Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for January, 2007

Saturday was quite a day.  We finally had a real opportunity to sleep in a little.  We had to meet Dana’s parents at Concord Mills for lunch at 11:30am so that meant we needed to be out the door at 10:15am.  They were coming down to pick up some antique family furniture we put in storage at a friend’s house when we sold our house in October.
We ended up eating at the Cracker Barrel next to da Mills in the not really Non-smoking section.  I won’t get on that soapbox.  From there, I explained to her parents that our friends house was only 10-15 minutes away.  So, we departed on our joyride.
An hour later, we arrived at our destination.  Don’t ask me, a demon must have possessed the steering wheel and ended up taking us on a big loop out through the country.  Naw, my sense of direction (usually dependable, ask Dana) was seriously out of whack.
After taking the necessary critical comments regarding our journey amongst the cow pastures of Cabarrus county, we led her parents back to I-485 so they could head home.  Our next stop was Target on Albemarle Rd. since they don’t make Targets out in Waxhaw.
It is still hard for us to go into a store and not come out with more than what we went in for.  We did good this time by going in for only one item but coming out with two.  Plus, while we were searching for the one, we ran into a three-generation montage.  It was a friend/partner of ours along with her delightful mother and two daughters.  I thoroughly embarrassed myself by introducing myself to one of the daughters whom I had not only met already, but who had been in the group when we went out to eat with the family a few weeks ago.  She’s even one of the only five people we know whose been inside our RV!  Is the medicine or is it the age of 30 that had me that way?!
I’ll pick this up on tomorrow’s post.

Our website has honestly gotten a ton more response than we could of even hoped for at this point of our journey. Believe it or not, the whole scheme of a website is a new venture for us. Especially with it more than likely being our primary mean of communicating up-to-date information. But, we need you. We need your feedback. The purpose of this website is to expose you as much as possible to the things God is doing in our lives. We want to be as transparent as possible so you can see God’s every McCall move even from the other side of the planet. The technology age is blessing us with astonishing abilities and we want to take full advantage of them.
So, if there is anything you’d like to see on or off the site, let us know. If there is a certain perspective you’d like to have on what happens in the lives of missionaries, send it to us in an e-mail at us@jonathananddana.com or just click on CONTACT on the main navigation bar.
Even if there is nothing you’d change, let us know what you like most about the website and what you like least. We want to hear from as many people as possible and contour content to be as effective, informative and pleasing as possible.

Please take the time just to leave us a line or two of feedback. It means more to us than you think!

I got an e-mail through the JAARS Classifieds recommending an unknown option in the world of high-speed internet service. Here’s what Jim had to say about his experience:

It is not advertised (Maybe should say I can’t find it) but Road Runner has another version called Road Runner Lite. There is a $15 price difference but for our home use is well worth it.

The High Speed Road Runner is $44.95 per month – yes is high speed
The Road Runner Lite is $29.95 per month – probably equal to a very good DSL connection.

It takes a cable to get it which Time Warner will install and they will not tell you about it but if you ask they do have it. We have had it for several months and it works very well. Most of the time there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two. The biggest difference is in sending big files but it is still satisfactory. Dial up doesn’t even compare.

Okay, since we established in one of my previous posts that I am spoiled, I now give you further evidence. Remember how I’ve been so ‘upset’ that we haven’t had bluebirds at our RV? Well, the tide has turned and God has given me the desires of my heart. Take a look at what has been showing up within a mere few yards of our RV:

It may seem like a small thing to you but birdwatching is one of our very few hobbies that will be able to be taken to the mission field. So, seeing as many of our adored NC birds before we go is really important. If you haven’t taken the time to realize how many different birds there are around you and their different ways, colors, nesting habits, songs, on and on, then you are missing some of God’s more intricate creation details.

From: Undisclosed
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:08:32 -0500
To:
Subject: [JCL] Free: 2 toilets

E-mail, or call xxx-xxx-xxxx and leave message if we aren’t there.

I know there are some of you out there who like to have ‘his and her’ everything.  These could further your collection. <>< Jonathan

Ok, so Dana and I went to Elevation Church to help with a dire need this morning.  I had an apple, cup of coffee and a microwave biscuit thingy.  By the time we left the church offices shortly after 10am, I felt an unusual sensation in my chest.  It felt like the tops of my lungs had been dipped in jalapeno juice.  I thought it was maybe a change in climate going from a warm office to a cold outside or maybe even the dehumidified air blowing on the windshield from our defroster.  Either way, the sensation persisted for quite a while after we got home.  I finally told Dana about it and she asked me if I thought it was heartburn.  I said, “I don’t know.  I’ve never had heartburn… that I know of.”  She gave me a Zantac that ended up taking care of my problem.

Heartburn is now officially one of my least favorite things in this world.  It stinks.  Oh, the days of my youth when anything could be eaten without consequence continue to consistently fade deeper into my past.  Our glorified bodies can’t come soon enough!

Do you take digital photos? If so, you have more than likely experienced what is referred to as ‘noise’ in some of your snaps at one point or another. Photography is a big time hobby of mine so finding software… FREE software that takes the noise out of them was a blessing! I highly suggest NeatImage. Here’s an example from their website of the program’s capabilities:

NeatImage is a very user-friendly program as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

They have the full program for Windows as well as a plug-in for use in Mac OS X.

It is interesting that my trip to Lancaster the other evening was much more tied to my emotional health than just what had happened with the church’s decision. My drive was to Wal-Mart in order to pick up two things: 9-volt batteries and my medicine. The batteries were for the Inter-Cultural Communications Course at JAARS. Dana and I are volunteering there as their go-fers. “I need you to go to the store fer batteries.” The medicine has way more to it.
This is one of the more difficult things for me to talk about. Not because of emotional pain, but because how God’s hand is all over it and I want to be sure to tell it with Him receiving the credit and glory for what has happened to me. The two medications are Wellbutrin XL and Cymbalta. To keep you from having to Google the names, they are both anti-depressants. STOP your thoughts and any preconceived ideas you may have about depression because a lot of them are probably false due to the lack of being informed. I know that from experience.
Let me help by saying what depression is not. It is not someone being unable to cope with life simply due to his or her lack of motivation to ‘get over it’ or persevere. It is not isolated to laziness as a root cause. It is not someone just going through a really hard time in his or her life. It is not something that will fall away once difficult times pass and the wind and the rain no longer beat on their house. It is not dependent upon a person’s ‘success’ in life with a job, a great marriage, nice things, wonderful friends, or anything else of the sort. It is not cured by success.
Still with me? So, what is depression and why am I such an expert at it? I’ll elaborate on my unfortunate qualifications further down in the post. For now, depression, definitively given the medical term clinical depression, is a physical problem. Just like arthritis. Just like high blood pressure. Just like diabetes. The difference is that the place in the body where the depression physical problem happens is also the place where we depend on our every thought. Our very control of life. Don’t forget that the brain is an actual tangible part of our physical body that is extremely sensitive. Too many concussions can cause long-term problems. Too little oxygen can cause irreparable damage.
Our brains (I think I’m going to use the term minds for the rest of the post just because brains is icky to me for some reason)… Our minds depend on certain types of chemicals in order to carry out the functions we want and need it to. It is the place where everything in our body is controlled, both voluntary and involuntary.
So, to demonstrate what is happening in the mind when a person suffers from depression, let me come up with an analogy. Have you ever used a bread machine? It is a very cool contraption that is basically a small oven with a loaf-shaped pan. In order to make a loaf, you simply add the necessary ingredients into the pan, set it in the bread machine and press a button. A few hours later you should have a nice warm loaf of home-baked bread. Well, if you’ve had any experience with a bread machine you know how sensitive the ingredient amounts are. If a recipe calls for four teaspoons of oil and you put in three and three quarters teaspoons of oil, you end up with an inedible lump of oddly mixed ingredients. The goal was a loaf and because only one little quantity difference in the equation, the goal wasn’t achieved.
That is what is happening in the mind when depression strikes. In order to deal with life, both the general routine activities and the tragedies and the moments of glee, the brain has to have the exact amount of ingredients to make it happen. If those ingredients are off, well it is a very scary place to be.
Most of the population has all of the necessary mind ingredients to process even the most difficult times of life. Those suffering from depression lack the necessary mind ingredients to process even the simplest times of life.
Also, please realize there is a stark contrast between clinical depression and what is commonly referred to as depression, or being down in the dumps, or just going through hard times. Anti-depressants are to adjust the mind ingredients to their needed quantities, not to be a quick fix for not being able to cope. Please, please, please recognize the difference.
What are some of the thoughts that roam the mind of the clinically depressed? One of the most common is a relentless desire to go sleep, to lie down somewhere that slumber can wisk one away from conscious life and the struggle to make otherwise easy decisions. The bedroom can start out as a refuge for such a person only to quickly turn into a dark hole of captivity. How captive? Mustering up the choice to walk to the toilet to use the bathroom then slide back into bed would be considered a feat. Eating? There is nothing wrong with going all day without eating or drinking in the mind of such an enslaved person. Clinical depression is a very dangerous conditions and I haven’t even mentioned the thoughts of, “Why am I even living?” You can see exactly where that could lead. Hopelessness reigns to the nth degree. If there is any hope that comes into the mind, it passes as quickly as the next breath.

Look at the physical, emotional and spiritual vulnerability. It is absolutely horrible especially since most, if not every single one, of those thoughts are lies. They are tricks. They are shackles when once clamped on to one’s wrists and ankles, pull the person deeper as if there were a solid steel ball on the other end of the chains tossed over the side of a boat with the person attached.

Those are all lies. There is hope. Truth is something you can latch on to and ride it out of darkness and captivity. This TRUTH reaches beyond clinical depression, its… His rescue spans beyond even our final breath on earth. He has provided people, places, and yes… medications to help. Used as God intended, anti-depressants can be what is needed to get the mind ingredients back to their optimal levels.
At this point, you can attach these medicines to ‘man’s fix’ since so many people use them for the wrong thing, or you can see them for what they really are. Who designed the human body? Who created everything in existence? Who numbered the stars in the sky? Who blesses scientists and doctors to even realize there is a problem called clinical depression? Who blesses them with an idea, the means and the success in fixing it? No man does this. God does it. Hope stems from Him and flows to us through many different avenues of creation.
My hope is in Him because I know where the medicine came from that freed me from the shackles of clinical depression. Not just my hope for this life being better without that bondage but that my hope in eternal life is sealed through nothing but a single act of sacrifice on His part.

This is longer than I expected yet I have a lot more to say to those who may be experiencing the captivity of depression or are close to someone who is.

Guess this is a TO BE CONTINUED… ?

I had to put this on here because of the response I received to yesterday’s ‘Lancaster Roundtrip’ post. I had no idea many of you would privately respond and do it so promptly at that. The words I read and heard were EXTREMELY encouraging so for that I just wanted to say..

You mean the world to me.

This evening, Theo and I took a drive down to Lancaster, SC, and back. Its the closest ‘city’ to us being about 40 minutes round trip. To tell you the truth, most of the trip I struggled with pain and hurt. Nothing physical, just emotional. I debated on even blogging about this because of the nature of this subject but this entire website is about our journey and I want you to have the best insight to our whole missionary deal.

Let me first explain an expectation I had that led to the strike of pain today. 100% of the finances that will sustain us and our ministry on the field will strictly come from the giving of others. To sum it up, we will need $3,000 per month in total pledges from all of our partners. We deem these ‘on-going’ financial partners versus the one-time gift partners. When we decided to become missionaries and subsequently sign up with our missions agency, the first place we looked to with hope of on-going support is our home church. That expectation began late in 2005 and its conclusion finally came just hours ago.

Our missions pastor called us on the phone to update us on the missions committee’s decision as to how they were going to support us. They sent in a one-time gift at the end of last month for us. It was a significant amount of money. There’s a good chance you may be thinking about how ungrateful I am. That is not the case and that is not what I want to communicate. I am very grateful that our church decided to give us financial support. I truly am. Unfortunately, we can’t count their gift toward our 100% monthly need because it isn’t on-going. The committee cannot commit to anything on-going with us at this point.

If you know what our home church is, and especially if you attend there, DO NOT carry this beyond me. These are thoughts and feelings on my inside but way bigger than them is a deep love and support for our church. God is on the move there and I vow to support my leaders even if I disagree or am hurt by decision(s). Be loyal.

This is a serious learning time for me because I do want to be grateful and see how God orchestrates our entire path. It is just moments like this that are hard when one of the more ‘definite’ sources of long-term support falls into the one-time gift category.

God’s got all this in check. [translated: God is sovereign. Nothing catches Him off guard.]
I just want to do the right thing. I just want to feel the right thing. I don’t want to hurt. I don’t like to feel like this. I want God to mold my perspective into what He wants it to be.