Tears Water the Seeds of Hope

There is an amazing couple that I know from the Madison area of Wisconsin. They are amazing to me because they are doing something that has profoundly changed the lives of people. No...saved the lives of people and changed the course of countless others in the impoverished, eastern region of Guatemala. In truth, they are not that amazing, but what The Lord is doing through their surrendered lives to Him is what makes them so. And I'm sure they would agree.  How many lives have been, or will be changed by their selfless efforts, we will never know--at least not on this side of Heaven.  I know Kim and Randy Tews from personally joining them and their volunteer team twice on their life-changing mission efforts in Guatemala. I have been on a good handful of mission trips between the church where I regularly attend, The Orchard Evangelical Free Church and Kim and Randy's, not for profit, Christian organization, Outreach for World Hope (OWH).

Kim just published a book, Tears Water the Seeds of Hope, detailing her and Randy's journey from living the typical American Dream of self-sufficiency, buying a stately home on 4 acres of land in a suburban, sub-rural setting. And all this while working the fast-paced and lucrative careers of successful realtors to the point where carving out time for their two young daughters had become a matter of concern. Like many others who also share this unquenchable drive and need for material success, one of the rewards is the means to be able to take that occasional and well-earned tropical vacation that a life of those who work hard and value such luxuries as Kim and Randy's are entitled and can afford.

It was on one of these vacations to a tropic, sun-drenched, rum-soaked beach destination where Kim's story begins. This is a true story and great testament of how trust, faith and commitment in Christ can transform lives one heart at a time. That is the beauty of ministries such as OWH. Ministries like these don't only change the lives of those people it was intended to help, but anybody who invests some of their time, talent and resources to such endeavors will surely realize blessings of their own, often far from what they had ever imagined. Generally it begins with a change of heart, which directs thought, which often leads to action...and on and on it goes...  Kim and Randy are very different people today since they committed to forming this ministry. The book, Tears Water the Seeds of Hope is about their journey in putting together this organization that continues to grow, changing the course and the lives, not only of the souls in eastern, famine-stricken Guatemala, but also of all those involved in their work.

 I just ordered my signed copy and can't wait to read it, maybe savor it, but likely devour it. I know as one of the volunteers on two separate mission trips with Kim and Randy how profound an experience this can be. I know I can relate personally to much of Kim's narrative and proud to say I feel a part of this story. I was first invited to work with OWH by a co-worker and friend of mine, Judah from Madison, who happens to be a friend of the Tews family and has been many times to Guatemala. Judah has in fact lived a short time there and has dedicated much time, muscle, tears and love himself. One of his blessings was meeting his  wife, Jena, who was a volunteer on the last trip where I served. Jena continues to serve the people of Guatemala alongside Judah, now married for almost a year, as of this writing.

I first got my feet wet in volunteer work on two relief trips I made with The Orchard church to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. I didn't know anybody, but felt somehow compelled to serve.The experience was so amazing that I committed to doing some type of  short-term volunteer relief/mission work once a year as an opportunity is available. Since then I've been to Juarez, Mexico, twice to Guatemala with the Tews, Judah and teams, and this year my heart led me to the Republic of Haiti.

Short term mission work is definitely a move out of most anybody's comfort zone. It can be quite uncomfortable at times, sometimes scary, unfamiliar and uncertain, but always a lot of fun at the same time as you will be sharing all of these fears and emotions with everybody else on the team. The payoff is always well worth the commitment. Every trip brings new adventure, new hope, new relationships, renewed perspectives, self-evaluation, a re-defining of priorities and those things that are truly of value, new miracles, and always... always a closer relationship to Jesus Christ, in Whom we dedicate it all.

When You're the Only Early Riser in the House, What Do You Do?

Answer: Get used to it because the situation's not likely to change. It can be very frustrating being an early bird in your family when everybody else in the household firmly believes that weekends, holidays and vacations are designated special for those who enjoy to sleep in.

I'm naturally an early riser and for anybody else who shares my predicament, you know how unnerving this can be at times. Weekends aren't so bad as the early quiet hours (and I mean several hours sometimes) provides a time for peaceful solitude. I am devout in my Christian faith, so this is a good devotional time, a time to peacefully soak in the Word of God, and reflect in prayerful meditation. This is also a good time to do some quiet exercising such as stretching, pushups, and core strengthening routines. I've also taken advantage of these early quiet hours, when everybody else is sawing logs, to read a book uninterruptedly. What often happens is I find myself pulled, almost supernaturally, to my laptop. This can often be a regretful choice as it's easy to get caught up in work stuff, Facebook, sensationalized news stories and videos, and worst of all, celebrity nonsense. I couldn't care less about Prince Harry's latest expos`e...but yet we are somehow drawn...

This time can be a real gift if used productively. For example, I'm taking this opportunity at this time to create a blog post. The trick is always to sneak out of the bed as stealth-like as possible, quickly take care of your hygiene needs, make as much coffee as is required to get you through these hours, quietly clean up any remnants of the previous evening's activities. This can often be a challenging proposition as it often requires some degree of thumping and bumping about, which often leads, at least in my case, to swift and grouchy retribution from a too-early awakening of my sweetly-snoozing spouse (kids generally don't care).

Sleeping in on the weekends, I can abide to some extent. It's the time when we're away from home on vacation that really irks me. And all you can do as an early bird is suffer in silence. I fully understand that vacations are for rest, but geez! I want to rise with the birds, get a light breakfast, plan the day's activities and explore new things. Hotel rooms are particularly tricky as you are confined to a smaller space, those iron curtains drawn taught, lest the tiniest ray of morning sunlight breech the crypt-like sanctity of the space. Once expertly navigating through the foreign territory in the pitch dark, executing a modified version of the hygiene regimen and grabbing the essentials: cell phone, camera, room and car keys, I've had the most wonderful adventures, left to my own devices. Hint: skip the mini-coffee maker and lobby coffee. The quest for a good quality cup of real (preferably Fair Trade) coffee is a great way to begin exploring a new area. It's amazing the wildlife you can view, the interesting people you can meet, and the discoveries that can be realized, given this precious time alone.

Sometimes, my wife and kids will be pondering the notion of breakfast by the time I'm thinking about lunch and a cold locally-crafted pint. All you can do if you're an early bird is accept that this is the way it will be and stop getting frustrated that everybody else doesn't share the same need to wake with the sun. To me sleeping in is like letting the whole world go on without you. I always feel as though I'm missing out on something. And mostly I'm right.

There is, of course, a flip side to this compulsion to greeting the day at it's dawning. When the rest of my family is ready to settle in for a good movie in the evening, I can quickly leave them for a different kind of solitude...as sleep comes on me quickly in these twilight of my years...   

One bad decision deserves another

Did ya ever notice that when you make a poor choice it often is followed up by a series of bad occurrences?  That upon reflection, if you simply went with your gut instinct things could have been radically different?  One of the tenets of present moment awareness is that it affords you to tap into your inner guidance.  Apparently I tap into it and spit in its face.  Let me tell you about Thursday's commute.

I am quite easily distracted.  Doesn't matter what it is, it'll distract me.  Could be a bug, a piece of paper on the floor, just the sound of the wind whistling through my sometimes vacant head.....On Thursday something minor distracted me and had me leaving the house slightly late. As I ran to the car, I noticed the sky was threatening rain which caused me to run back into the house and grab the first umbrella I saw.  Run back out to the car, started up the Blue Flame and sped through traffic in a panic not wanting to miss my train.  My tires screeched as I pulled into a parking space, grabbed my coffee and heavy backpack (which got caught on the gear shift causing some coffee spillage, argh!) and ran for the train....to find out that it was running 10-15 minutes late.

The first rule of commuting by train is "Get on whatever damn train pulls into the station if trains are running late".  I know this, I feel this, I understand this, I just didn't do this.(Bad decision #1)  When I got to the station, the train that runs before my normal train was in the station.  I chose not to take it as it appeared crowded and also because I apparently had lost my mind.......sky is now really threatening.  10 minutes go by, my normal train pulls into the station.  Hop on, All goes well, (I'm monitoring the skies as we glide along) we pull into the downtown depot.  I need to make a decision on the rest of my commute...Walk as I usually do?  Take a bus? Take a water taxi? What ho!  A bus is waiting for me when I hit the sidewalk.  Bus it is!! (Bad decision #2) I'm all settled in my seat for my 10 minute commute to my office....10 minutes later...I'm still settled in my seat...in traffic.  Sky is really threatening but I don't care cause I'm safe and dry on the bus....in traffic.  We get to the entrance to lower Wacker to find it is blocked off by our vigilant ladies in blue, Chicago cops. (Thank you Chicago for having a city so great people want to film movies here and do it during rush hour commutes) Our bus driver says to the cop "Hey, I need to turn here, I don't have another route".  The cop says "Hey you can't, we told the cta (Chicago Transit Authority)" Bus driver says "I'm the CTA and you didn't tell me NUTHING!". They continue to fight while the rest of us exit the bus (not knowing when the bus would move) (Bad decision #3).  I start to walk.  I get about 10 minutes from the office and the skies make good on their threat.  It as a blistery blowy wind. I open my umbrella and of course it is broken so I have only 1/2 an umbrella. I swear and walk, swear and walk, etc..... Finally get to work, completely soaked.

As I try to dry out EVERYTHING I realize....
A... If I had taken the train that was in the station when I got there I would have missed the rain and been dry
B... If I had walked or taken the water taxi I would have missed the rain and been dry
C... If I had stayed on the bus, I would have arrived at the same time and not gotten wet (a coworker who was on the bus after me said that they opened the entrance ramp about 5 minutes after I left my bus) and been dry.

The moral to the story? Well I guess to go with my gut but I think truly the moral is don't trust MY judgement when the skies threaten rain!

Martin Eden Film Coming Soon!

Well as of this writing, this headline isn’t quite yet true—it’s more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It is true that there is an excellent screenplay adaptation of Jack London’s 1909 novel slowly getting some positive attention in Hollywood and New York.  Martin Eden is a great story that mirrors much of London’s own life and times as an uneducated sailor, turned famous writer.  For many years I thought that somebody should’ve made this great novel into a film.  Now that somebody has finally written a very good…No, great screenplay exactly 100 years since the novel was published, I think the time is ripe to bring this story to life on the big screen. How do I know the screenplay is great?  Well, speaking objectively, this script has placed in 4 major screenwriting competitions.  Martin Eden took 2^nd place in the Inkwell Opportunity 2009 screenwriting competition, as well as being judged a finalist in Scriptapalooza, Fresh Voices and Sundance Film Festival’s top 100 in the Table Read My Screenplay competition.

The story is about love, obsession, ambition, social issues, self-improvement, sacrifice, success, charity, disillusionment and deep depression.  This story interweaves all of the elements that touch every human soul in one way or another. The story of Martin Eden is set in San Francisco in the early 1900’s.  This was a time when class distinction was most prevalent in American society—the bourgeois wealthy, whom chased to great extent, the Victorian affectations, and the oppressed working class, where the sparks of rebellion were quickly being fanned-to-flame. Eden is a young uneducated and impoverished sailor from the latter class, who gets a taste of the seemingly better life of the wealthy. It all begins when he falls hopelessly in love with Ruth Morse, a young socialite who embodies everything the wealthy upper class can afford.  Eden makes his decision to abandon the life of the sea, educate himself, learn proper etiquette, dress the part of a man of distinction and become a published writer.   

Eden’s relentless pursuit of this goal for the attention, and hopefully the eventual hand of Ruth in marriage becomes his only obsession.  Ruth helps Martin pursue his dream, at the great disapproval of her controlling mother.  All through his improvement training, Martin takes up writing day and night, and very much like his creator, London himself, after years of literary rejection, finally gets some recognition.  Eventually he loses the girl; rather she loses faith in him. Eden later has works published, becomes famous, takes up with socialists and anarchists, gets fame, is disillusioned by the life of the wealthy, gives his money away to his less privileged friends and family and… well, I don’t want to give it all away.  I will tell you that this does not end on a good note though…

But I urge you to read the book…or wait for the film. Once this great screenplay is purchased and produced by some brilliant visionary it will be a certain hit, not only here in the U.S. but this is a sure bet for international attention as London’s book is even today very popular throughout Europe and other parts of the world.  And why am I so hopeful and confident about this script?  Because I, Jim Farina, am the proud author.

Really, I'm a hip modern woman!

I perceive myself, and most of my friends as very relaxed in our attitudes.  We swear freely, are big on innuendo, always get the dirty joke. Hey were first in line to see Magic Mike! I like to think  people view me as risque however last night I believe I might have found a flaw in this argument...

It was a ladies night. Not a ladies night at a bar, but a gathering of women after hours in a store that sold accessories and what I'd call chick things (candles, coin purses with funny sayings, little bowls..).  There was several types of wine, beautiful cheeses and delicious crackers.  It was a gathering that a friend of mine had won at a school auction.  She invited coworkers (me), friends from college, newly gathered friends and neighbors.  These were women who are definitely in the "Haves" side of life (I sometimes ride the edge of the  "have nots" but hey, I'm happy). Upper crust, refined, intelligent.  We chatted about our children, our jobs and the goods in the store. We feasted on amazing cheeses and wine, told a joke here or there.  My friend and I told our scandalous story of going to see Magic Mike all the while feeling a certain lascivious arrogance. One of the women I'd never met before, a nice comfortable looking woman, maybe mid 50s, dressed in an "I've spent about $500 on this outfit to look this understated" listened politely and then began to speak "when I was 18, I went to a triple x porno at the Princess Theater".......The room was hushed, I snarkily put more cheese on my cracker, sipped some wine, fully expecting this motherly woman to titter and say that she marched right out when she realized where she was. I took another bite of cracker as she went on "After about 15 minutes I got very tired...I just got tired of all the sucking c**k".  Yes....the word you think is supposed to be there is the word she said loud and proud.  I about choked on my cracker (not everything is better on a ritz..) and luckily had plenty of wine to save me from near death. My other friend made a gagging noise (which is somewhat appropriate).  After the shock of the phrase "sucking c**k" it became even more bizarre when you realize that an establishment named the Princess Theater showed pornos.

Hmmm...I wonder how I can get myself invited to her book club.......

What's your merge type?

Well I certainly couldn't let Jim have all the glory for this blog so I decided that this afternoon makes a fine time to blog about a subject very dear to my heart.....merging.

Every weekday morning, I have a few opportunities to merge into traffic.  This procedure used to frustrate me until I realized that there are specific merge types. Here are a few of my merge type definitions:

The Val:  This is an older person (usually a woman) who come to a dead stop when they begin to merge into traffic if there is another car within a 5 mile radius...in any lane.  They will only move when the expressway is completely clear of traffic.  Luckily they are stationary so people can easily move around them.  I suspect that when you read news stories of a missing elderly person the first place one should look is the expressway on ramp.

The Mario Andretti:  This is usually a middle aged man, who is on the ramp behind you but must speed up and get into the traffic before anyone else.  Doesn't matter if he is 3 cars back, 2 cars back, he will speed up, cutting you off and all the traffic in between time. Usually has a cigarette in hanging out his mouth and is swearing at anyone who has the audacity to be on the expressway in front of him.

The Chicken:  This is usually a distracted mother.  She is in the traffic you are trying to merge into.  You slow down to merge in behind her and she slows down.  You speed up to get in front of her, and she speeds up. This goes on and on until she leans into the back to smack a child which will cause her foot to slip off of the accelerator and you can sneak in front of her....if you move quickly.

The I'm the head of the class:  This one applies to when you are in traffic and someone is merging into your lane.  For this scenario (and this is all over the board, old guy, young girl and everything in between), you have NOTHING BUT SPACE behind you and a teeny teeny tenny bit of space in front of you.  The car comes off the merge ramp, is slightly behind you and obviously sees the big space behind you but cannot bare to be one more car length down the expressway so they speed up, causing you to apply your breaks quickly as there really isn't that much space but you are now suddenly grateful for all the space behind you.

The NO you first..Psych!:  This is usually a younger woman.  She is in traffic and makes eye contact with you as you are coming off the ramp.  She gives you a slight head nod and slows which seems to indicate that she is going to let you go in front of her when at the very last second she speeds up making you wonder if that was truly a head nod or perhaps she was just listening to a really good song.

The I'll run your dirty stinkin' ass out of town: Although usually a younger man/boy but sometimes just a person in a crappy mood.  This type will feel your presence and keep in sync with you. (much like the Chicken) however there is nothing to distract them in the car so they simply do their best to run you off the road (or more realistically make you go super slow until you run out of lane and then become the Val). I chose to believe they are laughing like a maniac, smoking marijuana and drinking hooch but in all reality they probably have their music turned up loud, are texting another "WTF" to someone or just not awake yet.

Next time you merge into traffic or have someone merge into your lane, see if you recognize any of these types...oh yea and if you are missing an elderly person, please retrace their routes!

Some Bugs Yet to Work Out…

So I found a bed bug in our house. Yes, as much as I tried to deny it and frantically searched the internet for an insect that I might possibly have mistaken the creature for, I had to finally face the reality. There is no creature that resembles closely enough to where there's any possibility of mistaken identity. The closest insect I could find was your common wood tic. To my knowledge, I've never had a tic invade my body. From what I gathered in my online research regarding bed bugs, I'd much rather welcome the intrusion from a tic. Tics are easier to spot once they engorge themselves on your blood. They are not a big deal to remove, and once squashed, they are gone for good with no fear of their incubating offspring waiting to hatch and launch an assault in legions.

Bed bugs, on the other hand, are breeders of the worst kind. Once a culprit is spotted, even once removed, there is the risk that hatchlings are left behind to carry on the blood-sucking legacy of their parents. As a kid I remember hearing references to these critters, and who hasn't heard the expression "Good night – don't let the bed bugs bite." In my mind I always shelved bed bugs along with the boogeyman, cooties or the even the ever-popular chupacabra, which originates with our Latin American friends. I never took any of these childhood threats very seriously. It always seemed like something adults made up and perpetuated to… well to… umm… I really have no idea why such nonsense was so widely popularized amongst our youth.

Well now I can tell you that the bed bug is a very real threat in today's world. We hear about them in the news as they are reportedly plaguing even the 5 star hotels, where the biggest fear of hotel stays used to be only the threat of former guests' bodily discharges. Retailers now carry an impressive line of early detection monitors along with sprays and traps for these monsters. As I understand it, none of these products are really very effective, but I'm sure marketers have opportunistically jumped on the band wagon, taking full advantage of consumer' fears. Bed bugs are extremely difficult to locate. They come out at night as you sleep and, like mosquitoes, they are attracted by the carbon dioxide we as humans emit as we exhale. These little vampires creep on us, inject us with an anesthetizing agent that renders their prey helplessly oblivious to the puncture of its mandibular, which is what's used to suck blood from their victim. Once sated these little suckers retreat again to the tiniest little crevasses and creases near your bed. Sounds pretty gross huh?

We have dropped some cash and took the precautions that any semi-informed and desperate consumer might do when suddenly faced with a bed bug infestation. I'm happy to report that since we spotted this culprit in our home back in February after I had done some traveling to Haiti and other places, we have not seen another bug. Perhaps it was an isolated case – perhaps a renegade hitchhiker on my luggage. Still once bitten, forever shy.

I still occasionally find myself searching the bed; flipping off the covers quickly at the slightest sensation of a wayward leg hair or spontaneous itch. Sometimes I feel an itch on my scalp. These are all perfectly normal occurrences that I never used to give a second thought. Why is it that such a tiny critter can create such a major frenzy?