Crisis in D.R. of Congo

The people of the Congo have been devastated by civil war on and off for over a decade. Unfortunately, it seems that things have taken a particular turn for the worse recently.

There are, amazingly, still people/NGO's working in the area. I'll attach the video below (which pretty much speaks for itself). I'd encourage you to pray for the people living and working in D.R.C., and prayerfully consider helping an organization that's trying to help the people there right now.

(In case it doesn't work above, the link for the video is: http://community.wr.org/Page.aspx?pid=1292)

You can also find more information a variety of places (e.g. Randy Alcorn's blog: http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2008/11/crisis-in-congo-appeal-from-world.html#links)

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council was busy unveiling the nice new ceiling decor for their meeting room in Geneva. The price tag was a mere $23 Million. Get a collection of politicians from around the world together and you get, well, this:

(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454191,00.html.)

But hey, what's a paltry $23M for a nice-looking ceiling, when you're spreading around the graft from the entire planet? We wouldn't want these folks to have to meet beneath, well, a plain ceiling, when they're supposed to be inspired to help people in places like, you know, the Congo, now, would we...?

Reminds me of something a guy named Jeremiah said a couple and a half millennia ago:

“They have grown fat and sleek... they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.” (Jeremiah 5:28, ESV, http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jeremiah+5)

Or Ezekial, about the same time:

“Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.” (Ezekial 34: 2-6, ESV, http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Ezekiel+34)

Caleb Michael Claydon

Today was the due date for Caleb Michael Claydon. Unfortunately, little Caleb was born in May, not October or November (which, as you can guess, means he was not meant to live long in this world).

Caleb was the second son that Christy and I have had born in the second trimester--too early to live outside the womb, but old & developed enough to require "something to be done." With Samuel (our first son, who was stillborn at 22 weeks), Christy had labor induced. After the delivery she had a retained placenta, which required a D&C, and then a blood transfusion to replace all the blood she lost. Obviously, losing a child is hard enough; having to spend a couple of days on a labor & delivery ward (hearing the cries of healthy infants and rejoicing of happy parents and families) while recovering from losing a child almost seemed like adding insult to injury.

This time, when Christy and I found out we'd lost Caleb, wanting to spare her the pain and agony of another "fruitless" labor, I brought up exploring "other options." You know, a nice, anesthetized procedure, one where Christy would fall asleep, things would be taken care of, and she'd wake up in a recovery room, spared the memory of a delivery, and ready to go home in a couple of hours.

Christy wanted nothing to do with it. She couldn't bear the thought of her child being removed from her surgically in little bits. While she knew Caleb was no longer present in his body, she wanted to give him the dignity of a birth, a birth as normal as possible under the circumstances.

Going through each of our pregnancies has taught me much about the depths of faith, strength, resilience, and love my wife, Christy, possesses. That was exponentially more the case with Caleb and Samuel. Her desire to bear them didn't wane when she realized they'd died. She wept, she mourned. She knew they were in heaven, and thus she was still their mother. And so she wanted to do what she could to treat their earthly, though departed, bodies with respect.

Being a father to Caleb and Samuel has also brought home to me the process of parents grieving for a child, and the issues surrounding "reproductive choice," in ways I never would have imagined had I never walked through the experiences of their births. Their little bodies were so not ready for this world outside their mother's womb; but they so obviously would have been, had they lived on a matter of weeks more in their mothers' womb. Their thin legs and tiny fingers seemed to need just a little more strength, their eyes just a little more clarity, and they would have been ready to run and draw and wonder at their surroundings, right along with their brothers and sisters.

We still don't know what caused each of these little boys to die (despite a series of tests--quite extensive the second time around with Caleb). But they did live long enough for us to get to know them, however fleetingly. Samuel was alive long enough to grow strong enough for me to feel his kicks through Christy's abdominal wall. Caleb's life was much shorter, but long enough for Christy to "see" him on an ultrasound (heart beating, legs kicking and all) a couple of weeks before he died. But God took them each home. Christy and I can look forward to meeting our sons in heaven, knowing we did our best to be good parents to them, but that their lives here were only meant to be especially brief.

What struck me the first time I saw each Samuel and Caleb, and still weighs on my soul, is that every day children the gestational age of each of my sons are aborted in this country. Routinely. It's hard to be able to express the depth of pain that causes my soul; as close as I can relate it to is the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see battlefield aftermath pictures of one of the world wars, or the pictures the GI's took of the concentration camps when they were liberated at the end of WWII. My heart breaks to think that out there many, many parents lose their children; but in those cases it isn't an act of God, but of human will. Many of these mothers and fathers may never weep (this side of eternity) for their children; but many do, or will. I pray that as many people as possible might be spared that sort of pain...

So I look forward to meeting Samuel Zechariah and Caleb Michael some day--some day when I can hold them, and they can hold me back; when I can talk with them, walk with them; and when I can know that death will never part us again. I miss them dearly; and their little lives make me treasure the four children I get to enjoy here on earth that much more.

But until then, I thank God, and my sons, for teaching me about the depths of love, and the sanctity of life, in ways I never would have learned without them.

Congratulations to the Crew!

On Thursday night the Columbus Crew won the Eastern Conference Finals, and won their first trip to the MLS Cup Final (the championship for Major League Soccer in the U.S.A.).



As a Columbus native, and a supporter of the Crew since their inception in 1996, it was a great moment to see the Crew finally break through and make it to the final game. (For those not familiar with the history of the Crew, the three prior seasons were losing ones, with the Crew finishing out of the playoffs. Even in their prior, more successful seasons, the Crew faltered in the playoffs. Four times they lost in the game before the final; and in 2004, despite the best regular season record, the team lost to New England in the first round of the playoffs.)


What has been particularly delightful about this season is that the collection of players who comprise the team is actually an admirable bunch of men. Despite a collection of high quality players, big egos don't seem to dominate the team. When team captain Frankie Hejduk (a regular for the US National team) had to sit out a game in September, he came early to the game to tailgate with the fans, and cheered on his teammates sitting in the "Nordecke" (the section where the most ardent, and vocal, fans sit).


Many players came to the Crew, at least in part, because they preferred to raise their children in a city like Columbus. Guillermo Barros Schelotto is a veritable superstar in South America (he's as recognizable there as someone like Brett Favre would be in the U.S.A.), yet is universally described by fans as polite and cordial by anyone who meets him in a coffee shop or store. While he likely enjoys having the relative anonymity of being with his family in Columbus (as opposed to Buenos Aires), he certainly could chose to snub anyone who comes up to him and pretend to not be who he is. And forward Alejandro Moreno seems to be not only the team's goodwill ambassador (a Venezuelan native who came to the 'states to go to college, he's the team's unofficial interpreter for new Latino players), but also the consummate family man. One of the most heart-warming moments of the season for me was seeing Moreno after the July 5 game against Chicago, sitting on the field enjoying the fireworks display with his five year old son.


Congratulations, Crew! It's great to see such an admirable bunch of players reap the reward of their hard work.

Thank you to all veterans

Just a quick note on Veterans Day (or Remembrance Day/Armistice Day for those in Europe) to thank everyone who has served honorably to keep others safe and free.

Frank Buckles is the last living American who served in the "War to End All Wars;" [ http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/09/world.war.one.memorial/index.html ] the armistice that ended that war happened 90 years ago today. Unfortunately, given human nature, rather than ending all wars, history has taught us that the way the peace after WWI was handled sparked the even bloodier WWII.

Let us remember those who served and those who gave their lives to keep us free. Let us also remember that poor conflict resolution only lets hatred and resentment simmer, and creates even worse conflict in the end; that punishing whole nations for the foolish actions of a leader prepares the soil for even worse leaders; and that we need to always stay on guard against would-be despots.