Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 31, 2011

My Father’s Flag

Seeing all of the American flags proudly waving in the breeze this past Memorial Day weekend got me to thinking about my father’s flag. Dad, an Air Force veteran, loves our country and our flag and has the Air Force theme song as the ring tone on his phone.

american-flag
Soon after I had moved to Corpus Christi in 1978, my Dad told me that he wanted to put a flag pole in the front yard of our family’s South Texas home. So, on one of my weekend visits, Dad and I made a trip to a local plumbing company where we purchased a 20-foot galvanized pipe to use as a flag pole. We also purchased all of the hardware and ropes for the pole.

By the end of the day our home had a flag pole to rival the one at the local post office. It was great. My only concern was that folks might actually mistake our home for the local post office.

After returning to Corpus Christi, I contacted our local US Representative’s office and told them about Dad’s flag pole. I asked them if it would be possible for them to give my Dad one of the flags that had flown over the US Capitol. They agreed and within weeks sent me a flag and a certificate verifying the day the flag had flown over the Capitol. I presented that flag to my Dad a few weeks later at Christmas.

I enjoyed seeing so many flags on display this past weekend and wish that folks would leave them on display year-round. Having visited thirty-plus countries around the world, I can say that there is no place like the United States of America.

While in Bangladesh just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I encountered several hostile people who shouted at me to go home. I finally decided that I would approach those individuals and ask them one question: “If I could give you enough money to go live with bin Laden or to go live in America, which would you choose?” To a person the answer was America! “Then why,” I asked, “are you so angry and shouting at me to go home.” To a person — no answer!

Even with all of our faults, many people around the world still find America attractive, at least attractive enough that they would move here if given the opportunity.

My Flag
Like my Dad, I love our country and I love to see the American flag on display. I have a modest flag on display in our front yard and will keep it on display year-round. I like seeing it when I leave for work and when I come home from the office.

This past weekend my wife and I talked a lot about our country and those who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy. The flag in our front yard reminds us that we owe a debt of gratitude to these individuals. Cheryl and I have decided that one small way by which we can pay our debt of gratitude is by keeping our flag on display. So, that’s what we will do. Looking at our little flag also reminds me of my father’s flag and the day he and I proudly raised that flag in the front yard of our home.

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Posted in Home and Family

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 30, 2011

Once Ordinary Days

My young Mom.

May 30 was once an ordinary day on my calendar, but all of that changed two years ago when my beautiful Mom passed away. And now, this day and the days that surround it are anything but ordinary. As this day drew closer I found myself becoming less talkative and more pensive. I found myself reflecting on the final days I spent with Mom in her hospital room. The last thing I did with Mom, before I left to return home for my youngest daughter’s graduation, was to lead my family in prayer around her hospital bed. Honestly, I did not expect that to be the last time I would look into her eyes, but it was. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to spend quiet moments with Mom before she died. Each of those moments is now a treasure.

When I was a young boy growing up in South Texas I did not think about calendars and the meaning of days (except for my birthday and Christmas). But as I got older, I noticed that Mom took note of the things that happened in our lives and anchored those happenings to days on the calendar. She remembered more than birthdays and anniversaries, she remembered so many seemingly random and ordinary things that she felt worthy of remembrance — first steps, first day of school, and so many other firsts in our lives. She had an amazing memory for dates and was our go-to person when we needed to verify dates of significant happenings in our family.

A few years ago I started mapping the geography of my family’s history on the pages of my calendar. What I have seen emerging is something of a topographical map that shows our mountaintops and valleys and where seemingly endless arid regions finally gave way to more fruitful and refreshing vistas. But more important, the events and seasons of our lives that are forever anchored to days on the calendar also show evidence of the faithfulness of God. There is not one thing we have experienced, good or bad, that we have had to face alone.

There are still many ordinary days on our calendar that will take on new meaning in the years to come. As we continue on our journey through life many of these days will cease to be ordinary because of a birth or a death or a special event or a tragedy. The landscape of each of our lives will continue to change until the day the ink is dry — the day when there will be no more days left to live. As I reflect on the topography of my Mom’s life today, I can see the faithfulness of God. I also take comfort in the fact that one day I will better understand all that God allowed to happen to our family on what were once ordinary days.

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Posted in Home and Family

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 27, 2011

Global Glimpses

Barbara (l) with Aiesha the potter. | Morocco

Who | Barbara Gilcrease

Where I’ve Traveled With Kingsland | I have traveled with Kingsland to Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Morocco, India, Mexico, Mongolia, and Kurdistan.

Why I Enjoy Going Beyond | I have always enjoyed a good challenge. When that challenge makes me totally dependent on Him, you can’t beat that feeling. The results last forever.

One Place That Touched My Heart | Shanti Dan — Mother Teresa’s home for destitute and ill women in Kolkata, India. We saw more need for love and care than we could ever fill in a short time. Our effort at being “Jesus with skin on” blessed us as much as it did these precious women. It was as simple as holding a hand, taking a walk, or throwing a ball with them. Each day the good-byes were difficult.

One Person I Will Never Forget | Shoab (or “Shawn”), our translator in Dhaka, Bangladesh was such a blessing. He asked many questions about life in America. Yes, there are many blessings in American life, but Jesus is one that we share because He lives in Dhaka, too. I often wonder how Shawn is doing and what his position is with Jesus today. It feels like unfinished business, which is not a good feeling to have.

My Advice To Older Adults | At sixteen years-old, I made a commitment to serve in whatever way God led me. It doesn’t surprise me that He allowed me to have these missions experiences at my age. I pray that I haven’t been a drag on younger team members. The call of God on my life when I was a teenager has made the seemingly impossible possible. I can’t even imagine not going beyond.

Note from Omar | Barbara is an inspiration to younger generations. She has been a delightful traveler and compassionate servant on every trip she has participated in. Rather than being “a drag on younger team members,” she has inspired us to do our work without complaining and to step up our game. She is the “Where’s Waldo” character and “Energizer Bunny” all rolled up into one person!

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Posted in Bangladesh, Global Glimpses, India, Iraq | Kurdistan, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nicaragua

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 26, 2011

A Process With A Purpose

On Mother’s Day I posted a blog entitled “On Heaven’s Shore” in which I wrote about a dream my mother had recorded on a note card and then tucked away in one of her books. When my sisters read the post, they told me that Mom had told them about her dream. Laura, my youngest sister, sketched a drawing of Mom’s dream and then gave her the drawing. Well, she recently found that pencil drawing that she had given to Mom. Unbeknownst to Laura, Mom had written the words “Suffering is a process with a purpose” across the top of the page and then filed it away. Two years after Mom’s death Laura found the drawing in a drawer.

Mom's Note on Suffering
It’s probably safe to say that most folks do not like suffering and would prefer to avoid it if at all possible. Suffering is one of the things we hate but also one of the things that can have a profound impact on our personal growth. On Mondays, I receive a devotional email from a Cambodian man named Veasna Eddie Khem. I met Eddie through our mutual friend, David Sinclair. Eddie wrote the following in this week’s devotional installment:

Life is full of sudden changes, in which hardness comes unexpectedly to many of us. To this day, I still remember when I was living on the street as a beggar at 8 years of age in 1970. At 11 years old, I was seriously electrocuted. At 13, I was kicked at, beaten up, and forced to evacuate from my own home with a gun (AK-47) pointed at my head. At 14, my father was executed and his body was dismembered; and my mother was beaten. I was put to work in labor camps without having food much to eat. At 17, I was forced to be with the Khmer Rouge (KR) group – extremist communist government. At 18, I escaped from the KR and walked with bare feet through thick jungles.

As I read Eddie’s words I thought about the words my Mom had written across Laura’s sketch: Suffering is a process with a purpose. Eddie would agree. He concluded his devotional with the following words:

I believe hardness is the only true school of godly living. After living in the camps along the Thailand border for about two years, my family was sponsored by a Christian group and brought to Austin, Texas in 1983 when I was 21 years old, and my mother, brother, and sister became Christian in 1984. Then, I have had struggles with learning English, accepting a new culture, making a living, dealing with difficult people, racists, etc. It has been 40 years since my hardships began. In Him, I have overcome the hardness and been blessed. Great to be in the promised land, USA!

The Bible assures us that suffering is indeed a process with a purpose. Joseph said to the brothers who had sold him into slavery, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20). Job said, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15). The Apostle Paul said, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:3-5). Knowing what God can do in our lives through suffering does not make suffering any easier. But, it can help us to persevere, believing that one day we will understand the reason why and how suffering is a process with a purpose.

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Posted in Cambodia, Devotional Thoughts, Home and Family

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 25, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

Cusco, Peru | 1998

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Posted in Peru, Wordless Wednesday

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 23, 2011

I Attach My Trust

Several years ago, while leading a short-term mission team to Asia, I heard an expression that made a deep impression on me. After our morning briefing, I dismissed our team members and their translators to begin their work in the local community. That’s when I heard one of the translators say to her assigned team member, “I have never done anything like this before, so I am attaching my trust to you today.” I immediately paused and thought about the many times I had hitched a trailer to the back of a pick-up truck. When you attach a trailer to a truck, the trailer must go wherever the driver of the truck desires to take it. “I am attaching my trust to you” is a great way to express what it means to trust another. Thirty-eight years ago I attached my trust to Christ. He has led me to places I never thought I would go and through seasons I never wanted to go through, but He has never disappointed me.

Harold Camping falsely predicts end of world.

This past week, our nation and the world witnessed what happens to people who attach their trust to the wrong person. Harold Camping, an 89 year-old self-taught radio preacher, predicted and announced, with absolute certainty, that the world would end on  May 21, 2011. Notwithstanding the fact that he had previously announced the world would end on September 6, 1994, Camping told the media, “I am utterly, absolutely convinced it’s going to happen.” And, through his radio broadcasts, he managed to convince untold numbers of people that the world would indeed end on May 21.

Robert Fitzgerald, a 60 year-old retired transportation worker from New York, attached his trust to Camping. And, it cost him dearly to do so. Fitzpatrick spent $140,000 of his retirement funds to purchase billboards advertising the end of the world. Moments after the world should have ended, he told ABC News, “I can’t tell you what I feel right now. Obviously, I haven’t understood it correctly because we’re still here.” A very costly mistake for Fitzpatrick who must now face his remaining years without the benefit of his retirement account.

Keith Bauer also attached his trust to Camping. Already suffering under a load of credit card debt and unpaid bills, Bauer took his family on a 3,000 mile road trip from the East coast all the way to California to experience the Rapture. Bauer said that he wanted to see parts of the country he’d never seen, like the Grand Canyon. What a deal! Take a pre-Rapture family vacation without worrying about the additional credit card debt. For a guy like Bauer, the Rapture was better than filing Chapter 11. Another costly mistake. Bauer is still here — and so is his debt!

Not all of the blame belongs to Harold Camping. There have been false prophets before him and there will be false prophets after him. Each of us have a responsibility to do due diligence on what we believe, the choices we make, and to whom we will attach our trust. Fitzpatrick and Bauer and others should have done the math on how many times people have falsely predicted the end of the world before attaching their trust to Camping’s mathematical formulas — formulas that he boasted were so complex they would probably crash Google’s computers. Among other things, the events of recent days should caution us to think deeply about where and to whom we attach our trust.

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Posted in Apologetics, Current Events, Devotional Thoughts

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 21, 2011

A Task Not A Timetable

Harold Camping gets it wrong -- again!

The world did not end today as predicted by Harold Camping, the 89 year-old retired engineer-turned-biblical numerologist and radio evangelist. This is not the first time Camping has erroneously predicted the date that the world would end, or rather the date of the beginning of the end. However, in spite of that, he managed to lead others to believe that he had now arrived at the correct date because he had corrected his previously faulty metrics. And, once again, like others before him, Camping was wrong. Behind Camping’s failed prediction are gullible people who stopped making their mortgage payments, gave away all of their possessions, euthanized pets, and more as they anticipated the event that did not happen today. Camping also spent millions on billboard advertising and recreational vehicles wrapped in doomsday advertisements. All of these things will remain, for a time, as mute testimony to Camping’s failed prediction.

Just before His ascension into heaven, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). His teaching prompted the disciples to ask a question that was not entirely unreasonable, but reflected their misunderstanding of the kingdom (Acts 1:6). Like other Jews, they expected the Messiah to set up a political kingdom—restoring Israel to the political sovereignty and glory the nation had enjoyed in the days of King David. On one occasion they had argued among themselves as to who would have the highest rank in the kingdom (Luke 22:24-30). They now wondered if Jesus was going to free the nation from Roman rule.

Jesus gently rebuked the disciples for asking about God’s timetable for the restoration of the kingdom. The Father alone has the authority to set the timetable for all events (Acts 1:7), including the end of the world (Mark 13:32). Instead of speculating about the future, the disciples needed to focus on more immediate concerns—specifically their new assignment. Perspiration for the kingdom is more important than speculation about the end times! We should live and serve as though Jesus will return at any moment (Mark 13:32-37). In His last recorded statement on earth, Jesus gave His disciples a task rather than a timetable. He charged them with the responsibility of being His witnesses (Acts 1:8).

The Apostle Paul later addressed similar concerns about the believers at the church at Thessalonica. Because Paul had previously written to tell them that Christ could return at any moment, some of the believers had stopped working in order to wait for Him. Paul therefore wrote a second letter to enlighten these confused believers who had stopped working in order to wait for Christ’s return. Paul had strong words for these careless believers who focused on a timetable rather than on the task of living for Christ day to day. Jesus promised that He will return. But, because we do not know the date of His return, the wisest thing we can do is to focus on the task of living incarnationally and expectantly. We need to be about the business of loving God, loving people, and living life in a way that pleases Him. Don’t let speculation about timetables distract you from the task of living for Him today. That’s the best thing we can do while waiting for His return.

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Posted in Apologetics, Current Events, Devotional Thoughts

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 20, 2011

Global Glimpses

Who | Gina Metzler



Where I Have Served with Kingsland | I went to Houston’s 3rd ward for the first time with Kingsland’s 6th grade mission trip in the summer of 2009. Working alongside Generation One (“G1”), we played with and loved on many neighborhood children. The elementary-aged children just melted my heart! My work with the 3rd ward children continued when in January 2010 I started volunteering at Dodson Elementary (where the G1 children go to school). My work at Dodson is still ongoing today. I manage the Real Men Read Program, tutor students and assist teachers with their classroom needs.

How God Touched My Heart | I realized almost immediately the huge needs at Dodson — there were very few parent volunteers, almost no financial resources and very limited enrichment help for the many struggling students. The needs weighed heavy on my heart … I prayed about them often and looked for ways to fill the voids. God has provided for many of them through resources from G1 and Kingsland! And, only by the grace of God was I able to get 15 University of Houston education majors onto the Dodson campus from February to April to tutor students.

A Life-Changing Opportunity | About 3 months ago, Mike and Kenzie Malkemes, the founders of G1, approached my husband and me about an idea the Lord had placed on their heart – starting a private, Christian school in the 3rd ward. After many weeks of prayer, we decided to join Mike and Kenzie on the adventure God had them on – starting Generation One Academy or G1A. What a brilliant way to break the cycle of poverty by teaching these children about our Lord Jesus, providing them with an education geared around their needs, teaching them life skills, all the while involving their parent/guardian in the education process!

How You Can Help | We know that there is no way we can build G1A alone. We need the favor of our Lord and others to come alongside us on this journey. We are looking for assistance in four areas: prayer, monetary donations to fund G1A (made through Kingsland’s missions ministry), in-kind donations to support G1A (school supplies, books, snacks, furniture), and volunteers to be mentors and tutors. If you feel the Lord leading you to join us on this journey, please contact me at gina_metzler@yahoo.com.

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Posted in Global Glimpses, Local Missions Initiatives

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 19, 2011

The Gifts That Remain

Mom and Dad out on a date.

Two years ago on this date, my beautiful Mom observed her final birthday in a hospital room. At that time we did not know how extensive the cancer was that would end her life on May 30. As I thought about Mom this morning, I was saddened by the thought that I can no longer call her to wish her a Happy Birthday. My siblings and I can no longer send her cards or gifts. However, my sadness was mitigated by joy when I realized that while we can no longer give her gifts, she continues to bless us because of the gifts she gave us through the years. Mom’s death has given me a new perspective on what it means to leave a legacy — not a financial legacy, but the kind of legacy that can bless the next generation in a way that no amount of money ever can. I can’t put a price tag on what it meant to grow up in a home with parents who were passionately in love with one another. Their love made our home a safe and secure place where my siblings and I were encouraged to love God, live life to the fullest, love and care for one another, respect and serve others, and pursue our dreams. These are wonderful and priceless gifts — the gifts that remain and continue to bless us after Mom’s death.

Thinking about Mom’s last birthday in a hospital room has caused me to reflect on where I might spend my last birthday. But even more than that, it has caused me to consider the gifts that will remain after I am in the grave. Each of us will leave behind the gifts that we packaged over a lifetime — gifts that will either bless or hinder our survivors. It’s sobering to consider that one day those who survive me will think about me on my birthday long after I am in the grave. It’s even more sobering to consider whether they will regard the gifts that I leave them as priceless or worthless. That’s why it’s important to take the time to seriously consider what you want for those who survive you to think about when they reflect on your life. And, it’s also important to consider the gifts that you will you leave them. If you want to leave your survivors priceless gifts then you will have to make the payments on those gifts each and every day that you have life. Are you willing to invest in the kinds of gifts that will bless your survivors?

In the 30th Psalm, David complained,“What will you gain if I die, if I sink down into the grave? Can my dust praise you from the grave? Can it tell the world of your faithfulness?”  (30:9). God alone can answer the first question. However, those who remain behind after the death of a loved one can answer the other questions. The fact of the matter is that our dust will speak for us after we die. Remember that you are writing the script for your dust one day at a time. And remember also that you are making the payments on the gifts that will either be a blessing or a curse to your survivors. So, invest today in the kinds of gifts that will keep on giving long after you are gone. Leave a legacy that money can’t buy.

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Posted in Home and Family

Posted by: Omar C. Garcia | May 18, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

Dad (r) with a street vendor in Bolzano, Italy. | 1953

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Posted in Home and Family, Wordless Wednesday

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