified of Santa or were way way into seeing him. Then the Kindergartners were all on board with Santa. Each one came up and told me what they wanted. The kids in Ean’s school are broken up into two classrooms. There are non-English speakers who are trying to learn English and keep their Cantonese, and there are the English speaking and non-English speaking kids who are learning the basic kindergartener stuff. Any way the English speaking kids simply came up and told me what they wanted, again either Bakugan or an Easy Bake Microwave. They knew enough about Santa that they knew he was going to bring them something, really any toy out there, they only needed to ask. Ean came up and asked for, yes you guessed it, 5 Bakugan’s.

The non-English speaking kindergarteners were a little confused. Julie and I bought a bag full of candy canes for Santa to hand to each kid. So I was handing them out. Every one of these children asked for, not a Bakugan nor an EBM but asked for a candy cane instead. They could ask for any toy and they asked for a candy cane. Maybe they asked for a candy cane because they could see it and realized that the probability was high that if they asked they would get it. Maybe they did not know the tradition of asking Santa for toys, maybe they wanted what they wanted right now and did not want to wait seven days? It got me thinking.

Then the older kids, third and fourth graders came and were real shy around Santa. I could tell that they wanted to come and ask Santa but they were afraid of looking too interested in case their friends started to laugh. Slowly they came up and made their request known. What was funny was that they hemmed and hawed on their way up to see Santa, but as soon as they sat on my lap they were right there, just talking to Santa telling them what they wanted, what they hoped for, what was on their mind.

The fifth graders were way into it. They all came up almost mobbing me. The deal was that only those who paid to get their picture were supposed to come see Santa. The older kids balked so we made a line and got up there. These big 10 year old boys waiting in line to see Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas, they really did not care what others thought, they did not care about the rules, they simply wanted to get to Santa and tell him.

I thought about prayer, specifically my prayer for these kids. It is my belief that most of the kids that I saw today do not know the love of Jesus, they do not know anything about him other than he makes a pretty good swear word. I would love for every kid in that school to know Jesus. If it is what I want then I should go to my Father with my request.

Jesus taught that prayer is like a child going to ask their father for something.

 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Jesus to his disciples Matthew 7:7-11

But I hesitate to pray sometimes. Sometimes I stick to praying for the easy stuff, the stuff that I know probably will happen no matter what, but fail to pray for the hard stuff, the impossible stuff, like revival starting in a small elementary school in San Francisco. I am like the kids settling for the candy canes when I could choose from any toy ever made.

Instead of settling for candy canes I started to pray for the kids as they came up. “God reveal yourself to them, make your love evident in their lives, help me God to live the life of Christ in such a way that these children would know that you are God and that you love them.”

Then I started to feel foolish to write about it to you. Really, I thought that you would see the impossibility of such a prayer. But the more I focused in on God and what he can do, the less I worried about you or anything else for that matter. I thought of those boys, hesitant to let their friends see them come see Santa, but they came anyway. I realized the key to this was to keep my eyes on the Father and what he is able to do and not on what others think. I kept thinking about the impossibility of a babe in a manger being the King of Heaven, 12 unlikely guys being the foundation to a world changing movement, a kid form Catharpin, Virginia ending up in San Francisco, pastoring a church. God is in the doing big business.

 I know that the kids at Ean’s school can come to know God’s love, so I will continue to ask, keeping my eyes on the one whom I am asking and not worry about those around me. I will also pray big prayers, radical prayers, prayers that have no way of coming true unless God’s hand is on it.

Do you have a prayer like that? That is so big that you are afraid to even pray it?

 

You Know it is a Recession When…

I can’t remember if I told you about my friend Joann or not?  I first met her about a month after I moved in.  I was putting the trash out and she was standing across the street looking at me. I had heard people digging through the trash at four and five in the morning looking for recycling that they could cash in. I had seen her before looking through the trash down the street. I had a feeling that she wanted to go through our trash. So I said to her, you can come get it now if you want. Since then a friendship was born.

She found out I was a pastor and it took her awhile to figure out what that was. Finally she asked me one day, is that like a preacher. I said, yes. She has called me “Preach” ever since. I see her every Wednesday night in her red coat, earmuffs and yellow rubber dish gloves walking up and down the street getting recycling to sell. I have found out since then that this is called recycling theft and evidently it is a big problem, see article here.

Joann stopped me this week and said, “Hey Preach, would you say a prayer for me? It has gotten real rough out here. I can’t keep up with the competition. There are more and more people out here and I can’t get to the cans quick enough. And the prices are horrible, I just collect CRV now, no one wants anything else (see article about price changes). Anyway I need you to pray for me because I do not know how we are going to make it if this keeps up.”

I placed my hand on her shoulder and prayed that she would find plenty of recycling and that she would stop worrying and that she would experience the Peace of God right now. I then went back into the house and found all the CRV bottles that I could find and dumped out a couple of half empties and chased her down the street.

I was sitting in the Sunset Youth Services board meeting last week and the Executive Director Dawn Stueckle explained two new developments in the youth that receive services. The first was that many of the kids’ parents are currently in jail because from shoplifting food. The second development is the rise of prostitution with the youth. The girls are prostituting themselves, the younger bring in more money and the boys are pimping. They are referring to them as pimps because they are not old enough to drive yet. As if this is not bad enough, Mayor Newsome brought all the ED’s and CEO’s from the city who work with children and youth and told them that there was going to be significant budget cuts in January and all the non profits would have significant cuts.

So the people who make their living digging through my trash are now fighting for it because there are too many people who make their living this way. Kids who should be in school learning Beowulf and reading Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the first time are out selling their bodies or their girlfriends bodies to sick depraved men. And the people who I admire the most, who are trying to change the world one kid at a time are being told that they will be laid off in January.

I don’t know what you think about all of this but I think it sucks big time and makes me pretty angry at a whole lot of things, but that is another blog.

Right now I have some thoughts.

If you have some money, I would suggest that you send it to Sunset Youth Services right now click here to find out how. If you hurry you can get it in for your end of the year tax break. If you are like many of us then you are probably tapped out. If that is the case, do I have a deal for you. For the next two weeks collect your CRV’s and let me know and I will come and get them from you. I will get them to Joann the week of Christmas. I think it would mean a great deal to her if I had a couple of bags full of bottles for her and her husband. Just email me and we can work out the details. Sorry for those who live out of town , (I am not driving to Wyoming ala Kramer and Newman in a postal truck), this is for locals only.

I hope that you are OK.        

I am praying for all of you (even if I do not know you I am praying for everyone who reads this), that you would have the Peace of God today, that you would have your daily bread today, and that you would experience the Joy of Christmas today.

 

Peace

Edwin

A Man After God's Own Heart

There are some days that stick with you as a pastor, days that you hold on to when times are tough.

One of my favorite “days” was the first time I met Paul Carlson. I met his wife, Sharon, the week before. She was a visitor to the church and I had invited her to our membership class. She showed up with Paul in tow. He looked out of place inside my office sitting on a too small folding chair. He looked like he would be much more comfortable riding a horse in Marlboro Country or driving a combine through the waves of grain. It turns out Paul was a farmer, of 850 acres in Burlingame, Kansas. Like many independent farmers also had a trade to make ends meet. He “laid tile” as he put it. It turns out Paul was an artisan when it came to rock, tile, marble granite with a shop that would make any fan of Home Depot drool. Paul could make any custom counter or table top that was the envy of any homeowner.

So there he was in my church membership class, this rugged man who had seen more of life than I had dreamed of. I asked everyone to introduce themselves and tell a little about themselves.

 He said, “Well I’m Paul, I’m with Sharon, and I am here to learn.” Paul did not miss a day of Sunday School or church a year and a half after that first day. I prayed with him as he recommitted his life to Christ and baptized him in the blessed name of Jesus and brought him into membership of our church.

I have never witnessed a more perfect fit than Paul and Jesus. Paul from the very beginning did everything that he could do to serve God especially when it came to the children of the church. He took me hunting on his land where I and my three kids shot our first Turkey. He hosted camping trips and allowed us to fish and play on the land that he worked and loved. He worked every VBS and showed up early and stayed late. He was there whenever anyone needed help and he gave all that he had and even some that he didn’t. The most important thing that Paul demonstrated to a younger man like me was a humility and a desire to learn more.

The humility was genuine. He was always willing to admit that you might have something to teach him (well almost always, I heard tale about some cement mixing in Mexico that did not sit well with Paul, but I was not there to witness it.) But all in all Paul listened to others and had a quiet way of making you feel appreciated. The most negative thing that I ever heard him say was: “well I don’t know about that.” This usually came when I was joking around with him about something.  Paul spent the last 5 years learning from Jesus. During that time I felt like by his learning he was teaching the rest of us what it meant to follow Jesus.

As you can tell from my tense, Paul is no longer with us. His wonderful wife Sharon called me an hour ago to let me know that he passed away after a difficult battle with cancer. He did not want to go yet. He loved his life, his wife, his new found faith and his church family. As his pastor and friend I am saddened that he is not around anymore. I have missed him while living here in San Francisco. Paul’s impact on me as a new pastor has been huge. He taught me that anyone can grow in Christ, that anyone can receive the love of God, and all of us have much to give. It is simply a matter of humility and an open heart. Paul had both.

Paul Carlson, a man after God’s own heart.