i am going to be out of town for a few days. hopefully i will return unharmed. I have rented a cabin with 15 of my friends. too bad the cabin only sleeps 10, and has but 2 bathrooms. so if you dont hear from me for a while you may want to send out a search party or gather up some bail money. so enjoy your labor day weekends! i plan to relax and enjoy mine!! i will have pics and stories when i return…

Eric’s journey from Colorado Springs to Chicago 8/25/06-8/26/06
Quick summary/preview before reading:
Friday 445am awake early to send off the first of 30+ people I would say goodbye to from MTI
300pm – arrive at Colorado springs airport
310pm – see 10 people at the airport that I already said goodbye to
315-830pm entertain myself (and a few others) in the airport
830 flight finally leaves for dallas (on different plane than originally intended)
1015pm arrive in Dallas
1200am check in to hotel
400 am return to Dallas airport
615 leg 2 finally returning to Chicago

total journey = 19 hours, 1,600 miles traveled original plan = 8 hours, 1,600miles
if I had driven/hitchhiked = 15hours, 1,050miles

For the sake of time I will jump right into the story with me already at the Colorado springs airport, after saying goodbye to a few other missionaries whose flights were also delayed. You should also take note that my flight was scheduled to leave at 519pm. Around 5 pm a storm rolls through and it rains pretty hard for about 10 minuets. We are informed from the dirty mustache toting male flight attendant (he was very polite and nice but I felt mildly uncomfortable around him, lets just say I wouldn’t trust him to babysit, nor ever be alone in a room with him) that the plane we are waiting on to board for Dallas had to land at a nearby airport in order to refuel and wait out the rain. Somehow this refueling trip takes nearly 3 hours with dirty-stash man giving updates every hour or so that make no sense. I will summarize some of my favorites: 1) the plane has refueled and we are just waiting on paperwork for them to depart to here; 2)the airport they are at relies on 2 cell phones for communication, one of them has a dead battery, 3)we are not sure when the plane will be arriving, but we think it has taken off. 4) the computer says it has landed here, but we don’t see it, however, we have a back up plan: if this other plane gets here first we will load it up, but we don’t have a crew to fly it 5) believe it or not we are ready to board Needless to say, I was easily able to keep my sense of humor during the whole debacle. For the sake of time I will move on. But if you would like I more humorous details let me know. While on ground, I wasn’t crabby, but I was very unsure why God would want me to go through a waste of time like this. I was trying to think of reasons, so I started to look around, maybe God wanted me to talk to one of these people as we sleep in these uncomfortable airport lounge chairs, maybe God wants me to show others how to remain content and happy in a bad situation. Shortly after we took off I the pilot makes an announcement drawing everyone’s attention to look out the left side of the aircraft at two “pretty active cells, and you will see some good lightning”. Fortunately I was on the left side and had a great seat for the electric show. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. After a couple minuets the pilot gets back on the mic and says they are going to turn off all the lights in the cabin, and if people could turn off their reading lights everyone will see the lightening even better. So now almost everyone on the plane (which was half empty) is on the left side staring out the window. It is difficult to describe how powerful a lightening storm looks, but it gave me goose bumps. If you can imagine one of those goofy looking static electricity globes at the museum where you put both hands on it and it makes your hair stick up. Now take that image and magnify it a thousand times. Magnify it to God size. The entire sky was constantly lighting up and flashing, huge dark thunderstorm type clouds being light up for thousands of miles around. Large jagged bolts jutting within this ball of cloud and energy. Uh-mazing. So I sat there in complete awe of how awesomely powerful God is. To think He has all this power at his “fingertips” (side note: isn’t it funny how we try to describe God using weak human attributes) but at the same time He has the gentleness to know every detail of my life and has counted every hair on my head. There was never a doubt or fear in my mind of any danger from this unmatchable powerful display; for though I do not know what the future holds, I know who holds the future. Back to the plane – there I am now with tears welling up in my eyes, goose bumps on my arms, on a plane half full of people; the majority of whom have now missed their connecting flights and we have no idea what’s going to happen when we get to Dallas. I didn’t know where/if I would be sleeping that night, when the next flight home was, or where I was going to get my next meal, yet I felt a warm assurance wash over me. I don’t know if people thought I was scared or what, but I probably looked pretty weird. I guess I am used to that, and I was kinda hoping some one might ask me why I was freaking out so I could share with them. But as usual most people kept it all superficial. The rest of the night was also a continuing adventure. After I finally landed in Dallas, 7 hours after arriving at the airport in Colorado springs, I then found myself at the mercy of American Airlines. They hooked 25 of us up with hotel rooms at a nearby comfort suites. This was nice except that we were not allowed to get any luggage we had checked. Then we all waited outside for the shuttle. A 15 passenger bus rolled up an all 25 of us packed into it. Now we were sweaty, tired, hungry, and a little stinky. But other than that there was a sense of camaraderie that had begun to develop among us. the sarcasm began to flow, and soon we all were able to laugh about this experience. The final leg of this journey was rather uneventful. Sorry this was so long; but thanks for reading it all 

So i spent today as an actual sabbath. That does not mean that i went to churc h (cuz i didnt; for the first time in years… and it was great!) i slept in pretty late and took care of some emails and other paperwork-type stuff that had been piling up in my to-do list. I also spent a while in Gods word and talking with Him. it was good stuff and left me feeling encouraged, refreshed, yet still contemplative. so i picked up a book and started reading. i found myself in my own little world reading this book as people talked and laughed all around me. Several hours later i needed to put the book down because it was almost too much info at once. i agreed very much with most of what was said,but at the same time it challenged me and made me reevaluate what people had been preaching to me for my whole life. i hesitate to praise one man too much, because i only follow one man, who also happened to be God, (i will spell it out incase you missed that = JESUS) but this author seemed to capture most of what i have been wrestling with for the past 5-10 years of my life. i really have a hard time with people who use the Bible to proove whatever they want by taking verses out of context; cuz any Biblical scholar knows you can proove just about anything by that method. the authour also went on to discuss how when you really love something you want to share it and invite everyone to see it how you do; but you dont declare your way is the best and rush to force it on others cuz you know it will scare them away. most of my life i have delt with people who make those ridiculous statements like if you dont believe “A” then you dont believe Jesus died on the cross. i never understood that jump. it is a huge turnoff to your cause. i also dont like it when people do the opposite and say that all truth is relative and “to each his own..” thats a bunch of garbage. i hope to find a happy balance between those two extremes but it also made me realize how much more i need to study Gods word. because “God has spoken and the rest is just commentary” one of my other favorite quotes thus far from the book is “Christianity is a great noun but a terrible adjective”… just chew on that for a few minutes..
p.s. the name of the book was called Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

So I decided my first real posting should be something happy. A lot of crazy stuff has been going on in my life lately, and i will get into more of that later, but right now I just want you all to rejoice with me. In case you don’t already know, I have been going through the process of raising support for my missionary journey to Mexico. It has been a long, tedious, and very trying process, with many ups and downs; which is good because it forced me to grow. Anyways, yesterday I finally got the clearance to begin the process of being “released to assingment”. Which basically means now I need to convince the headquarters that I am ready to go. They have been great to work with so far, and they are just looking to make sure I don’t run out of money. While this might not sound like a big deal it is something I have been looking forward to since God first set me apart to go to Mexico about a year and a half ago. So please continue to pray for me as we work through the final stages of this beauracratic process. Sorry this is kinda lame for my first blog, and I have a lot more i want to talk about… so stay tuned…

Welcome to the interesting and slightly disturbing mind of Eric Havinga. This is going to be an odd colaboration of thoughts regarding my life as a missionary and observations of this goofy world in which we live in. I am a disciple and servant of Christ. Currently that means i am serving in Monterrey, Mexico. I am helping a team of believers to start a church there. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, but love to travel. I enjoy all sports and outdoor activities but also enjoy a quiet night with a book or movie. I have realized much of my life is full of paradox. I enjoy spending time with family and friends, traveling, sports, and I am always up for a discussion with anyone about anything if they are passionate and knowledgable about it.
Feel free to comment, suggest, critic, or whatever, just make yourself at home. By the way.. revolve does not mean I think the world revolves around me, I realize more and more each day that I need to revolve around Jesus in order to allow my entire life to reflect him. Also revolve does not mean I think this life is a cycle or anything like that.
Enjoy….