Each week, Redeemer Church is going to post 2 blog posts each week from a dear family who has been a part of the Redeemer Church family here in Bellingham for years moved to Africa to do medical education for 9 months. The Sund Family, Greg, Stephanie, Ella, Biniyam, and Mekdes have lived in Burundi for the last 8 months and we wanted you to be up-to-date on all that they are doing and all that is happening in Africa.

Below is the Sund's blog post in September from Africa called "Making History Can Be Painful". You can find more blogs from there personal blog here > Beyond Our Backdoor 

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The anesthesia students have been very excited this week.  That is because today, we scheduled the very first surgery under general endotracheal anesthesia at Kibuye hospital.  There has been an anesthesia machine in the OR since I arrived, but it had not been set up or used until today.  This week, Jason and I worked on getting it ready to go, connecting an oxygen tank to one port, an air compressor to another and filling it with expired halothane and expired CO2 absorbent.  So what could go wrong?

After discussing the plan with the students, drawing up the medications and preparing the intubation equipment, I handed my ipad to one of the students and asked him if he would take a couple pictures of the intubation to memorialize this historic event.  So, we injected the induction drugs, and this patient turned out to be one of the most difficult intubations I have ever encountered.  The reason for the surgery was to remove a tumor on his neck.  This tumor was apparently distorting his airway, making visualization of his vocal cords almost impossible.  So, what should have been a 15 second induction of anesthesia turned into a 45 minute scene of chaos and mayhem.  At one point I could not ventilate the patient and so his oxygen level dropped to undectable  levels.  The medical student with my ipad continued to take pictures this whole time, 133 photos to be exact.  And I remember thinking at one point that I REALLY wished I had not asked someone to take photos of this historic event.

Alas, by the grace of God, the endotracheal tube finally found its home, the man had his surgery, woke up and appears to be doing fine, and hopefully our next general anesthetic will go a little smoother than this one.  

A few of the less incriminating photos ..... (Photos below are a slide show, click through them)

Each week, Redeemer is going to post 2 blog posts each week from a dear family who has been a part of the Redeemer Church family for years who moved to Africa to do medical education for 9 months. The Sund Family, Greg, Stephanie, Ella, Biniyam, and Mekdes have lived in Burundi for the last 8 months and we wanted you to be up-to-date on all that they are doing and all that is happening in Africa.

Below is the Sund's blog post in September from Africa called "Well Sent". You can find more blogs from there personal blog here > Beyond Our Backdoor 

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One thing about our time in Burundi that I don’t feel like we have properly addressed yet is that fact that behind our family coming here are a great number of people back home who sent us.  We were sent in many ways and by many people.  And I am sure many of the people reading this blog are the same people who provided for us with financial donations, prayers and words of encouragement as well as support in many other ways.  Here are some of the ways in which we were “well sent”.

1. Many people donated generous financial gifts to help our family with the cost of airfare, visas, malaria meds and countless other pieces of this trip.  We are deeply grateful for all of your support.
2. My anesthesia group (Bellingham Anesthesia Associates) gave me the nine month sabbatical to make this trip a reality.  Our CEO also worked on many pieces required for this trip to come to fruition, including health insurance, credentialing paperwork and malpractice insurance issues.
3. Our children’s teachers in Bellingham were generous with their time in helping prepare our family for this time and specifically for helping Stephanie prepare to enter the world of homeschooling.
4. My band back in Bellingham “Runaway Truck Ramp” hosted a surprise party/fundraiser for the hospital here in Kibuye.  It was such a wonderful time with friends from work and our local church attending and giving generously toward the Kibuye hospital expansion project (https://www.whm.org/project/details?ID=19170)
5. The staff at the hospital where I work  threw another party two nights before we left for Burundi and took up a collection for our trip.  Again, we felt so deeply loved by the thought and effort that went into these two parties.
6. The hospital where I work also donated many supplies which I was able to bring with me to use in our work here.  We have already started using the ear tubes!
7. Our friend Ethan volunteered his time and skills as a real estate agent to help us rent our house while we are away.
8. As we were driving toward the airport on our way to Burundi, our dear friend Kim stood with her son Harper on the overpass by our house with a giant sign saying “We love you to Burundi and back!”.  
9. My parents have provided much support for us in many ways, one of which was allowing us to move in with them for the six weeks prior to our departure while our house was being rented.  
10. We have received many e-mails, phone calls and other personal messages of support and encouragement in the weeks and months leading up to our departure.
11. The week before we left, the elders of our local church (Redeemer) had a going away party for us.
12. And on our final Sunday in Bellingham, our church family (Redeemer Church) gathered around us, laid their hands on us and prayed for our family and for God’s work in Burundi. (redeemernw.org)

There are many other ways we were blessed by our friends and family and we want to again say, thank you, thank you, thank you.  We truly feel loved.

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers .... Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16,18)

Blog post by Kati Berreth (Redeemer Kids Director)

Gospel Communities are just that, a community that is based on the Gospel. As you think about that purpose for gathering, whether it is around a meal, dessert, community event, or in a circle discussing the sermon questions, what brings you all together is your love of the Gospel and your desire for the Gospel to be made known to the ends of the earth.

With that as the purpose, the inclusion of kids into your GC is not as daunting a task as you might think. When we think about including kids into our GC, we often think that means that our GC has to be kid centered. This isn’t true, the same as your GC being young adult, single or married, or just adult centered isn’t the case. Gospel Communities at Redeemer should be and are Gospel Centered. Your GC gets to look Gospel Centered where everyone in your group gets to hear the Gospel proclaimed at some point during your meeting.

So what might that look like? Here are some ways to welcome your future brothers and sisters in Christ that are 2-4 years old into your worship of Jesus at your GC meeting.

1. (Sing and Dance together)  Kids love music so if you have someone in your group who plays the guitar, ask him or her to bring it and sing a few songs together. The more you do this, repeating the same songs, the faster the kids will be able to pick up on the lyrics and sing along with you…and until that time, let them dance to the Lord, just like David did. There are not a lot of things sweeter in life than seeing a 2 year old dance to music that praises God without inhibitions or a 4 year old singing “Here I raise my Elbowneezer:)”
2. (Pray together) After your meal or dessert and before kids go off to play (which is a great way for them to be building community as well so continue to let them play with their friends) stand in a circle holding hands (which keeps busy hands still for a few minutes) and ask everyone to pray for the person on their left. Praying together will model how to pray aloud not only to the kids but to some adults in the room as well. And if there are older kids you can modify the prayer time to assign families to pray using ACTS - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication to focus the prayer time.
3. (Read the word together) Gather everyone together and have kids sit on laps or on the floor with their parents and read the verses that are going to be discussed out loud to the kids. If it is a long chunk of scripture you can read a few verses that are applicable or if those verses are in the Jesus Storybook Bible or Gospel Story Bible read them out of there. These books are amazing and always take everything back to the Gospel - which is great for adults as well. Be sure to ask questions as you go to engage the kids or if things are listed or numbered have the kids repeat those lists or numbers using movement…it really helps them to engage if they can move their bodies in some way.
4. (Build or Craft together) Crafting or having families build something together as an attention getter towards the text will help kids and parents alike engage in the text. Kids who are tactile become adults who are tactile and doing an activity that is related or even just gets everyone engaged in a fun way to help build community.
5. (Family Devotion together) Each week Redeemer Kids hands out a family devotional to parents as they leave. These are also posted with the sermon questions. I would encourage you all to look at these and incorporate them into your GC. Attention getting activities, books of the bible memorization, questions, and specifics in regards to prayer are all included and can be modified for your GC setting. These devotionals usually connect what happened in RK on Sunday to the sermon to help parents be the primary discipleship makers in their child’s lives…which can be modeled and encouraged in a GC setting.

Hopefully these ways to engage 2-4 year olds will help you make sure that everyone gets to hear the good news of the Gospel as you meet and will strengthen your relationships in your GC family.

photo credit: KkleinRN via photopin cc

Click image below to see the many different photos taken from our 2nd Annual Turkey Bowl Celebration. 

Last year we threw our first ever turkey bowl! For those who are not sure what a turkey bowl is, well its where a bunch of people pretend that they know how to play football. This year we are doing the Turkey Bowl again. Flag and/or Two hand touch (Depending on if we get enough flags).

The event is on Saturday, November 22nd from 10:30am – 2:00pm at Bloedel Donavan Park. Following the Turkey Bowl we will be doing a BBQ at Redeemer Church to make sure no one leaves hungry. Invite your friends, to this event and have a good time. If you want to help out, please sign up to bring a side dish to share with everyone. We will be grilling Burgers and Hot Dogs, so please bring some side dish to share.

We will be doing two separate tournaments this year. One tournament will include Adults (both men and women playing) and the other tournament will be for the kids to play.

(Side Note: If your kid wants to play, we are going to ask that you would comment on this post with your kids age & experience playing football so we can make sure the teams are evenly put together)

Here are a few other instructions that you need to know:

• If you desire to play, we need you to sign up. If you do not sign up, we cannot put you on a team. So please make sure you sign up saying that you desire to play. And if your friends are coming, then sign them up as well.
• If you do not want to play football, we encourage you to come out and cheer the teams on and have food with us. Just cause your not playing, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. This is a great opportunity to get to know people you wouldn’t normally get to know.
• We will start at 10:30am sharp, so please be at Bloedel on time. Give yourself some time to put your shoes on and be ready to go. If you are not at the park by 10:30am, we can not guarantee you will be able to play.
• We need coaches for the kids tournament. So, anyone (regardless of experience with football) if you are interested in coaching a kids team. Sign Up Here.
• Make sure to bring an extra pair of cloths and shoes, we anticipate the event to be quite muddy. So be prepared to change before you head to the BBQ.
• Also we are seeing if you have the desire to buy T-Shirts for the event. if we get enough people responding to wanting to pre-order a T-Shirt then we will get them made. Below is the design of the T-Shirt.

Here is the Schedule for the event:

10:30am – Start Football Tournaments at Bloedel Donavan Park 

12:30pm – Football tournaments will end, and we will all head over to Redeemer to eat some grub and watch some football

2:00pm – Event will end

This will be another fun time where we can all get together, invite friends and have fun playing football. See you all on November 22nd

Love, Hate, And A Counter-Intuitive God: I suppose I’ll end where I started: the Bible doesn’t always say what I expect it to, even when it comes to love. Then again, I’d be suspicious if it did. My love is so weak and so paltry at time. It’s really a tired, half-hearted thing if I’m honest. When I come to the love of God, the surprising, counter-intuitive love of Jesus displayed on the cross, the cross which exposes all my darknesses and shames, should I not expect to find some edges I’d never imagined?

Gospel And Race: Make sure to listen to Bob Thune and Joshua Eggerson discuss about the Gospel and race in the context of Ferguson. 

Why It's Wrong For Christians To Mistreat Creation: God gives us the opportunity to reflect him in his work of caring for and transforming all of creation. To follow this aspect of our multifaceted calling as humans is to image in our lives the One who is at work in the world and in human life, creating, sustaining, and liberating creation. Jesus’ resurrection is God’s first step in making all things new, which will culminate in a renewed world that completely honors Jesus, who rules it.

5 Current Church Views Of "Discipleship": I have been in many settings with church leaders where the question was posed, “What is your church doing for discipleship?” I am grateful that church leaders are asking questions about the church’s fundamental mission—making disciples. After all, a church can excel at anything and everything else, but if the church fails to make disciples, she has wandered from her fundamental reason for existence. But the question almost always needs to be answered with a follow-up question: “What do you mean by discipleship?” People could mean at least one of these five common and current views:

Need And Desire: Is it wrong to want to live in comfort with a big house and a new car? No, as long as those desires don’t consume you. Is it sinful to long for people in your life that love, respect, and cherish you? No, those things are beautiful in God’s eyes. But in a fallen world, where life doesn’t operate the way it should, there’s a difference between need and desire. Need means essential for life; desire means a strong feeling of want. Many of our desires aren’t wrong, as long as they don't rule us, but they’re simply not needs.

Michael Brown And My White Son: I’m thankful for Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement but this moment reminds us of how blind and numb we can become to the racism and injustice that still exists in our fallen world. This moment is not about the teenage lifestyle or behavior of Michael Brown but about the insanity of his death. The outrage for justice that this moment has induced is not only justified but long overdue. We must address the reality of racism and privilege. As Chandler writes, “we want to move past it, but we are not past it. Clearly, we are not past it. So, let’s press in to it”.

Edwards On The Christian Life: Edwards is a complicated figure who defies scholarly consensus, even among evangelicals. For that reason, even scholars and informed pastors who disagree with Ortlund on these or other points will appreciate this fine book. Edwards on the Christian Life is an excellent introduction to Edwardsean spiritual thought that is well researched yet written at such a level that students, pastors, and engaged laypeople will benefit. It is a welcome contribution to Edwardsean studies and a worthy entry in what continues to be a fine series on historical and spiritual theology.

photo credit: paul bica via photopin cc