We spent last weekend at Huntsville State Park. Despite the name there was no hunting! Sigh of relief after a momentary panic attack when the possibility occured to me on the way there. Anyway, we sooooo needed and loved our weekend in the park.  And, Beso was such a good little camper! as we so hoped he would be.

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Shane and I were still living with Sharon, Shane’s mom, when she got these two adorable Shitzu babies, Dudley and Sheldon. They are brothers; the one with the spots is Dudley and the all black, smaller baby, is Sheldon. They are these sweet little playful things with all this affection and amazing personalities – just loveable - and bringing so much happiness to Sharon. Not long after though, Shane and I moved into our own apartment. We weren’t moved in but two weeks before we found ourselves at Buster and Friends, a shelter in Houston that rescues dogs from the pound (from being euthanized) and gives them a better shot at being adopted.

We were trying to decide who to adopt, and totally fell in love with this one dog but I was upset because he wouldn’t kiss me. I told Shane that I didn’t think we could adopt a dog that won’t kiss me. We literally spent four hours at the shelter that day, like we should have had name tags on because we walked every dog. In the final deciding moment (shane had been sooo patient but it was getting to be dinner time) it was between this one dog we really liked but wouldn’t kiss and this other cool dog. I went over to the boy’s cage and explained that I couldn’t take him if he wasn’t going to kiss, the message apparentely got through because he landed a wet one on my arm. He won us over right away but he drove it home, literally, with the kiss. So we made him family and gave him the name ”Beso”, which is ”kiss” in Spanish. Of course we’d give our dog a Spanish name.

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We didn’t know his breed and he doesn’t really look like anything obvious, so we just accepted that he is this interesting mix of great things. We’ve been taking him to the dog park for his social time and exercise, and he gets so much attention because he is so sweet and handsome but also because people are always trying to figure out what kind of dog he is – because he’s such an unusual and cool dog. We thought we had heard it all but then last weekend this couple told us with absolute certainty, like not even in a suggestive but informative manner, that he is a Canaan breed. It would have been like so many other times – someone tells us he’s some breed we’ve never heard of before, but this time, when we went home to look it up – there was his picture, and the description totally fit! So, the Canaan breed, or kelev k’naani - in Hebrew, is the national breed of Israel and dates back to like 2200 BC. Really interesting and fun discovery, of course we can’t prove it for sure – not about to do genetic testing – but it looks right and sounds good to us.

My grandmother has since given him the middle name, Avram, so he is officially Beso Avram. She felt he really should have a Hebrew middle name, given all the Jewish ancestory. She and my grandfather discussed it futher and decided he should be named after my grandfather’s dad, Abraham, and Avram is the Hebrew name for Abraham. We can’t think of a better middle name, so thank you Grandma!

To learn more about Beso Avram’s most likely breed and ancestory check out:  http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/canaan.htm or http://cdca.org/what.html or of course just search image results on google and you’ll see what we’re talking about.

Most enjoyable will however be the actual pics of Beso and Beso with his adorable uncles (the pups dudley and sheldon)….

Another great soul

Gone away,

His life he gave

To make us believe, to be set free,

The greatest testament

We the beloved are blessed to see,

He suffered

And in his suffering I saw,

The pain and the fear lose power

To the peace of our Lord,

I want to go where he’s gone

And to go with the grace,

Set my path, dear God

In his purpose driven way,

This one man’s love

And he was showing me,

With this one man’s love

God, you touched me

For Dueward Wimberly (November 21, 1940 – January 20, 2010)

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Shane's Parents, Sharon and Dueward, in Orlando - Just Five Weeks Ago

By: Lesslie Newbigin

“The Open Secret” was recommended by our friends and mentors at ENLACE. The author, Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), was an internationally esteemed British missionary, pastor, and theologian. The material presented in this book was developed over the four years he spent lecturing in theology to men and women preparing for missionary service.

“The open secret” refers to God’s purpose in the world as revealed through Christ, which Newbigin describes as – open in that it is preached to all nations and secret in that it is manifest only to the eyes of faith (p.188). Through addressing contemporary issues and expounding on the nature and purpose of “The Open Secret”, Newbigin aims to establish a theological paradigm for understanding mission in today’s world.

Essential to his discourse on the Christian mission and what he identifies as fundamental to the Christian faith is the revelation of God as a Triune Being – Father, Son, and Spirit, which was given “to those who are called” to receive it (1 Cor. 1:22-25). The church is founded on Peter’s confession of Jesus as “the Christ”, a confession that Jesus says was not revealed through “flesh and blood” but by “my father in heaven” (Matt 16:16-18). Therefore it should be understood that faith is given freely by God and cannot be earned, and recipients of faith are to act as stewards and not owners of what is revealed to them.  Newbigin makes the point that it is God who reveals the kingdom, who calls us into obedience and the role of faithful witness, and it is God’s mission at work in us and the world, not ours. 

Newbigin suggests that as the Spirit works through followers of Christ to convert new believers, the church receives greater revelation of Christ and is transformed. Newbigin supports this through repeated reference to Cornelius’ conversion in Acts (10:1-11:18) and the impact it had on Peter and the church. Newbigin says, “What the story makes clear, and what is spelled out in more theological terms in the Fourth Gospel, is that mission changes not only the world but also the church…It is the action of the Holy Spirit, who in his sovereign freedom both convicts the world (John 16:8-11) and leads the church toward the fullness of the truth that it has not yet grasped (John 16:12-15)” (p.59). 

Newbigin urges the Western church to move against the imperial tide of the previous centuries and to distinguish its mission from the cause of Western nations. He goes further to say that Western ideology, namely free-market capitalism, is a “form of idolatry” that “can be met and mastered only at the level of religious faith” (p.95). Newbigin argues that Western churches must be checked and corrected by other cultures as new believers are incorporated into the body of Christ. Newbigin views cultural dominance by Western nations as an enemy to this process, which serves to bring the entire body of believers into greater revelation of Christ.

 “The power given to the church to meet the power of evil is just the power to follow Jesus on the road that leads through suffering” (p.108). Newbigin emphasizes that it is distinctly through “suffering with” (Rom. 8:17) and “acts of compassion” that Christians live out their calling and participate in “the victory of the lamb” (p. 108). Newbigin views the church as a body of followers chosen not to be set above or apart from the world but to serve the world. It is not through the will of the church but through its submission to the will of the Father, through bearing witness to the Spirit and sharing in the life of the son, that God’s mission for the salvation of the world is achieved. The church is not as Newbigin says “the community of the righteous in a sinful world” (p.53), but rather “It is the place where the reign of God is present as love shared among the unlovely” (p. 54).

Paz is Pastor Rafael's sister and a local church leader. She oversaw work at the school during the day and participated in Alpha trainings in the evenings

Click on Image to View Photos of The Briargate Church from Colorado Springs in Comecayo, El Salvador