Joy & Water

Susan and John Fleming & Chuck Whiteside

Haiti 2018 Reflections

John 16:33

Tebow's trials and sorrows.

It has been less than three days since returning from Haiti to the comforts of a familiar bed and a consistently hot shower. A week in a locale that defies most descriptors and where the people speak an unfamiliar language was truly another world to this man. As I learned on the first go-around last year, the return here is akin to scuba diving decompression or an atmospheric reentry by an astronaut. Although there were no time zones crossed, it seems I can feel jet lag. Maybe it is my age?

The first time this scripture from John’s Gospel spoke to me was in 2009, December 5th to be exact. I had been watching the SEC Football Championship and noticed John 16:33 on Tim Tebow’s eye black. I helped establish a Google record that evening. At the time, the scripture reference was the most trafficked Google search for one time ever. Tebow was strongly ridiculed for his open display of faith as well as crying on camera. His Florida team lost the game 33-13. Indeed, this night Tebow was having trials and sorrows (NLT). Maybe it is the when and how I first tasted of this Christ lesson, but it is one of the first I ever memorized.

"Our Boys"

On my first trip to Haiti, my tendency was to view our Haitian guides and translators in a different light, thinking they were better off than the rest of the population there. They could speak our language, were well educated and I just viewed them through a different lens, so to speak. This year our directors, Lori and Charles invited each to give our morning devotion each day. Subsequently they all shared with us their tribulations (NKJV). My lens changed, and I could see this group who the team refers to as “our boys” no different that the rest of their brethren in Haiti, and no different than suffering (HCSB) missionaries that travel to and from in this disparate land.

Joy

On our last and Sabbath day, we went to Church and worshipped together. We rested and played like boys and girls together and the trials and tribulations, the suffering and sorrows washed away. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). If just for the moment, we were all able to overcome the world.

Agape from our boys.

Yahweh, may we take heart in your Son’s teachings and find peace as if a life preserver in choppy waters. Amen

P.S. – Very early in Patti’s and my relationship, maybe second or third date she gave me an agape card. Inside it had the scripture John 16:33. There are no coincidences and the honeymoon is not over!

Amen Brother’s and Sisters

Bradford Bosworth 

October 2018

Cherry Hill Tomato Run

Counting Cards

Brad and Randy with a 2017 Beauty

In 1982 after recently moving to Atlanta, Georgia from Charlotte, NC, I found myself divorced and looking for a job. I ended up in the financial services business as a salesman calling on closely held business owners. This was cold call sales and I learned a whole new connotation of the word prospecting, which previously engendered images of adventure and romance. Friday afternoon boiler room dialing for dollars brought frightful adventure but no romance.

Two of the veteran men in the insurance company, which I found a job with, learned in short order that I was looking for a place to live. Just by happenstance Randy and Ed were newly minted divorcees as well. I would fit nicely into the third bedroom of the home they were buying in Marietta. If you were living in Atlanta in the early 1980’s and were single, you most likely were familiar with the bar/club scene thriving at the time. I will stop just short of calling it Sodom and Gomorrah. Of course, our place on Rhodes drive was nothing of the sorts.

In 1983 we moved our separate ways as I left the financial services business. Although I stayed in touch with Ed, I did not have any meaningful contact with Randy for another quarter century. What I remember most about Randy in those years in the financial services industry was that he had a knack for numbers. His real value to our employer was designing Defined Benefit Pension Plans in the private corporation so that the small business owner could get the largest amount of money in the most tax advantaged way out of his business. Large amounts of life insurance could be sold in these plans with pretax dollars.

Outside of the business, Randy put his talents to work playing cards. I was always aware that he was a world class bridge player and a sought-after partner in local tournaments. He once told me that there was a Casino in Nevada where not only was he banned at the black jack tables he was uninvited to the building! Back in our neighborhood was a local watering hole called “The Foxes Den” the three of us used to frequent and on backgammon nights he was known to hustle his meal and adult beverages.

In the fall of 2010, I was a pilgrim on a North Georgia Walk to Emmaus. Mine was a profound spiritual experience on that weekend. A part of the experience was seeing Randy Pettit for the first time in over a quarter century. Not only has our involvement in the Emmaus movement rekindled our friendship, the third roommate, Ed, is now part of the fellowship having been a Walk Pilgrim in the fall of 2017. The three roommates had our first reunion in twenty years in January of 2017.

Randy, Brad, and Ed in 2017

Since reconnecting, I have learned that Randy has developed a strong faith and a servant’s heart. There are some women in more than one church who refer to him as the “Tomato Man”. About twenty years ago, Randy was on his yearly trip back home to New Jersey when he discovered amidst the urban sprawl of Philadelphia an oasis in the metropolitan desert. In less than a twenty-minute PATCO train ride from Philadelphia and minutes from Cherry Hill, NJ he found the family farm of a man named Tom Jarvis. The farm starts in the backyard of the Jarvis home and from it come some of the plumpest juiciest home-grown tomatoes in God’s creation.

On that initial trip back to Marietta, Georgia he could only get less than a hundred pounds into his late model sedan. He gave those tomatoes away to neighbors and friends from his Church. The demand grew so that Randy bought a much larger pickup truck. Now this annual “Tomato Run” has become a major fundraiser for Missions at East Cobb United Methodist Church as Randy brings back over 1,000 pounds of tomatoes! In August of 2017 I was blessed to receive and enjoy a few of these wonders of creation.

At 75 years young, Randy believes 2018 is most likely his last “Tomato Run.” This writer, who volunteered to copilot this year’s sojourn out east, can attest it is a grueling trip especially when you compact it into four days. There is a critical element to his turnaround calculations because timing is crucial in tomato ripening from picking and transporting to distributing. He also includes in his itinerary visits with family in the Philadelphia area and with old high school friends over in Ocean City.

One thing I know about my friend, who has always been a specialist in Defined Benefit Pension Plans, through his strong Christian faith he has become an expert in divine benefit service to others!

Amen Brother Randy!

You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

John 15:14-17 (NIV)

A River Flows From Within

Heavenly Question Marks

It was only a little over six weeks ago when the first major Atlantic Hurricane of the season hammered the coast of Texas and wreaked havoc in the Houston area. The wettest tropical cyclone on record in the US dropped over 40 inches of rain in a four-day period. Massive flooding caused death, destruction and heartbreak for thousands of people. Harvey, as the storm was named, started a pattern where over the next few weeks three additional Hurricanes would form and either threaten the United States or make direct contact on Florida and Puerto Rico.

Houston Flooded

As we approach the second half of October, the colorful peace of autumn has settled in as a welcome contrast to the fear filled chaotic atmosphere of early September. The mood in this flood ravaged city is rising due to recovery and the march of their beloved baseball Astros toward a World Series birth. I am reminded of a providential day at the end of August.

It was 6:30am on Wednesday, August 30. I was one of five men sitting around a table at our local Chic Fil A. For about seven years now we have been getting together every other early Wednesday morning. We talk about what is going on in our lives, we read scripture, study devotionals and pray. We call ourselves BIC (Brothers in Christ) Reunion Group. On this particular morning, brother Monte suggested that we engage in some serious servants’ work pertaining to the crises in Houston from Hurricane Harvey. Local broadcasting powerhouse WSB was conducting a -water drive- to collect donations of bottled drinking water for the Houston populace which was suffering for vital clean uncontaminated water.

WSB donation center

Being recently retired, I had time and a pick-up truck available. Brother Monte being his own boss had time. Our BIC brothers ponied up some financing. So we collected enough to stock up my small bed Ford Ranger.  Monte and I surmised we could meet in an hour, stop at the local Costco, deliver to the TV station and be free for the afternoon. But, we learned again the best laid plans of mice and men according to the great poet Robert Burns, "Gang aft a-gley."

Monte decided to post on our Smyrna First UMC and Smyrna Walk to Emmaus Facebook pages what we were doing and invited folks to participate.  By the time I got to Monte’s house he had received notification of support for a second truckload of water! At this point our effort began to take on another feel.  All of a sudden the divine intervention of amazing grace began to rain down and flow through the relief effort. At the TV Station the organizers were overwhelmed by the response. They had to summon additional tractor trailer transport. By the time we had finished delivery of the first load, we had social media commitments for two more loads. Have you ever heard of “Fishes and Loaves?” I now know firsthand the meaning of that story.

Water for life.

Our Creator continued to place little miracles in our path. A couple from our Church called to say they had a bigger pick-up available and we could consolidate the final two of four loads into one. This gift allowed Monte and I to complete our work before the crush of Atlanta rush hour. We delivered enough bottled water to place one each in the hands of 4,000 residents! Perhaps the most gracious moment of the day was during the assembling of our final load outside Costco. As I was handing cases to Monte standing in the truck bed, a kind gentleman approached.

Father Tannous

He asked, “Is this water going to Houston? I have relatives there."

We replied, “Yessir.”

He then began picking up cases to help us. Over the next few minutes this meek man dressed in black showed us another example of the body of Christ. When we asked his name, he told us that he was Father Tannous and invited us to: Father Tannous' Church

I constantly marvel at how God places juxtaposition, contradiction and divine paradox in our lives. Sometimes these are front page news stories, situations, people, places and happenings that dangle a heavenly question mark in front of our eyes. Here was a city, Houston, overrun with water, people flood forced from their homes. But they were desperate for good water, the water that quenches a thirst, water to cleanse the heart. And so it is with all of us. We, the world, desperately thirst for the true Living Water.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

John 7:38

Bradford Bosworth

October, 2017

Find Your Gifts

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

(7th in a series)

Haiti Missionaries

1^st Peter 4:10

Jeannette and Ryan Karstensen

It is a monumental responsibility to lead a mission trip to a foreign land. The people who will be the recipients of your charitable efforts will most likely gain a lifelong impression from the team’s comportment. If there is a language barrier, then our demeanor and body language speaks for our faith. On this Haiti Mission trip, there are eight folks from three different Churches with two on their very first excursion. The bottom line is “God has given us some special abilities,” and it is up to us to make them blend and become faithful stewards of God’s Grace in all its forms.

Our repasts together, breaking bread, are always a time to coalesce once again. Tuesday our team was having lunch together and I presented them with Jeanette and Ryan’s scripture passage from 1 Peter. We went around the table and each member of the body reflected on how the Word spoke to them. I took notes as they shared. The Holy Spirit translated as follows:

The mission becomes our great commission when the true goal is “to make disciples of all nations,” (Matt. 28:19).  As the “Body of Christ,” each one of us is a single chapter in Yahweh’s epic novel of grace titled “Humankind.” The mission now becomes a gifted quilt made of individual scraps, throwaway fabric that now stitched together warms each soul it comforts. Our unique gifts manifested become a tapestry of colors woven into Abba’s glorious creation of Love in His Son Christ Jesus.

Often it is through our willingness to serve and at the point of our Christian action where we begin to discern what are the gifts we have received from our heavenly Father. Surely for us to keep and maintain those gifts we must give them away.

Father, may we always remember your precious gift of grace can never be earned and we will always be engulfed by it as we give it away. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Bougainvillea Beautiful

Tuesday, September 26, 2017                                                                                                                                                 (6^th in a series)

Better Bougainvillea

Isaiah 55:12-13

Ed Hogg

Over the past week I have asked myself, “If this is what Haiti looks like now, what must it have looked like after the 2010 earthquake?” The answer begging for acceptance is, “Not much different.” There is no apparent infrastructure in and around the huge steaming municipality that is Port-Au-Prince. Basic amenities like bathrooms, plumbing and consistent electrical wiring exist in a dark ages time warp. It is a city of razor wire and rebar, cinder block and barred windows. Around every corner I expect we will be entering a “nicer” neighborhood. That district never appears.  There is no apparent sanitation initiative. The only word that appears an appropriate descriptor is desolation.

Today’s scripture is speaking to me here this way: Instead of a prickly thornbush, look for the juniper tree, and instead of briars find myrtle.  Old Testament Profit Isaiah, ever the eternal optimist, is showing me how to make chicken salad out of, oh well, I better not go there. You get the drift. Seriously though, you and I will find what we look for. It has happened that way for our mission team here in Haiti. In spite of the oppressive heat and spartan surroundings where we set up our clinics, we experience almighty grace and beauty because of the presence of the Lord in the humble nature of these remarkable people.

When we have stopped to catch our breath and look around, in the midst of the ruts and rubble, there on top of a razor wire covered cinder block wall is a beautiful bougainvillea bush with vibrant red and white blooms! Surely, we know this allure is for the Lord’s renown.

Sunday, we worshipped with the locals. The experience was a piece of heaven on Earth. Then we set our clinic up on a second floor overlooking a small valley that held another large open-air house of worship. The land burst into song before us and we were reminded that His Love endures forever!

Abba, may we go out in joy and be led forth in the peace of your precious Son. Amen.

Bradford Bosworth

Not Forgotten nor Forsaken.

Sunday, September 24, 2017 (fourth in a series)

Haiti Deaf Academy

Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13-5

Joyce and Michael Newsom

I often subscribe to the belief that we, the American people, are the same as the Israelites, God’s chosen people. Our ancestral pilgrims settled in a promised land, a land flowing of milk and honey. Oh how evident it is that we have forgotten from whence we came. But, you know what? These Haitian people, they too are God’s chosen people. Maybe they have just not found their Moses yet nor crossed through their Red Sea. Do you want to know something? These people are strong and courageous!

A few days ago our team arrived here on the heels of four ferocious hurricanes that passed by this island also known as Hispaniola. It is as if God has said to these people, I will not forsake you, my children, you have enough on your hands now and I have some of my other children who need a wake-up call! I’m not sure if Joyce and Mike intended it? A link exists that ties these two pieces of scripture together across a millennium or more. Moses’ exhortation, “Be strong and courageous.” is repeated by his successor (Joshua 1:9). In Hebrews, the writer is reminding his audience - Jewish Christians- that the covenant of Moses, carried forward by Joshua, has been superseded by the new covenant of Christ Jesus. Our presence here is now about the Love of Christ.

Our mission team’s humbly joyful interpreter/guides are mere boys content with what they have. Gel, Achka, Benson and Jhon are the vines bearing fruit that brings daily the new covenant Love of Christ to the poor. The chosen people of Haiti know the Lord has said to them, “Never will I leave you.”

Yahweh, through all the storms of our lives may we remember that nothing can separate us from your Love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Tenderly Teachable

Saturday, September 23. 2017

(3rd in a series)

Psalms 25:4-5

Chuck Whiteside

One week ago, I was serving on a men’s Walk to Emmaus retreat and just as this weekend, that effort started in earnest on a Thursday evening. A dozen times I have made that Emmaus journey and it always happens. After about forty-eight hours or sometime Saturday afternoon or evening I reach acquiescence, lose the world’s ties that bind. A similar surrender is happening on this mission to Haiti. Initially my search for truth in the suffering here led me to label impoverished Haitians as victims and look for villains to blame. That type of thinking - akin to fantasy – resides either in the past or in the future. It is of the world, time bound. If I am absorbed in the time bound thinking of the world, then I most certainly will miss Truth in the circumstances here now.  The Truth in Port-au-Prince here and now is that the people are not stuck trying to find someone to blame for their living conditions. During the Delmas rush hour on Friday they were busy living their lives. Most, are certainly not even aware of an adjective, “third world” used elsewhere around the world to describe Haiti as a country.

Today’s scripture “Show me your ways Lord” reminds us to let go and let God. As we gain our measure of humility from serving these humble people, do we also receive teach ability, a most critical characteristic of a humble nature. We are all in our right mind when we are teachable.

My divine image of this day was the earnestness and purpose in all the mothers’ eyes guiding their nattily dressed little ones to school. My dream for them? That these women would have faith and hope all day long knowing the children will be guided in His Truth.

Abba, may we be so fortunate to receive one nugget, one morsel of wisdom from our experience today, so we might carry that message back to from whence we came. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Palms and Patterns

Friday, September 22, 2017
(2nd in a series)

  Romans 12:2 (NIV)

John McCorkle & John Fleming

In the recovery fellowship to which I belong, one will often hear something like, “I will be in trouble if I stay in the world and visit the program. But, if I stay in the program and visit the world, then I’ll be fine.” I believe this idea, in part, is what Paul is writing about in his letter to the earliest Roman Christians. It begs us to ask ourselves, “Am I in the world or of the world?”  It is why I like the NIV translation of this scripture: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world…” Pattern invokes the idea of a template or format; a preset guide (see conventional wisdom) that we can view when confused or uncertain. Conforming to the pattern of this world is being of the world.

Delmas, Port-Au-Prince

On this first full day of apostolic mission work in this place called Haiti, I am literally full-fledged emotional that God has placed me here now. The team is so blessed; and guess what? We will be in this world certainly because we have no real basis to be of this world here. I suspect it is why missionaries love what they do, eager to return to their mission fields because it is as close as one can get to being completely in the world.

Another way I am blessed today is that I can look back at yesterday’s devotion and draw on Paul’s urging, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,” and marvel at the wonder of how the Word can weave for us a pattern of truth that is eternal and all encompassing. Our activity here in this little struggling part of God’s unbridled creation demands we adopt the same mindset as Christ as much as we are humanly able. Then, most likely, without even being aware of it, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God is good!

Abba, may we more and more conform to the model you sent for us, your Precious Son, that we might be more in the world than of the world. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Haiti Devotional Series

Sixes UMC Haiti Mission 2017

Beginning tomorrow, Thursday, September 21, 2017, 'The Standard Chronicles" will begin a weeklong series, uh, well, chronicling the experience of  a group of Christian Missionaries in Haiti. The daily posts will be in the form of a Devotion. Each Devotion will be based on a submitted Holy Bible scripture reference. The submitters are folks who have sponsored myself and my dear friend Patti in our participation with the Sixes team. Patti, a Nurse, has been doing this medical mission trip for five years and encouraged me to join in.

Port -au- Prince, Haiti

In gratitude for their support, I will write for these friends a daily devotion from their submitted scripture. I trust that, as is already the case, the Holy Spirit will be active in my inspiration to relate the Word to what is happening on the ground, so to speak.

If the reader desires to incorporate the devotions into their daily practice of prayer and meditation here are a few suggestions: Have a Holy Bible or Bible app (i.e.: "Bible Gateway") available for you to research, for the Devotion reference will be book/chapter/verse only. The devotion will be missing context without the reader absorbing the written Word. Carve out of your day some quiet time listening to what our Creator speaks that only You can hear!

If you are inspired to see what each day has to offer, here is a brief description of our loving support group:

Five Finger Friends Reprised


Over the course of a lifetime one learns that true friends do not pepper life’s path nor can they be plucked from trees and vines as if low hanging fruit. Instead we often discover them when we stray from the well-worn path or in climbing to great heights. My faith has convinced me that these friends are indeed Angels that our heavenly Father has placed along our path at just the right time with the right lesson to teach us, just when we are most teachable. I also am certain teach ability is a required characteristic of humility. For most of my life I have believed that if one could count these true friends with one hand they would be considered highly blessed. I am here today to say my true friend philosophy is changing and it looks like I need two hands now, particularly with beautiful Patti in my life! These Haiti Mission Sponsors are considered five finger friends of Patti and I:

John McCorkle, Ed Hogg, Brenda and Warren Taylor, John Fleming, Joyce and Michael Newsom, Randy Pettit, Jeanette and Ryan Karstensen, Chuck Whiteside

Here is a story that when I stop and consider it, I stand amazed. My first job out of college in Daytona Beach was in 1975. There at the local NBC TV affiliate a seasoned photographer and Viet Nam Vet took interest in me and showed me “the ropes”.  He and his marvelous wife welcomed me in their home. They have witnessed with me weddings, funerals and graduations over the years. Then there are two men who I worked together with in the financial services industry and as three recently divorced bachelors in 1982 became roommates.  We would reunite after 30 years in large part through Walk to Emmaus. There is a man who I first met at the 1984 Great Miller High Life Chili Cook Off. Five years later he would hire me and become my boss at a major Alcohol Beverage Wholesaler. Two decades later I would sponsor him on Walk to Emmaus. Then there is the man, a licensed Pastor in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ and certified addiction counselor who helped me get sober in 2008. He and his wife are wonderful friends. There are also two men who have graced my life since 2010 in the important recovery fellowship to which we belong and are also my Emmaus Brothers.  Then there is a couple who have been in Patti’s life for years and are her closest friends now becoming mine. A little over a year ago and through Walk to Emmaus, they played a big part in the coming together of Patti and me.  Can anyone say Angels in our path? How marvelous, how wonderful is my savior’s love for me. *       Amen

* Lyrics from:"I Stand Amazed" Chris Tomlin. Music and worship is one way to get one in a prayerfully meditative mood. Check it out.

I hope to see you here again soon.

Love Always and In All Ways,

Bradford Bosworth
September, 2017