K.C. Wahe - Follower of Jesus, Husband, Father, Pastor, Student, Blogger

I had some friends come and worship with us in church yesterday. Dave shared his experience in serving in another country along with his wife. You see Dave and his wife were among many who played an active role in my life as a kid. They were two of many who shared “good news,” with me that God is an awesome God who loves us. There was a point in their lives where they moved and it wasn’t until this last year that God brought us back together again. When we prayed before the services and when I could hear Dave and his wife teach Sunday school in between services I couldn’t help but think that God’s work comes full circle. It was great to have them come and speak because there were some who appreciated a different outlook on the world and the presentation of the Gospel and how we are to share “good news.”

Amen. Found this on Mark’s site. Continued prayers for the Malibu Church.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg-1yM6insA]

Because of what I experienced growing up in the city, I always wanted to have my family live in an area of town that at least was some what safe from the mayhem of a city afflicted with issues ranging from crime to addiction to alcohol and drugs. Suburbia if you will. Clean. Quiet. Middle Class. There are other parts of the valley that we opted not to live because of the issues of crime and whether or not we’d feel that our kids could be safe. We also had hope that we could find a couple of good schools in the part of town we live that were able to meet our kids needs educationally. Last week our neighborhood, less than a mile from where we live experienced a drive by shooting right after the high school behind our home let out. A car of kids drove up to a kid with a semi-automatic in hand and shot the kid. The kid by God’s grace somehow survived. Not much different. The sounds of the city are becoming the sounds of suburbia. The only difference? The neighborhood is just a little cleaner. 

 ht: Roxburgh

Simple church. As a new young pastor I’m looking for something simple. Need something simple. Many things to do during the week and one can forget that the message Jesus gave was simple. Love your neighbor as yourself. Simple Church is a new book that a friend said that the staff he was serving with was reading through. Just got it. Hope to finish it soon. Seems like a “simple” read.  

Today, I spent some time with a wonderful guy and church member named Jimmy. Jimmy has cancer. It’s a horrible cancer. His body is filled with tumors. This last year has been difficult in that the doctors can’t stop the cancer. Nothing seems to work. Radiation and chemo haven’t worked. He began hospice a few weeks ago and just yesterday his hospice nurse said that his kidneys are failing and that he’s only been given a few weeks to live.

If Jimmy crossed your path today, all you’d see is his smile. His smile is contagious and his heart loves the Lord. He loves his kids, his wife, and his mom. You’d never know that he was physically in pain. As Jimmy and I spent some time together this afternoon, Jimmy is certain that he’s going to heaven. He said, “Last night it hit me, that I was going to heaven soon.”

As I sat in the quiet of his back-yard with his wife, I reminded him of a recent trip he and his wife took to Alaska. I asked if he was doing anything else or if he was spending time with family. Jimmy smiled and said he wanted to go to the ZOO and that this Friday he was seeing the opening of a movie and that this was the first time he had ever seen a movie on the day it opened.

Something I did grab from a theology professor in seminary was the art of being present is what matters and that pastoral care sometimes is just being physically present in the midst of someones pain. No answers, no fixing, just being present.

Today, Jimmy and his wife and I sat. We laughed. We were quiet. A few tears were shed. We laughed some more and we prayed and we will continue to be present praying for Jimmy and that he would enjoy these last days sitting in the presence of family, friends, and the Lord.

Please pray for Jimmy.

new nooma premiere here: http://www.myspace.com/NOOMAmyspace to view for a day.

 ht: Chris

Young pastor I am. Wet behind the ears I am. I was left speechless today after a kind church member’s child helped pass some Vacation Bible School fliers out today at a park to a bunch of kids. When the child walked up to the kids to tell them about our VBS week, the child was confronted with a degrading remark made to the child that made the child cry and made the parents want to crawl out from under their skin. I walked up to the child who graciously tried to help pass out these fliers later on in the day and told him how happy I was that he helped the church pass them out. How do you as a pastor confront issues of difference between different groups of people? Especially in the 21st Century? What left me speechless was that this was on a day that we celebrate freedom and give God thanks that we can together live without fear of being ridiculed or put down because of our differences or in the way we look or sound.

Did a little self care today and took the family to Manhattan Beach. What a great beach. I haven’t been to this beach for almost seven or eight years. Back in my youth group days as a youth pastor guy we’d take kids to Manhatten Beach every week for a whole summer for what seemed like years. It was also the first time we’d been back to a So. Cal beach for longer than an hour since we’d been back from Princeton in 2003 and east Coast beaches, better known as the shore weren’t much to write home about and we hated paying to enter “the shore.” No. Cal beaches weren’t that great themselves. Being in Manhattan Beach today though brought back a whole lot of memories serving in youth ministry and the relationships we’d had built on the behalf of Christ. Now as for the family, got to go booooooogie boarding with da boys and played in the water for a very long time. Deb and I got to witness some happy kiddoes sitting in the midst of the grace of the ocean, some huge sand crabs, and the grace of God.

Dad, mom, and some Wahe cool dudes got to go to a Dodger game this past Sunday. I have to tell you that this day trumped any bad day I had with my father growing up as a kid. Although I thank God for dad, I do remember one Dodger game where father was blessed by some security officials for being filled with the smells of cerveza. Sunday I got to turn things around and by God’s grace give our kids a memory that will last for a long time we pray. Dodger stadium in all of their creative genious let folks onto the field after the game. We got to run around and pretend we rock as Dodger dudes. What a joy it was to play catch with the dudes. One of them said, “I will be here in ten years.” Our response??? “Just make sure you buy the house for us, okay?” By the way??? Boiled dodger dogs are wrong…next time we go grilled and the Angels rocked!!!