Before We Age

Last Sunday at South Pasadena Christian Church

This past Sunday was my last Sunday at South Pasadena Christian Church.

For the past 3 years and 5 months I have served that little church as its Senior Pastor. I came in at age 28 without a completed theological degree, without any previous preaching experience, and a strange sense none of that would matter.

Even though I’m not the most “spiritual” person in the world — I prefer to say I’m “religious, not spiritual” in direct antagonism to the popular description of “spiritual, not religious” — I supposed my lack of pastoral training would not matter, because the job seemed exactly what God had called to me do.

I have likened my story to Jonah’s.

Jonah despised God’s call for him to preach and so ran away only to find that God didn’t give a rat’s ass what he thought. In the end, Jonah preached and his preaching was successful, but the man couldn’t stand it. He hated it.

Likewise, the call to step up and be a spokesperson for God came upon me. I wasn’t planning on ever becoming a pastor and the thought of speaking for God freaked me out. Yet, once I realized what was happening, I knew two choices existed: enjoy it or end up depressed like Jonah. Thankfully, I chose to enjoy to watch it all unfold.

In the end, I walk away with several treasures in my pocket: a breadth of experience from failures and successes, the pleasure of knowing a good number of impressive people, a clearer hope for what a church can become, and a confirmation that this was not a one-time gig. I will return to working in a church, whether its as a head pastor or some subordinate minion. That will wait though. For now, it’s time for a new adventure!

To everyone at SPCC, thank you so much for being gracious to me and for allowing me into your lives in such significant ways. You have blessed me immensely. Continue to seek faithfulness to the gospel above productivity and comfort.

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Reflections
Author Stephen

The First Apartment in Buenos Aires: A Familiar One

9 Jul

When I traveled down to Buenos Aires back in 2006, I rented a studio apartment for $250 per month. That same studio apartment is available when Maggie and I arrive in October, so we’ll be renting it for at least the first 6 weeks we are in BA. Inflation has been really high over the past several years, so we’ll be paying $400 for a month.

Here are several pictures of what it looked like then. We are really hoping it isn’t red anymore! Either way, we’ll take it for the 6 weeks.

Looking up to the entrance from the outside stairs.

The owner, Graciela, thought it would be good to pose for future advertising of the room, but this photo fails in so many ways. It's the only one I have to show what this side of the room looks like.

The kitchenette.

The sliding glass door is the only entrance and window. The wood floors are nice.

It's got AC and a TV that didn't really work.

Smallest bathroom I've ever been in. It's a wet room really, meaning that there's no shower curtain. See my shampoo there?

The view.

This is the place we’ll call home for our first 6 weeks in Buenos Aires. I can’t imagine staying there beyond that. But, it will be hard to find something larger for the same price.

Click here to open a Google map of the apartment’s location.

The apartment isn’t located in the most hip or interesting of neighborhoods. It’s in a neighborhood called San Cristobal. If you zoom in on the map in satellite mode, you’ll see actual satellites on the roof of the TV station next door. They film some popular TV shows there.

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Housing, Planning
Author Stephen

Two tickets to Buenos Aires for less than $800

16 Jun

I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I crawled out of bed and started searching for flights to Buenos Aires. Good thing, because I just purchased two tickets for a total of $762!! No lie!

Here’s how.

Occasionally, I check the cost of flights from various mid and eastern cities in the U.S. to Buenos Aires: Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami. Mostly they are all equally priced, with the cheapest round trip tickets fluctuating between $1,200 to $1600. When I got out of bed tonight I expected to see the same.

Instead, when I checked the flights from Miami, I saw “$815.” I did the requisite wiping of the eyes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating from lack of sleep. It was still there: $815 web fare special rate for a round trip ticket.

I knew I needed to grab them immediately, but Maggie was asleep. I certainly was not going to buy the tickets without her knowledge. I’ve already learned that lesson! Should I wake her up or stay up all night and ask her when she wakes up hoping the special rate didn’t disappear? I decided to wait.

And then I remembered our credit card, which we use for everything! I logged into the rewards system and it said we had just over 77,000 miles. Using their internal flight search, I found the same flight I had found on Expedia.com.

One ticket cost 75,000 reward miles or $750! I re-wiped my eyes and verified I read it correctly. What I thought was a good deal originally just got cut in half!

This time I had to wake up Maggie. Three-quarters asleep still, she said, “Why wouldn’t you buy that? Get it!”

So it turns out, our decision to get the overly advertised Capital One “No Hassle” Venture Credit Card paid off. You know that card. Just think of a viking asking, “What’s in YOUR wallet?”

The fact that we used that one card for about 95% of our purchases since being married helped us save a lot of money. I still can’t believe it. We just purchased one ticket completely with reward miles we’ve been accumulating for close to a year and the other ticket for only $762 (after the service fee was added). Amazing!

I guess we’re really going now. No turning back! We depart from Miami on Wednesday, October 12, 2011, for the beautiful city of Buenos Aires with a layover in Mexico City.

I do wonder if Maggie will remember me asking her.