Unsatisfied By Average

The Musings of a Stubborn Believer

Category: on the road (page 1 of 2)

Up And Away

Sunrise already finds me far from home, in an unfamiliar hub, bound for an unfamiliar continent.
But this feeling is familiar… This “it-never-gets-old” sense we always get when we’re perched on the edge of some new territory. Together.

Off we go. And not for a week or two, but for a month. Not sure if this trip goes by the label of ministry or mission… Probably some of both.

Pray for us in Bolivia, speaking first, then spending time in orphanages in the mountains. Pray we’ll have an over-abundance of love to give away in a land where the concept of family has been almost entirely destroyed.
And while you’re at it, pray we’ll find enough internet to post a photo or two between now and the middle of March. 🙂

Thy Thoughts Towards Me

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand…” 
Psalms 139:17-18
Crashing waves on endless beaches always do something moving in my soul. 
For the larger God looms, the less I fear my problems.
And God grows at the beach in my little mind. By virtue of sheer volume of sand; sheer power of water.
If you don’t understand me, go count the grains in a teaspoon of sand from the neighbor kid’s sandbox.
My long silence has had to do with crossing the United States by car. (then back again). The trip is only half done… But one of the highlights was certainly gathering on the beach at AMEN conference with the surgeons, physicians, dentists, and PHDs and their little ones building sand sculptures from the bible.
You’ve never watched anything like it…

Taste of the Tour

Words fail of conveying sufficient depth and gravity.
Clichés like: “I’ll never be the same” apply, but still don’t tell it like it is…

I throb thankfulness while I grope for expressions worthy, and finally conclude-

Our best statements are understatements.

Because once again, our God has outdone Himself, blessing when we went to bless.
How I needed the quiet. How I needed to see the rocks that cried red. How I needed the battle to refocus. How I needed to be broken and healed, raised up out of weakness, charged to fight…
Reminded that I am nothing.
Reminded that “All things work together for good…”

All things.

Thank You Jesus.
Thank you, beautiful friends from all over the continent…

We love you…


Taste of the Tour from Sean Nebblett on Vimeo.

Full Cups and New Friends…

I learned today how to make a full cup fuller…
Surround yourself with european friends three tiers high, and talk about war.

Seriously, guys… Why do we have to nearly starve before we’re ready for bread?

friends: three tiers high
sermon notes. (green version)
Marcel manipulating languages
faces
Frank Fournier: fellow “American” and new friend 🙂
This one is for the Fords. 😉
more friends
my pal again. (fun to take pictures of!)
listening
we interrupted a birthday party on outreach. Second from left there got Happy Birthday, and Always Cheerful.
the neighborhood natives lead the way
p.s. you don’t have to speak the same language to be friends…

Outreach!

I love it when a group of kids knocks on the door, and after they have finished singing and the owner has selected a Great Controversy (of all things!) from their stash of “free gifts,” they offer to pray for blessings on that house, and the owner crashes in with his own beautiful prayer of blessing for them…

I love it when a simple songs strikes a solid chord because the heart was made soft by a brother’s recent passing…

I love it when the neighborhood kids get excited right along with us, and wait with huge smiles with their scooters and unicycle for us to pick them up each afternoon to sing to he rest of the town.

I love it when those same neighborhood kids tell me all the english phrases they’ve learned in school, while I stretch my poor tongue to make German sounds back, and we all laugh, friends.

It is hard not to love this place.

we set out
that’s my pal there
and his harmonica is a big hit
neighborhood girls
surrounded by friends
(most of whom have names difficult to pronounce)
this is real fun
next door
see my friends with the wheels?
how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news…

Speak, Dear Jesus…

Let every word count; every action count. 
Speak through our eyes with the language of Heaven when we can’t speak with our tongues the language of this beautiful land.
We love You…
And we love these Your children. 

The famous Edelweiß, only in the Alps.
odd man out.
If you’ve never had German bread… Well, you’ve never had bread.
Nebblett & Nebblett
Breakout.

Halfway to Heaven?

Spent hours this morning in a warm little Austrian living room, talking of Heaven… (While the clouds were deciding whether or not to cry.) Now my heart carries a peculiar little twinge.

I want to go Home…

But then I look out the window and remember where I am, and what I have left to do before it’s time to leave. 
Heaven is my home, but earth is my workplace.

And it’s not yet time to go…
. . . . . . . . .
I live on a cursed planet, thanks to my first father’s ingratitude.  
But I think the curse rests more heavily in some places than others. 
This place is unreal. The pictures are pitiful.
I’ve never been to a place where the curse seems to rest more lightly.
Look, the sun just came out.

I Love Europe.

For lots of reasons. Not the least of which being huge windows wide open…
with no screens.

We’re safe, and snug, and thankful in Torre Pellice. More in the morning. 🙂

People Cry

I have one question. 
And my question is why.
Beads of sweat glistening on my brow, three-fourths of the way down the field on a mission to plunder noxious weeds– I stop. I stare horrified at nothingness as the agonized words of my friend pound home. 
“Why!?! . . .  People cry over little stories of cats and dogs–“

“Mhm”

“But there’s no weeping over the cross.” 
“No sorrow over the sacrifice.”
“Right. Why?…”

I Have a Dream

“I have a dream.”


“I have a dream that one day–
Some day soon…


…there will be a thousand soldiers of the cross where there is now one.” 


















“That on every corner of the globe, a fire will overrun the land.


And that from whatever corner of the earth I am in, I will hear a rumble…”














“And I will say: ‘I recognize that sound’…




‘That’s my God.’ 

‘That’s my God!’”






That’s my dream.

And I’m watching it come true.



*from closing comments, Walla Walla Youth Weekend 2011
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