The pastor escorted Garrison, the translator, and me to special seats at the front of the church as the musicians and singers continued in worship. About the time we reached our seats, it began to rain.  You can see a picture of the building (tent) just above this article.

The “building” was basically a tent constructed of various pieces of cloth sewn together with logs as support beams and mud floors covered with grain.  There were gaps and holes in the covering of the tent, so it was inevitable that rain started dripping in the tent.  In fact, it started dripping on the chair that I was sitting in. The pastor noticed the water dripping on me and moved me to another seat.  Within a few minutes, the leaking had moved to me new location and I was moved again.

The rain didn’t diminish the worship and excitement of the church and after a few minutes of announcements and offering, I was introduced and I started my message. The common language of the people was Swahili, so I used a translator as I began my message.  About 7-8 minutes into my message, the pastor, who knew limited English and was seated in the special seating on the stage, started shouting “Point!”, “Point!”  as he thrust his pointer finger straight up into the air. He repeated this phrase so loudly and repetitively that I stopped preaching and looked back at him to see what he was trying to communicate.

My initial thought was that he was telling me that the tent was leaking in the area I was standing in and he was urging me to move. I looked up at the tent above and didn’t see any leaks of consequence.  By this time, the translator had turned around and was watching me look at the pastor. After a few seconds of awkwardness, the pastor conveyed through the translator that I had made a good “point” in my message and that he was drawing attention to it so that the people in the service would take note.

I was relieved that his shouting was for a good thing… So, I regained my composure and continued my message. Each time I came to a “point” in my message, I emphatically yelled, “Point!” “Point!” as we continued on. ;)

When we returned back to the main campus, I had opportunity to talk with the lead pastor over all of the Maranatha churches and he told me that it was a very good thing to have the pastor make such a strong statement about something I said. My brother, who is a pastor and who was on the trip with us, had preached at this church a few days before. He overheard my story and told us he hadn’t heard the pastor yell “Point!” during his message.  The rest of the trip we had fun ribbing each other back and forth about what happened.

The people of Tanzania, especially in the churches we visited, are hungry for God and it was an awesome experience to see them express themselves in worship and praise.

1. Power without rudeness
2. Kindness without weakness
3. Boldness without bullying
4. Humility without timidity
5. Pride without arrogance
6. Humor without foolishness
7. Optimism without fantasy

7 pardoxes qouted from Michael Goldsmith’s facebook www.facebook.com/michael.goldsmith1

Only in America……can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in America……are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

Only in America……do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America……do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke.

Only in America……do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America….do we have in-door bathrooms that require an outdoor scent to smell fresh….

Only in America……do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America……do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.

Only in America……do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America……do we use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well: Poli’ in Latin meaning ‘many’ and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’.

Only in America……do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

“Only in America” quoted from Yakov Smirnoff

I am proud to be an American and I join with everyone in our country as we celebrate our nation’s birthday.

So a few years ago I was preparing for my 15^th wedding anniversary.  I knew I was getting into those anniversary years where the stakes go up as far as the expectations Stephanie would have…so I went to work planning a romantic getaway weekend. I planned to drive our entire family to Alabama, drop the kids off at my mother’s house, and then head to Nashville for an anniversary getaway weekend.

There was a 4 star hotel in Nashville that we had stayed in before and Stephanie had commented on how much fun it would be to go back to that hotel. It had indoor gardens, atriums, all kinds of shows throughout the hotel…you could even take a romantic boat ride through the hotel artriums. I looked for internet deals at the hotel and tried everyway I could to find the best deal for a room for a few nights and ended up frustrated that I couldn’t seem to get an affordable price.

So I started on a plan B. Hotwire.com

It’s a internet site that sells rooms at hotels based on star ratings and location without telling you the name or brand of hotel.  I started finding some amazing deals on 2.5 star hotels that were near the 4 star hotel. You see I justified that we could stay there at ¼ the price and drive over to the 4 star hotel in the day and see the sights etc.

I just knew that Dave Ramsey would be so proud of ability to find ways to save money on the trip. I mean the 2.5 star hotel had free high-speed internet, it was an all suite hotel, continental breakfast…it had to be nice ….. I researched as much as I could to determine which hotel it might be…as they don’t tell you the exact hotel until after you have paid by credit card. When I finished the transaction on the internet and saw the name of the hotel, I started to have a sinking feeling that I might have made a bad choice. However, I continue to ensure Stephanie that we were in for a great weekend anniversary getaway.

The day arrived for us to leave the kids at my mother’s house and we headed for Nashville. As I approached the exit for the hotel that sinking feeling started coming over me again. The hotel that hotwire had offered such an amazing deal on was not at all what I had hoped for. I checked in hoping for the best….the lobby was nice enough. The whole time through check-in I was eyeing Stephanie because I knew she had expectations and an opinion about what was unfolding. It wasn’t looking good. We parked the car and located the room.  The hotel was actually a motel and had each room door opening to the street. I went to open door…and it was already open…the lock was busted and the door had been cracked for quite some time. In the late June summer in Nashville the room was way over 80 degrees. As I entered the doorway, I scanned the room and immediately was overwhelmed by the original décor from the early 70s… with original carpet and fixtures… wow…the room didn’t look like it had been cleaned in a while… as we stepped inside the room our feet were sticking to the old and warn, shag carpet…and I took a look at Stephanie…and I knew there was only one thing left to do.

I pulled out my laptop, connected to that free wireless highspeed internet that the hotel bragged about on hotwire.com and I looked up the number for the 4 star hotel and called and found a way to get a room there….The hotel had not met either of our expectations….and I knew I was headed for a long weekend if I didn’t do something….

Expectations have a way of shaping our view of life and they have a profound impact on our future…no matter how hard we try, we’re wired up to form expectations about any and everything… Expectations in our relationships, in our jobs, about our life and even in our faith…. What are your expectations of God?

How do you view his role in your life… What do you expect from Him? I’ve seen people run the gamut from expecting that God is like a genie in a bottle or a good luck charm that they can ask and expect anything for Him….to people who believe God has provided salvation for them…but they don’t expect his involvement in their life on a daily basis… and they don’t expect Him to do much of anything in their life.

I can promise you that He wants to be deeply involved in your life and that He has a good plan for you. Give it some thought today…. and send me good ideas for my 19th wedding anniversary. You know I need the help.