Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Large Group with Dr. Con Campbell and Mrs. Lanese Dockery

by Laura Bazal


Last night’s large group meeting was a great experience.  We were able to join together with several faculty wives, Dr. Con Campbell, and Lanese Dockery, wife of TIU president, Dr. David Dockery. 


Interview with Mrs. Lanese Dockery
Courtesy of the TIU Website

The event kicked off with an interview with Mrs. Dockery.  She candidly shared about her background and journey as the wife to a man who’s been a leader in both pastoral and academic ministry.  A native from the South, she grew up in a tight-knit, family-oriented neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights era (she saw MLK’s march down 3rd avenue from her back yard!).  While the Dockerys’ journey to Trinity is well documented on the Trinity International University webpage regarding the president, but it was truly a blessing to hear about some poignant parts of Mrs. Dockery’s history. 

During the years spent at seminary in Texas (where President Dockery obtained another graduate-level degree!), Mrs. Dockery and her husband gave birth to three boys – none of them more than 15 months apart in age.  During what was an all-consuming time of mothering three children age two and under, the community of wives brought blessing upon her family.  One wife, Margaret (Tom) Nettles, donated a baby bed.  Another faculty wife who Mrs. Dockery didn’t even know brought her a meal.  The student wives would care for each other’s kids, arrange play dates, share their stories with one another, and come to the conclusions of what God had in store for them. 

Another important story caused our TWF community to take pause.  After being asked what verses were important to her, Mrs. Dockery referred to Proverbs 3:5-6, and she gave us an incredibly powerful testimony as to why this verse was one she held on to.  Mrs. Dockery’s father tragically lost his life just over 20 years ago.  Her father always started his evening prayer with “kind, heavenly Father,” and it was during this horrible circumstance that Mrs. Dockery needed to find how God would show his kindness in such a dark time.  She clang to this verse while seeking the good that could come out of this, and she was able to minister to others who had lost loved ones in tragic ways as well.  Mrs. Dockery expressed that God had to work this for his good, and she has been able to see that happen. 

In the end, Mrs. Dockery gave us an exhortation that we seminary wives can’t pass up:
                “Create a history outside of your own family. Share your stories with one another – they are important! Listen and make yourselves available for each other.  Take time for one another, and have some fun!” 


Dr. Con Campbell’s talk on Hebrews 10:19-25



Our theme verse this year is Hebrews 10:23-25, which we were able to learn more about last night. There were so many great insights that Dr. Campbell shared from this part of scripture that I will share some brief highlights: 


From v. 19 – we are to boldly encounter the Father, because we can now enter the sanctuary where He resides, the Most Holy Place, where only the Levitical high priest could enter before Jesus Christ came to open the curtain for us.
From v. 20 – Now we all have access to the Holy of Holies, and it’s through the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ flesh is the curtain that opens for us to enter into God’s presence.
From v. 21 – Jesus supersedes the Levitical high priest.  As our priest, he mediates God to us and us to God.  It’s Jesus who is our full assurance of faith.


With that being true – Jesus being our full assurance of faith – there are three implications/exhortations that come to us from the next three verses:


From v. 22 – Because we are in the full assurance of faith, we never go in and out of God’s presence.  We are there, eternally, in the immediate presence of God.   Jesus, our true worship pastor, shows us how to be with God and come to him no matter where we’re at.  Since we are always in his presence, we should strive to always live in a way that is worshipful to Him.  Draw near to Him in full assurance of faith!
From v. 23 – Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering.  Focusing on the word confession, we see that it’s the Gospel message.  Sometimes we may be tempted to think, “Where is God in all of this?”  It’s at that time in particular where we need to hold on Him.  The confession mentioned here is not an experience – it’s a truth, and we hold on to that truth because He who promised is faithful to us even when we’re unfaithful to him.
v. 24 & 25 – Consider one another.  Be proactive.  Consider, think, and reflect on the needs around you.  Keep in mind that the focus here is on consideration and not on love or good deeds.  When you consider the needs of others, don’t hold back from serving them!  Get in there, wherever you are, and be the solution to the needs found around you!  Why do this?  Because it’s what God desires for us, and because we only have so much time to be His witness!
Conclusion:
If you have full confidence that you are in the presence of God, you have full access to what you need in ministry. 
So what did you think of the verses mentioned above?  What thoughts, ideas, or responses did you have while you were there last night?  

Please share below, and please connect with us at twfcrowns@gmail.com to share YOUR story and consider how others can truly be blessed by it!

Friday, September 26, 2014

1 Corinthians 13 - Week 2 - Love that is Better than Life





By Laura Bazal

This weeks’ chapter had us start focusing various parts of what Love does.  On Monday, we talked about the statement “Love is Kind.”  Here are a few take-aways from what we read: 


  • Each one of these statements in 1 Corinthians 13 is about love does, not what love is. While we see descriptions based on our use of English grammar, in the Greek, the phrasing is actually explaining verb-actions.  Love, as Paul describes it, acts in kindness.  Ryken tells us that “love is an action, not an affection.”

  • Kindness is something that we are all familiar with.  The word “kind” actually refers to a relationship between two people who have similar characteristics.  The phrase “in kind” also reflects similarity (i.e. “The teacher treated his students with respect, and they treated him in kind.”).  From that positive connotation comes the meaning of kindness as friendly, considerate, and generous; or, as it was originally known, loving and affectionate.  Despite having this robust familiarity that anyone from any culture would have, the kindness of God is not one that we can naturally perform with our own heart and actions.

  •  Titus 3:4-7 was one of the key parts of scripture used to highlight what God’s kindness has done for us:

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This chapter is titled “Love that is Better than Life.”  It’s inspired by the KJV reading of Ps. 63:3, which reads “Thy lovingkindness is better than life,” which attempts to express the Old Testament idea of steadfastness and covenant love and express it in the English language (37).  The greatest expression of kindness, therefore, is through the love and mercy that was shown when Christ died a sinner’s death for our sakes.  Ryken describes this kind of love as saving, merciful, life-changing, and generous (38-39).



We were left with an exhortation to live out this kindness.  C.S. Lewis is quoted, saying that God enables us “to love what is not naturally lovable.”  We were then directed toward the story of the Good Samaritan, we see a man who shows love and mercy on one of his enemies who has been beaten and left for dead on the side of the road.  He meets his every need and ensures that he is cared for as he continues to heal. 

What a picture of what Christ’s lovingkindness does for us – meeting us where we need him most, showing us mercy in our incredibly low state, and giving us the Holy Spirit as an ever-present source of help and strength!  It’s such an inspiration to show God’s kindness to others, being that he has shown that love time and again to us!

How has God shown you kindness?  
When has it been hard, or easy, when you've needed to show kindness and mercy?  
What does this show you about the nature of God?  
Share your thoughts below!

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Would you like to share your thoughts on the chapters from this book?  Have a story to share, thoughts about God, tips for seminary wives, or something else you'd like to contribute?  Contact us at TWFCrowns@gmail.com and let us know!
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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I wanted to jump right back into the plane and go back home!

By Lily Joeliani

I thought Deerfield was a small town, like small towns in Indonesia. Two lane streets, small houses, walkable distances to market, doctors, schools, everywhere. Plenty of public transportation. Food stalls and door-to-door vendors. Abundance of motorcycles (hey, they save gas and money!).

I was wrong. Big time.

It came as a shock as soon as we’re out of the O’Hare airport. I stared in disbelief as I watched streets as wide as soccer fields from the car’s window. Large distances looms between buildings. No public transportation within sight (the planes are the only exception!). No food stalls. Not even grocery stores. No motorcycles. This is no small town, according to an Indonesian’s standard!

Arriving on an extremely hot week, plus heavy jet lag and PMS in tow, was not helping at all. Not to mention that we had to move 3 times within ten days. I totally and completely freaked out. I wanted to jump right back into the plane and go back home!

The International Student Services Office (ISSO) informed us that when we would arrive to this new country, we would experience some sort of honeymoon phase, realization phase, denial/angry phase, and then settling down phase. To me, it was a short realization phase, then straight into denial/angry phase. No honeymoon whatsoever. Sigh.

Let me explain. Before we came to the USA from the opposite of the globe, we poured through maps, info after info, facts after facts. Thousands of e-mails were written to and fro with the ISSO and Trinity Chinese Fellowship. We knew that [our family] could not stay on campus because there were only 4 units of 3 bedrooms apartment and all were occupied.

So we had to look for off-campus housing. We contacted the realtor, and we looked at the area mapping and decided in which area we wanted to live. We arrived almost a month early, thinking of settling everything before the school began. We knew we couldn’t and didn’t have to bring everything from home, because there was the Clothes Horse and the Furniture Room. We thought we were ready for this new “adventure."


However, maps cannot really portray how a place really looks like, even with Google Earth. You can only see parts and pieces, not the whole picture. So it was a nasty shock to find that this
“small town” is so different from what I had in mind.

And it hadn’t occurred to us that we really can’t rely on public transportation in this area: the Pace buses are simply too slow and don’t cover all locations, and the taxis are simply too expensive for our budget. Living off-campus without our own transportation and a very limited budget? A sure recipe for disaster and depression. Even if we had a car, we needed to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road (we used to drive on the left side). How are we going to survive?

Plus, living off-campus meant we needed to transfer all our bills (gas, electricity, and internet) to our names. All of that required a social security number, which was not be available to us until the orientation began. And everything had to be settled by phone. For us who were still unable to converse fluently in English, that demanded extra effort. It was not fun having to say everything over and over, and in the end had to spell out almost everything.

HOWEVER,
GOD IS GOOD,
AND FAITHFUL,
AND HE PROVIDED.


Immediately after arriving, we were taken care of by numerous group of people. A PhD student from Ivory Coast, whom we had never met before, picked us up from the airport. The Trinity Chinese Fellowship took over from him once we arrived on campus. They invited us over for dinner (although I was still too dazed to eat well), settled us temporarily into one student’s apartment (they were on holiday), took us to the bank, to the mobile phone provider, to the grocery store, and to church. The realtor, who was a very nice and helpful man, showed our prospective home, and we immediately fell in love with it. He even helped settling down transfers of our utility bills.

A neighbor from the next building of our initial stay on campus invited us to dinner on the 3rd day and introduced us to a fellow InterVarsity staff worker from Europe, who was a Trinity student at the time. He was the one who reminded (and comforted) me, while I was clearly in a distressed state of mind. He looked straight to my eyes and said, “God brought you here not to abandon you.” BAM!!!
This student taught my husband to drive on the right side of the road, with the steering wheel on the left side of the car. Patiently he explained all road regulations that might be different from our country's traffic laws.

The Trinity Chinese Fellowship helped us find different student apartments to stay in while we’re still finishing our rental arrangement, and they saved some useful and basic household items from the Clothes Horse for us, too. They helped us move and lugged our findings from the Furniture Room and all. (Have I told you? They are unbelievably terrific! We can’t thank them enough.)

And God provided car after car after car. Yep. Someone lend us his car for one day, then someone else for a week, and yet another couples lent us their second car for an indefinite time until we get our own car. And last, but definitely not least, somebody we didn’t know, from a Chinese church, decided he didn’t need his extra car, and we can have it for FREE. The car is still in a very good condition. I still can’t believe it!

And the list of people that God used to look after us goes on. And on. And on.

GOD BROUGHT US HERE NOT TO ABANDON US.
Let that sink in.


This coming new school year brought all these memories fresh to me, and I can’t help praising Him for His faithfulness, His providence, His love, and for who He is.

New students and new families will be coming to Trinity. I remember last year,  when I had to say the same words of comfort to some of our new wives arriving from faraway places. I related my own story to them, letting them know that they’re not alone.

We all can do the same. Why don’t we tell our stories to one another? Comfort and strengthen each other? Who can understand what we had gone through than fellow student wives? Let’s show that God does not abandon us. We are not alone.

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Lily Joeliani is married to her husband, Sutrisna Harjanto, who is studying for his PhD in Educational Studies.  She has a daughter named Laura, who is in high school, and a son name Alex, who is in middle school.  Lily served TWF last year as a welcoming committee coordinator and has been part of an on-campus small group for three years.  She currently volunteers at the Clothes Horse, is willing to hold anyone's baby, and works at Heinen's grocery store and translating literature from English to Indonesian.





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Would you like to share a story, article, creative/expressive work, or recipe on the TWF Crowns blog? Email us at twfcrowns@gmail.com. Do you have questions about TWF, Mom's Ministry, or Bible Study? Email us at twf@tiu.edu.

Delicious Avocado Desserts - from Lily Joeliani



AVOCADO DESSERTS

In Indonesia, we do not put avocados in dishes, salad, condiments, etc. We only use avocados in desserts. I know you’re probably wincing like I did when I saw avocado in salad or sushi. It might need some getting-used-to, but let me tell you this: These recipes have never failed to generate some “WOW” response from first-time taster.

And they’re perfect for summer or the warm days that welcome early fall.

Simple Avocado Punch (for 2 people)
1 small avocado, pitted
2 T condensed milk
½ C chilled hot cocoa or sweet latte or mocha
Crushed ice cubes

1. Scrape avocado with a teaspoon.
2. Pour 1 T of condensed milk and 1 T of cocoa/latte/mocha into a tall tumbler. Top with scraped avocado and crushed ice cubes. Serve.

Avocado-Young Coconut-Jackfruit Punch (for 8-10 people)
(a.k.a. Es Teler or Drunken Dessert Punch)
4 small avocado, pitted, and scraped
1 pack of shredded young coconut, retain the juice
1 can of ripe jackfruit, retain the sugar water
½ can of condensed milk
Crushed ice cubes

Mix all ingredients and serve.

Note: This dessert is very popular in Indonesia and it was named “Es Teler” or Drunken Dessert Punch because it’s so good, it makes people drunk with pleasure.

Avocado Smoothie (for 2)
Same ingredients with Simple Avocado Punch. Pour all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Serve.

Avocado Sherbet
4 small avocado, pitted and scraped
1 cup hot cocoa or sweet latte or mocha, frozen in ice cubes mold
1 cup cold milk
4 T confectionery sugar

Pour all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Pour into air-tight container, make sure it’s only 2/3 full, and freeze. Serve.

ENJOY!