20:30 at South Adams County

I'm in Austin, Texas, today so I missed Jordan's cross country race, but I know many are waiting with bated breath for the outcome. I called him this afternoon and he said it was not his favorite course and he didn't run particularly well, finishing with a 20:30. He has one race left this season.

Quote of the Week

"Why do people who know the least know it the loudest?"

- George Carlin

153 Revisited

My September 8 post was about TUFW's "Kingdom Dream's" chapel and how I shared with the campus community our outrageous goal of enrolling 153 new freshmen next fall. Afterwards, there was a comment posted on the blog from someone in Qatar. Who it was, I have no idea. How he found my blog is a mystery. Shoot, I'm not even sure where Qatar is! Anyway, his remark caught me totally off-guard, though. In case you missed it, here it is again:

"When I read your comment, I immediately thought of John 21.11 about the 153 fish that were caught. Is this where the number came from?"

Naturally, my response was "no" but I had to check out this passage immediately. Again, in case you didn't notice it before, here is John 21:3-11:

Simon Peter said, "I'm going fishing."

"We'll come, too," they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

At dawn the disciples saw Jesus standing on the beach, but they couldn't see who he was. He called out, "Friends, have you caught any fish?"

"No," they replied.

Then he said, "Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you'll get plenty of fish!" So they did, and they couldn't draw in the net because there were so many fish in it.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and swam ashore.

The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only out about three hundred feet.

When they got there, they saw that a charcoal fire was burning and fish were frying over it, and there was bread.

"Bring some of the fish you've just caught," Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't torn.

That in itself was pretty cool to see and consider. While I would never want to read too much into this coincidence of 153, it really did make me sit up and take notice. In turn, the note from Terry in Qatar prompted my dad, Richard Muntz, to send me this excerpt from notes written by Henry M. Morris in the New Defender's Study Bible:

"The reason why the disciples were careful and John to record the number of fishes brought to shore must again involve symbolism as there seems no other reason for it. It has been calculated that there were 153 distinct nations in the world at the time of Christ (the number is not much different at present); these were represented at Pentecost by 17 ethnic groups (see Acts 2:8-11), when the disciples first began to carry out the Commission, preaching to the world in miniature, as it were. The number 17 is also symbolic; when all the numbers are added up through 17 (that is, 1+2+3+...+16,+17), they add to 153. ... There seems no other number that could possibly be more appropriate to represent all the peoples of the world than this number, and it is surely more than coincidence (in fact, providential) that the Creator saw to it that exactly 153 great fishes entered the 'gospel net.'"

Dad then asked if this means our 153 new freshmen all need to come from different countries. Yeah, right. There are ridiculous, audacious goals and then there's just plain silly.

The third chapter, for now, in this saga of 153 was an e-mail I received last week from three colleagues at Taylor University Fort Wayne. It was evident that they had been considering this crazy idea of 153 freshmen. They said they had an idea for me and sent along a YouTube video they had created to pitch the idea to me. Now, you have to understand that sometimes the worst words an admission director can hear from a faculty member are "Hey, I know how you can get all the students we need." That type of statement is often followed by "Have you thought about visiting high schools to talk to prospective students?" or "If you just give everyone from Texas a $10,000 scholarship, enrollment will soar" or "Why don't you advertise on MTV?"

This time, though, I was intrigued. I won't tell you anything about their brainstorm yet . . . it's a little "out there," but their point rightly is that if we want to get some different results, we need to try some extremely innovative methods of getting the word out. We're going to meet tomorrow to talk about their ideas. If nothing else, it was encouraging and exciting to realize that others on campus were thinking about the challenge we face and how we can rise to meet it. I'll keep you posted!

19:21 New Haven Meet

Today was the New Haven Invitational Cross Country meet, another huge race. Held at a place in Fort Wayne called "The Plex," it was so big that again they had two varsity races, one for so-called small schools and another for big high schools. The definition of "small" is open to interpretation as Jordan was told that some of the schools have 400 or more in each grade. In this first picture, Jordan is running alongside a Leo High competitor and Leo has about 200 kids per class. I'm pretty sure that Blackhawk Christian had to have been the smallest school or close to it.

Jordan got off to his usual slow start. With our vast long distance running experience, Jeannette and I are pretty sure we're right in telling him that he should go out faster but he insists he needs to pace himself. I'm bringing a cattle prod to the next meet to help him get out quicker.

As the race went on, though, he starting picking off the competition, moving his way up the pack. In this second picture, Jordan is in the middle of this pack of runners, third from the left.

It was a beautiful course with two stretches through the woods and the weather was great for running, perhaps in the upper 70s and with low humidity. When all was said and done, Jordan recorded a 19:21. His PR last year was 19:11 and so this was his second best time ever. He only has two races left this season, one on Tuesday and another next Saturday.

MelodyJoy Sings a Solo

More Random Photos from Laura's Camera

Laura and Jamey took us to Cork 'n' Cleaver for dinner last Sunday to celebrate Jeannette's birthday. The menu came on a cleaver . . .

Melody at the garden shop today . . .

And playing in the wading pool . . .

Laura with her other Jamey . . .

Uncle Jamey and Phillip . . .

Quote of the Week

“Some sort of servant-leader language is probably a part of most Christian college mission statements. Finding it much easier to produce servants than it is to produce leaders, however, Christian institutions of higher education pay only lip service to any authentic leadership emphasis.”

- Bob Briner, Final Roar, p. 48

Pictures from Aunt Laura's Camera

With Aunt Laura at Jordan's cross country meet . . .

MelodyJoy meets Sharon Merkle from
TUFW's Enrollment Services Office . . .

Playing at the park closest to our home . . .

Happy Birthday, Jeannette!

Today is Jeannette's birthday. We're not sure which birthday it is. She says 29 but I think that she's had so many that she's lost count.

Phillip and Jordan gave her a tool for pruning all the trees around our house, with the promise that Jordan will actually use it . . .
Jameson contributed more yard beautification with a Shirobana Spiranea. I suggested that a rose plant would make more sense because I can spell "rose." The spiranea is supposed to bloom with bunches of red, pink and white flowers next summer . . .

Laura and Jamey are enablers for Jeannette's coffee addiction, with a new Cuisanart coffee maker . . .

MelodyJoy gave mom a new cutting board because she dropped Mom's old one on the floor and broke it . . .

Jeannette didn't like my gift, though . . .
Finally, when I explained that it was a picture of her new high performance toilet for the guest bathroom so she wouldn't have to unclog the toilet every other day, she expressed some gratitude.

Happy [numeral deleted] Birthday, Jeannette!

19:30 West Noble XC Meet

Today was a large cross country meet at West Noble High School about an hour outside of Fort Wayne. Thirty-two schools were represented and as you can see from this shot at the starting line, it was a madhouse. Jordan is right in the center of this picture, close to the camera. This particular start actually got called back because one of the boys in the middle of the pack got trampled a bit.

The weather today was very cool. The temperature at race time was about 54 degrees but it was great running weather. The course started and ended with an uphill run but was relatively flat. Afterwards, Jordan couldn't stop talking about how much he liked this course and the cooler weather. As usual, he very carefully "paced" himself . . . too carefully it appears to us on the sidelines but, as I told him after the race, we don't know his body like he does. He finished strong, passing several runners on the last stretch and his final time was 19:30. Last year, his PR was 19:11 and he ran a 19:26 at districts. However, today's time was an improvement of a minute over his previous best for this year. I think he finished 116th overall--out of about 220 runners--and second on the Blackhawk team.

New Friends

When Jameson returned to school yesterday after our trip to Wisconsin for his great-grandma's funeral, he was presented with sympathy cards from all of his classmates. It was a marvelous gesture. The cards were very creative and the messages varied widely.

One, at the far right side of the photo, had a picture of a desk on the front and inside were a variety of swirls and squiggles, with a small piece of graph paper taped on one side. It read, "This is a 'cubist' picture of you".

Some excerpts . . .

"I am sorry your great grandma died. I know how you feel, my grandpa died when I was very little. All I have is some memories, some pictures, and a stuffed dog he gave me when I was 2."

[from the same card] "P.S. did your family drive all the way to Wisconsin? P.P.S. the farthest my family has driven is Indianapolis"

"You can always get support from our classroom. (Just don't ask Cole.)"

"I know how you feel 4 years ago my grandma died I was sad for 3 years. I hope you won't be as sad as I was."

"From the Bible 'Do not be terrified do not be discouraged 4 the Lord your God will be with you! wherever you go!'"

"Sorry that your great grandma died mine did to so I know how you feel Just remember God is always with you"

"Hope you had a good time in Wisconsin!"

And, finally: "I hope you aren't too sad. Sincerely, Cole"

Quote of the Week

“Actually the definition of the Hebrew word ‘avodah’ reveals that
work and worship are from the same root.”

- Mike Blackwell
VP for Enrollment Management and Corporate Communications
Columbia International University
in “The Protestant Work Ethic,” in Connection magazine, Fall 2006, p. 18

Mavis Vinje

Tuesday afternoon, we left for Wisconsin for Grandma Vinje's funeral and Wednesday night, about 800 miles later, we got back home. We drove to Janesville and spent the night with Jeannette's dad and stepmom, then Wednesday morning we went over to New Glarus, where Grandma lived most of her life. The funeral was held at Baptist Bible Church, where she had been a member for years and, according to the program, taught Sunday School for two and a half decades.

There was a nice crowd there, including all five of Grandma's kids. Aunt Gail had flown in from Indonesia, where she is a missionary nurse, a few weeks ago when it became apparent that Grandma wasn't doing well. There were grand-kids and great-grandchildren, as well as a number of church and community members. I've spent very little time with most of Jeannette's relatives who are in this part of the country, so it was nice to reconnect with some of them.

During the service, I was most surprised to hear that Grandma had not become a Christian until she was 41 years old. Jeannette was able to share during the service about how much she appreciated the way that Grandma took her and her thoughts seriously even when she was a very young girl. There were also several references to her giggle, her non-stop talking and penchant for getting in trouble. Friends also talked about her love for Christ and willingness to help.

I enjoyed looking at some old photos of Grandma, clear back to childhood and even her wedding, that had been assembled on two pieces of poster board in the foyer.

After the service, there was a potluck dinner in the church gym--lots of good food, especially the meatballs--and then we all trailed our way out to the cemetery, located about a half an hour away but very close to where her family's farms were based. I took my first turn ever at being a pall bearer (note: it's heavier than it looks). I always enjoy walking around old cemeteries and reading the headstones. In this case, many of them from years ago were engraved in what I assume was Norwegian.

It was an exhausting trip but one that we needed to make. I guess there has to be some advantage to living out here in the Midwest and part of it must be the way it allows us to connect with a different portion of our relatives than we have in the past.

Great to Good

At our TUFW Chancellor's Council retreat last summer, we were discussing a local restaurant in the context of the book Good to Great, which is one of my favorites. Someone made the comment about the restaurant, "It's not great, but it's not bad." For a time, this became our mantra as we reviewed various plans and suggestions.

Well, today our realtor called with some news regarding our house in Klamath Falls. It's not great, but it's not bad. Yes, we have finally sold the house, after about six months on the market . . . after dropping the price from $269,900 to $259,900 . . . and then putting up a new fence, installing new carpet throughout the house, painting the garage and much of the interior, putting in a new kitchen faucet . . . earlier this week we received our very first offer, a whopping $225,000. Ouch.

Still, in a market this slow, we didn't want to lightly dismiss the offer. So we countered at a price well below the lowest we had felt we could go. And they counter offered. And we counter offered again. And today we have a deal. It's not great. I'm not sure I can even say it's not bad, but at least it's done and we don't have to worry about making another six or twelve payments only to get the same price next year.

We're thankful to have this behind us. The house should close in October. And I'm very glad now that I did my best to drive a hard bargain here in Fort Wayne.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for the house to sell. I'm not sure why God let it drag out so long but it's good to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Nurse Melody

Last week, MelodyJoy visited Great-Grandma and -Grandpa Wilder in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, with Jeannette. She called Great-Grandpa Wilder "Papa." Here she is examining Grammie Joyce's stethoscope and then using it to check Papa's heart.

Mavis Vinje

Jeannette's grandmother--her dad's mom--passed away yesterday morning at the age of 91 in New Glarus, Wisconsin. Jeannette and MelodyJoy spent all of last week in Wisconsin to visit Grandma Vinje, as well as Grandpa Wilder in Ladysmith, who also has been ailing.

I've never spent much time with Grandma Vinje--she's lived her whole life in Wisconsin and Jeannette and I have been on the west coast for most of our marriage--but I think I got to know her a little bit, and I've heard a lot of stories from my wife. Mavis Vinje was a simple yet amazing woman. She loved her God, she was a single mom, she was a survivor.

When Jeannette called yesterday morning to tell me that Grandma had died, she told me that MelodyJoy and she had had a good time with her on Friday. Jeannette said, "Yesterday was a good day for Grandma." I said, "She's having a better day today, though."

It made me smile to picture Grandma Vinje coming into heaven. I can see this little pixie of a woman, self-effacing in every way, giggling as she walks through the gates and shushing the angels as they cheer her arrival. After all the hard times she endured on this earth, she'll grin from ear-to-ear to see her mansion on a street of gold. I can hear her exclaiming, "Oh, it's too much, Lord, just give me an apartment on the second floor with birds singing outside the window."

Read the Fine Print

Congratulations to Whit and Deb Sieben!

A Kingdom Dream

Yesterday's chapel at TUFW was a little unusual. Our chaplain, Tony Opliger, asked seven different members of the campus community to speak for three minutes about their dreams for the university. Each was supposed to start our "speech" with the words, "My Kingdom dream for Taylor University Fort Wayne is" and end with "may it be to the praise of God’s glory." Those were really the only instructions.

I was honored to be asked to speak and I was the sixth one on the program. The dreams that were articulated--three from students, two from faculty and two administrators--varied quite a bit but were interesting and worthwhile. Everyone in attendance was encouraged to write their own kingdom dreams on 3x5 cards and leave them on the stage afterwards, and Tony also called all the faculty and staff to the front of the sanctuary and asked the students to surround us. Then four of the students spontaneously prayed for us. It was very cool.

Here are the notes I wrote up for my portion of the chapel service:

My Kingdom dream for Taylor University Fort Wayne is . . .

To see a freshman class of 153 next fall.

153 is a ridiculous number. It represents an increase of 89% in one year. Where did that number come from? Evan Wood, Pam Jordan, Doug Barcalow and Jeff Groeling sat down with me and we looked at the history and potential of each program one-at-a-time. Each individual piece of the puzzle does not seem unreasonable but put all together, it’s a crazy number to consider.

And not just 153, but the right 153 students, who will be here for God’s purpose and will impact the campus and be impacted by the campus.

This week, I was reading Genesis 17. There, God tells the 100-year-old Abraham that his wife Sarah would have a son. Verse 17 says, “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief.”

Two weeks ago, Dr. Kilty shared his plans for this year with the university’s staff and he said, “Our goal is to bring in 153 new freshmen next year.” Sitting toward the back of the room, I laughed out loud.

You know, Abraham laughed at God’s outrageous promise and that turned out pretty well. I’m hoping that my laughter and this outrageous dream will turn out well, too.

The admissions office and faculty and lots of other people will be working hard this year toward this goal. We’ll certainly be asking you as students to help. But one thing about such a crazy, audacious goal is that there is really only one way that we’ll reach it: If God makes it happen. And if He does, we’ll give Him all the glory for performing a miracle. If He doesn’t, pursuing this goal will still have made us a stronger campus.

I have one more, related Kingdom dream for TUFW. I look forward to the time when we have so many students and they love chapel so much that we can’t all fit into First Missionary Church. I want to see this place packed out three times a week so we can all worship together and eventually I want us to have a new chapel in the center of campus.

Oh, and I want air conditioning in Hauser and Bethany Halls. [Note: There were loud cheers for this.]

A few weeks ago, I was reading Psalm 118. In part, it reads:

"The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous to see. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it."

Then the psalmist prays, "Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success."

May God also make Taylor University Fort Wayne into a cornerstone for His purposes. And like the psalmist I pray, “Please, Lord, please give us success” and may it be to the praise of God’s glory!

20:34 Northrop Meet

Jordan ran in a large meet today at Northrop High at the north end of town, not far from where we live. The meet was so big that they did something I hadn't seen before: They split it into two races, the first for just freshmen and sophs, then a second race only for juniors and seniors. This video, which shows the start of Jordan's race, will give you an idea of how big it was. Jordan is all the way at the right side of the screen and, as the runners go by, appears to be one of the last ones.

I didn't get very good pictures today. In fact, this is the only one of Jordan that turned out at all. He finished in 20:34, right about the middle of the pack in 65th place and second for the Blackhawk team. 20:34 is his best so far this year but far from his PR last year of 19:11 and I think both Jordan and I were disappointed that he didn't have a faster time. Still, it was about how he did last year when he ran around 20:40 a couple of times.

Quote of the Week

“Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.”

- Robert Frost, excerpt from “Mending Wall”

21:07 - Elmhurst Race

Jordan ran in the race today at Elmhurst High School. It was terribly hot--about 90 degrees. The course was a good one with some parts through the woods and some hills, without a lot of repetition.

He ran well . . . everyone lost some time from the last meet, because of the heat and the course. He finished 35th overall and 2nd on the team with a time of 21:07. Northrop High, one of the large schools in the city, totally dominated, with all seven of its varsity boys finishing 1 through 7 for a perfect team score.

Blackhawk's girls had a fantastic day as they took second place. Five of the team's runners finished in the top 15.

I'm Lovin' It

The McDonald's jingle goes something like "Da da da da dah, I've lovin' it!" and that's how I feel so far about my new job at Taylor University Fort Wayne. It just feels like I've stumbled into the perfect job, which is interesting because in many ways on paper it probably doesn't look like the ideal gig.

I've been on campus now for about eight weeks, if you take out the time that I was away for moving. In that two months, I feel like I've been able to make more of a difference here--at least in terms of the institution--than I did in my entire time at Asbury and maybe even at OIT. There's something very refreshing about having people actually listen to what you say and give it some consideration. I realize that some of it probably has to do with the fact that I have some initials in my title here and it's also likely that my own whole-hearted, long-term commitment to this place causes both me and those around me to respond differently to the things I say and do.

The people here are great. In my whole time here so far, I've had only one negative interaction with someone, which is saying something. Folks are easy to get along with, willing to look at things from different angles and to follow leadership, don't backbite, are welcoming and truly seem to want this place to succeed. There's a very Christ-centered spirit to the campus. They know things aren't perfect but I also think they believe TUFW can be a very special place that makes a big difference in students' lives and the community.

I know I'm still on my honeymoon. It's all about goals and plans now, and the pressure of actually meeting those goals and fulfilling those plans is still in the future. I haven't experienced budget cuts or personnel issues, and I've been shielded from some of the "baggage" that comes with this university, just like any other. I do feel overwhelmed and inadequate but, for now, it really feels like this is the job that I've been preparing for over the last twenty years and I'm lovin' it.