Our Lighthouse!!

"Nailed it!"

Our heavily snowed upon lighthouse... 'cause we LOVE that song!!

Happy Now

2019 was a different year for us, not that we've had a year in the recent past that was "normal", but this year has left us in a new place in many different senses.

We've dealt with some new challenges, but are experiencing truths we have believed in for a long time.

Do the right thing and you will be vindicated, now or in the future, in one way or another, even if it is only peace in your spirit.

We are so thankful and blessed to be where we have been led to now and I think that Susi would agree this is a great song to summarize where our family is at the end of 2019.

Betrayal vs. Blessing

Of all the pain that can be dealt from one human being toward another, betrayal deals one of the sharpest blows.

Betrayal is not a single act; its circles are vast reaching and the consequences are often irreversible.  

Betrayal destroys trust; it severs relationships, breaks vows, demoralizes those upon whom it is rendered. Betrayal is the exact opposite of love. Sometimes betrayal can be the root cause of death. 

One of the saddest things about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies; betrayal can only be done by someone close to you. Betrayal often comes out of no where and when you least expect it. 

Our family is not immune to betrayal. But even as we've recently walked through one of the most painful seasons our hearts have known, our experiences are nothing in comparison to the multiple betrayals enacted on the Kurdish people; currently the largest stateless people group in the world.

 Our family have supported and been inspired by the David Eubank family for many years. This tremendous family live to give their lives away; being the hands and feet of Jesus around the world. The founders of the Free Burma Rangers, they are currently ministering in northern Syria to our Kurdish allies, abandoned by America. This video update from Dave was heart wrenching and convicting.

We grieve with our Kurdish brothers and sisters during this ongoing slaughter and genocide in Northern Syria. Oil is never more important than human life.

 Oil is never more important than human life. America's betrayal of the Kurdish people is a stain on our country's reputation, honor,  and position as champions of human rights & freedom. 

John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." 

 Thank you for joining us in praying for the Kurdish people and for those who bless them with their presence, shouldering their burdens along side them. May we all strive to live true to our word; especially when it's hard. 

Another excellent family serving the Kurdish people is the Dalton Thomas family, through their ministry Frontier Alliance International. This is a recent update on the false Turkish "safe zone" the American media propagates. 

He's Never Failed Me Yet

Just trust Him.

Open Letter to Kurdish People

 The following article was reposted from CNN opinion page online. 

A letter to Kurdish Soldiers from a US military wife :

03:12

Trump knew about GOP protest ahead of time, sources say

04:16

Indicted Giuliani associates have long history of being sued

Editor's Note:This article was written by the wife of a Special Operations soldier, who has served throughout the Middle East. CNN is not revealing her identity at her request. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) — Dear Kurdish soldiers,

You don't know me, but I have known of you for most of my adult life. When my military husband and I quickly married, knowing he was deploying to the Middle East to be part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I feared what he and his Special Operations unit would face when they arrived.

How bad would the fighting be? How long would they be gone? Would he survive? 

Months later, he returned and recounted to me what he could about his experience. I asked how he had made it through. He replied, "We had help. We had the Kurds."

Related Article: Ret. general: Syria pullback looks like an open door to disaster

He told me stories of how the Kurdish people in Northern Iraq supported the troops, advised them, stood by them, fought shoulder to shoulder with them in combat, and became allies and friends. And I became grateful -- immensely, unwaveringly, and forever grateful for you.

Since then, the word "Kurds" in my home has meant something. It has meant "ally" and "friendship."

There are pictures of Iraqi Kurds alongside my husband and fellow soldiers in our home. I have a coffee mug with depictions of female Syrian Kurdish soldiers on it that I proudly use to remind me of you. My children play soccer in their Kurdistan jerseys.

The Kurdish people are not nameless, faceless people across the world. You hold a place of honor and respect in our home. It's important to me that all of you know that. I owe you so much. My husband is home safe today after years of fighting and I know you helped make that happen.

But now, I watch the news in horror. I see promises broken, progress destroyed, years of hard work and unimaginable sacrifice gone in a tweet. I see allies betrayed, their faces in my picture frame. While watching the news, my children turn to me and ask if those are our friends and I say yes. They have looks of confusion on their faces.

Related Article: Kurdish People Fast Facts

I can't imagine what your families are going through. I can't imagine their fear. I can't imagine these things because for the last 17 years you have fought to help us keep an attack off our soil, and I know that has now compromised your safety. It breaks my heart.

Where I come from, a person's word means something. Our honor and integrity are everything, as I know yours are to you. To read in international newspapers that the United States, my country, has abandoned the Kurds is absolutely heartbreaking.

Hasty decisions like this have not only put your people in terrible danger, they make the situation for our soldiers there on the Syrian-Turkish border much more difficult. My husband was with you on that border not long ago and I can't imagine what our soldiers' families are feeling right now.

And it's not just safety. It's hard to imagine how difficult it is for American soldiers to hear a partner and ally's calls for help and not be allowed to answer them. It's also hard to imagine you having to turn to Putin or the Assad regime for support because you could no longer count on Americans to keep their promise.

I worry for the safety of you and your families. I worry about the instability of the region and what that could mean for the future. I worry about the thousands of ISIS fighters we worked so hard to put in prisons, and who you must walk away from as you defend yourselves. I can't imagine the threat that now poses for us all. I see the look on my husband's face when he watches the news at the end of the day. The only phrase that comes to mind is "I'm sorry."

I write you today, on behalf of my family, to say thank you for everything you have done for us. Thank you for your friendship, for keeping your word and fighting alongside us, for staying the course year after year. Thank you for keeping my husband safe so he could come back home to me and my children. You have my sincerest prayers today that you too may safely return to yours. Thank you to your families that sacrificed without you, so you could make this partnership happen.

I pray we return to your side, that we stand by you, and that this has not all been in vain.

Forever yours,

A Grateful Wife

Happy "Gotcha Day", sweet Boaz!!

Two years ago today: you officially became ours! We love you, Boaz Gaon Schurter!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

True, that.

Moving on!

God gifted us with Julie Duncan 5 years ago ... she helped get us through a bad real estate transaction. Since then, Julie has patiently PATIENTLY walked us through countless homes in Bloomington/ Normal!! 

She's toured us through homes in the country, homes in old neighborhoods, homes in the inner city, and homes in rural neighborhoods. We've toured some homes with basements Julie wouldn't step foot in, and she even helped us get our suburban out of a snowbank during the Polar Vortex!!!

Today marks the end of our journey in home searching ... We're thanking God for guiding us to our new home! Our Closing is Monday morning!!

And if Julie's attentiveness to the nitty gritty details of home purchasing was not enough (and it is!!) Julie treated our little people to new swings/ reading nooks for our fabulous new backyard!

(She also gifted them with a life supply of Ice Breakers mints: wintergreen breath mints our kids have dubbed, "Julie Mints"... after the ones she's shared with them on our many many  "field trip"/ house tours!!)

Words cannot express how much we value you, Julie! Your expertise and thoughtfulness have been a tremendous blessing to our family... We are wowed to find the "perfect" place, when we weren't even sure what we were looking for!
We're SO thankful for your friendship!!

(And a high-five to Doug and Angela for introducing us!)

Here's to the next season of adventures in the life and times of the Schurter crew!!!

"Thank you, Jon Stewart."

9/11 First Responders Bill before Congress.

Excellent, powerful example of advocacy.  This should be viewed by every American.

'Way to bring an often inept, sluggish, and derelict US Congress to task. 

And let's not miss how inspiring it is to see a celebrity using their platform to stand up for truth and justice. From the wife of a first responder; "Thank you, Jon Stewart."

Toxic Leadership by Thom Rainer

Repost from OCTOBER 1, 2014 

FOURTEEN SYMPTOMS Of Toxic Church Leaders

By THOM S. RAINER

Most church leaders are godly and healthy. A toxic church leader, one that is figuratively poisonous to the organization, is rare. But it is that church leader who brings great harm to churches and other Christian organizations. And it is that leader that hurts the entire cause of Christ when word travels about such toxicity.

In my Monday post, I noted the traits of long-term, healthy pastors. I now travel to the opposite extreme and provide symptoms of the worst kind of church leaders, toxic church leaders.

1. They rarely demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit. Paul notes those specific attributes in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. You won’t see them much in toxic leaders.
2. They seek a minimalist structure of accountability. Indeed, if they could get away with it, they would operate in a totally autocratic fashion, with heavy, top down leadership.
3. They expect behavior of others they don’t expect of themselves. “Do as I say, not as I do.”
4. They see almost everyone else as inferior to themselves. You will hear them criticizing other leaders while building themselves up.
5. They show favoritism. It is clear that they have a favored few while they marginalize the rest.
6. They have frequent anger outbursts. This behavior takes place when they don’t get their way.
7. They say one thing to some people, but different things to others. This is a soft way of saying they lie.
8. They seek to dismiss or marginalize people before they attempt to develop them. People are means to their ends; they see them as projects, not God’s people who need mentoring and developing.
9. They are manipulative. Their most common tactic is using partial truths to get their way.
10. They lack transparency. Autocratic leaders are rarely transparent. If they get caught abusing their power, they may have to forfeit it.
11. They do not allow for pushback or disagreement. When someone does disagree, he or she becomes the victim of the leader’s anger and marginalization.
12. They surround themselves with sycophants. Their inner circle thus often includes close friends and family members, as well as a host of “yes people.”
13. They communicate poorly. In essence, any clarity of communication would reveal their autocratic behavior, so they keep their communications unintelligible and obtuse.
14. They are self-absorbed. In fact, they would unlikely see themselves in any of these symptoms.

Yes, toxic leaders are the distinct minority of Christian leaders. But they can do harm to the cause of Christ disproportionate to their numbers. And they can get away with their behavior for years because they often have a charismatic and charming personality. Charming like a snake.

Do you know of any toxic church leaders? Do these symptoms seem familiar?

photo credit: Daniel Y. Go via photopin cc

Good Friday reflection... USA Today Opinion re-post

Photo: World Relief 

OPINION

This Good Friday, remember the Christians who aren't allowed to take refuge in the US

---

This Good Friday and through the year, we must be advocate for those who are powerless in the face of torture and persecution because of their faith.

TIM BREENE  |  OPINION CONTRIBUTOR

5:00 a.m. CDT Apr. 19, 2019

Today, as Christians remember the torturous crucifixion of Jesus Christ at the hands of the Roman empire, we should also be mindful of the many around the world persecuted for their Christian faith.

Tragically, 245 million Christians — one out of every nine Christians globally — live in countries where Christians face persecution, usually at the hands of governments. Last year, an average of eleven Christians were killed daily for their faith in the fifty countries on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List for high levels of persecution for Christians.

As someone who grew up in Belfast in the ’60s and early ’70s, violence motivated by religion is something I am all too familiar with. And it’s one of the reasons why, as CEO of World Relief, I advocate for the persecuted on a daily basis. 

Last year, the Trump Administration held the first Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, which convened a broad range of stakeholders, including foreign ministers, international organization representatives and religious leaders, to identify concrete ways to combat religious persecution. Secretary of State Pompeo, who hosted the event, called the protection and promotion of international religious freedom “a top foreign policy priority.”

It’s inexplicable, then, that the State Department’s Refugee Resettlement Program has all but shut the door on persecuted Christians and other religious minorities from several of the countries where they face the most severe restrictions on religious freedom.

Last year, the administration set the refugee ceiling for FY 2019 for an all-time low of only 30,000 refugees. This is less than half the cap of 70,000 set by President George W. Bush following the September 11 attacks. And it is significantly less than the admission rate under President George H.W. Bush, who set the ceiling between 125,000 and 142,000 each year of his administration. 

The cuts come at a time when the number of refugees around the world is at an all-time high of 25.4 million.

Our proud history means nothing now

At the mid-point of the current federal fiscal year, just 12,151 total refugees have been admitted into the U.S. for resettlement. This includes only five self-identified Christian refugees from Syria and only 41 from Iraq – countries where Christians are at risk of genocide. From the fifty countries on Open Doors’ World Watch List for persecution of Christians, just 2,263 Christian refugees were allowed to arrive in the first six months of the fiscal year, on pace for a decline of 73 percent compared to just three years ago. In FY 2009, the last year George W. Bush established the refugee ceiling, more than 30,000 Christian refugees came from the fifty countries on that year’s Open Doors World Watch List; this year, if nothing changes, the number of Christian refugees from countries on the current list for countries where Christians face persecution is unlikely to reach 5,000. 

And while the State Department’s Refugee Admission page continues to boast that “The United States is proud of its history of welcoming immigrants and refugees” and will “continue to prioritize the admission of the most vulnerable refugees while upholding the safety and security of the American people,” other wills seem to be prevailing. In particular, the administration’s policies seem to be largely influenced by the views of Stephen Miller, whose reported response to concerns from others within the administration about the decline in the resettlement of persecuted Christians was that he “would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched American soil.”

We need to advocate for the powerless

Surely there are more than 12,151 vulnerable refugees whose admission to the U.S. would not put Americans’ safety in jeopardy. You have to go all the way back to the 1970s, in fact, to the era when I was still in Belfast, to come up with a single case of an American citizen who was killed in a terrorist attack perpetrated by someone who came to the country as a refugee.

It’s not just Christians who are being shut out, of course: Just nine Yezidis had been allowed in at the midpoint of the year, and no Jewish and Zoroastrian refugees fleeing the brutal government of Iran had been allowed to the U.S. It’s hard to be sure if these dramatic shifts are the intentional result of a policy to limit all refugees, or collateral damage in an equally troubling effort to particularly restrict Muslim refugees.

What is clear is that, on this Good Friday and throughout the year, we should be advocating for those who are powerless in the face of torture and persecution because of their faith. We must insist that the U.S. once again offer safety and religious freedom to some of the globe’s most persecuted religious minorities.

Tim Breene is CEO of World Relief.

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