I have been tagged by Maggie Harris. Truth be told, I was also tagged by Doug Townsdin right before I had my tonsils taken out but never played along. So here goes…Here are the rules. 1)Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. (2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

1. The most interesting One Thing to ever happen would be my 30 ft. fall from a cliff when I was an AIM student in Portugal. But since I’ve beaten that dead horse, I won’t retell it here.

2. I’m a direct descendant of Benjamin Rush. “Who is that?”, you ask. If you look on the Declaration of Independence and find Benjamin Franklin’s name, Rush’s is right above it. I could probably give you 8 facts about him easier than I can about myself. Interesting fellow! My youngest son’s name happens to be Clark Benjamin.

3. I’ve been in a couple of pretty interesting historical settings. I was in Russia in 96 when they almost returned to communism. (Dennis Wilson had me convinced it would happen and had me deciding what I’d do if they returned. It was quite the teaching moment!) And I was in South Africa weeks after Nelson Mandela was elected president in 94. As we were leaving the airport, upon arrival, the missionary that picked us up (Paul Miller and Monica Smith-now-Fox went as well) pointed out a pile of rubble where someone detonated a bomb the week before in protest to the elections.

4. This is kind of gross, but I like to snack on spinach by putting a huge chaw of it in my mouth and continuing on about my day. Kim’s not a fan of the habit, though she’s happy to see me eating my veggies.

5. I find it very interesting that my parents were converted by missionaries. The College Church of Christ in Abilene, Tx sent missionaries to Quincy Il, somewhere around 68. Really, who would target Quincy? I’m so glad they did! My oldest son’s name is Quincy.

6. James Kinnaird was my best friend in AIM (class of 90). 5 years later, he and his beautiful wife coordinated a young AIMer in Perm Russia by the name of Kimberly Blachly who would later marry me. (James’s oldest son’s name is Timothy. No, not really named after me, but I thought that piece of info would fit in nicely here.)

7. The only noticeable skill I’ve ever exhibited has been dissecting rats in biology lab at Texas Tech. Really, it was like a freaky thing. I believe each person has THEIR gift that they can do better than anyone else. I was saddened to find that was mine. I couldn’t really skin rats at parties to impress girls.

8. I used to swear I’d never be a preacher, never do mission work and NEVER go to Africa. After I had done all three I began swearing that I’d NEVER marry a super model. It worked!

I tag Kara Lane (Blachly) Olsen. http://ericandkara.blogspot.com/ By the way, my daughter’s name is Karsyn Lane. I think I’ll put their links up just in case you’d like to catch up with them. So I also tag Doug Oaks http://thedougout24.wordpress.com/, Pat Sheaffer http://sheaffersaimreport.blogspot.com/, Doogle http://allaboutcanaan.blogspot.com/, Theresa Wilson http://denniswilson.com/theresa/ , Beau Hart http://beauahart.blogspot.com/, Cheeky Susan http://cheekyness.blogspot.com/ and Clair (Maguire) Wilson http://www.gingerpixel.com/.

Happy Chocolate Day!

My sister-in-law, Kara (http://ericandkara.blogspot.com/), informed me that yesterday was National Chocolate Lovers' Day and I forgot to celebrate. I just thought the rest of you might want to know in case you missed it too.

Angie Burns

I want to direct your attention to another blog. Over at http://paigeforeman.com/blog/ Paige Foreman is honoring/roasting Angie Burns who just happens to be one of my favorite people. If you haven't already, please stop by and tell Angie why you love her. And then be sure and tell the juiciest story you know about her.

This is Angie's cheering section ready to hear her speak at the Tulsa Workshop last March.

This picture was in the same folder. I don't think Angie will mind if I add a photo of the kids.

Baseball Picks Anyone?

What's wrong with me? 3 posts in 2 days?

But the games are about to start. Oops, I just checked and the Rhillies and Rockies are in the 2nd inning. Oh well.

Phillies vs. Rockies
Cubs vs. D-Backs
Red Sox vs. Angels
Yankees vs. Indians

Who've you got?

I'm saying it will be Red Sox over Yankees and Phillies over Cubs, with the Red Sox winning it all.

Heroes? Goats? Bartmans?

Jesus came looking for me

Well, it was actually Jesús, Lupe’s brother. (Lupe is Omar’s wife… we probably need a score card, don’t we?) We’ve been praying about open doors into Lupe’s family and have only met them on a few occasions. Jesús has been by their house a couple of times. He’s rather soft spoken, but we’ve tried to be kind and let him know we’re interested in him. Though we’ve only spoken a few times, he came by Omar and Lupe’s house on Sunday looking for me. (I was in Dallas at the time.) Thus, I’m curious as to why he came by and am asking for you to be praying about Jesús. He could be coming by to ask for money or help with paper work. But we’re hoping it has something to do with Jesús looking for Jesus.

Would you mind praying that this has to do with Jesus and not something to do with me being a gringo? Thanks.

Ode to the Q

Feats of Strength.

I thought I'd post a few recent pictures of Quincy. He turned six in August and is in the first grade.
Best buds. This is Cooper Pruett the youngest son of Joe and Elaine. All three of their kids are giants.

Festavis for the rest of us! The Q and I about to have some birthday cake.

Why we love our tortillas!

Dallas Anyone?

I just happen to be going to Dallas this weekend to speak at one of our supporting congregations. Anybody going to be in town? I'll be at Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland.

If you don't speak Spanish, I suggest you come here me in the a.m. speak to the Spanish congregation. If you don't speak it, you'll be shocked at how well I do. If you do speak Spanish, I suggest you come here me in the p.m. when I speak to the English congregation. Cause if you do speak Spanish, my version of Spanish might be a bit offensive to your ears.

It will be a quick trip and Kim and Kids won't be with me. I'll probably be booked up for my only whole day there, but wouldn't mind getting to say howdy to anyone that pops by!

Some pictures

Here's a few pictures from our trip in August. There were a couple of nights on the cruise when we had to dress up. Thankfully, we had a few tuxes from Aunt Kara's wedding.

Karsyn with her cousin Kaya. Aren't they too cute.

The name's Rush, Clark Rush

The Q looks good!

Here's the family in Sitka, Alaska. You can just barely see the ship in the background.

The cousins looking good for supper. (Ethan, Quincy, Canaan and Clark)

Listening to God

Something caught my attention this morning while reading I Samuel 3. God keeps calling out to Samuel, but Samuel mistakenly thinks he’s hearing from Eli.

This leaves me with two questions: When God calls out to me, do I know it’s him or am I turning to others with questions I should be taking to him? And, how hard am I making it for others to listen to God? I’m afraid that if someone were to ask me to help them distinguish God’s will in their lives, I’d too eagerly draw on my own experiences. Thus, there’s a good chance I’d think they should go to AIM or be a missionary or become involved in house churches.

I want to be like Eli and direct them back to God.

It’s interesting now, looking back at I Samuel 3:1, to see how the story begins. “In those days the word of the Lord was rare.”

just a few thoughts

I'm probably the only one who still checks this blog to see if I've written anything. But thought I'd share just a couple of thoughts.

First, the cruise was great! I'd rather do that than Disneyland. The view from the elevator on the ship every morning was as good as I've ever seen. And the food was beyond belief. Besides all of that, Kim's family is too cool. I'm so lucky to have married into such fun.

Also, if you haven't read Dusty's blog this morning you really need to check it out. http://rustydush.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/preparing/#comments

And while we're at it, if you haven't found Rex Boyles http://www.rexboyles.com/blog/ and Craig Hicks http://craigallenhicks.wordpress.com/ on the web yet, you are missing out.

Grandma's Fornia

In just a few minutes I'll be off to the airport to join my family in Californai. Or as Karsyn says, "Grandma's Fornia, where we'll see my birthday!"

Kim and kids have been there for almost two weeks now. I can't wait to see them tonight! We'll spend a couple of nights with Kim's grandpa and then a few more with her sister Kelcy and her husband Eli. On Thursday we're having a big birthday party for all three kids. (Clark and Karsyn's birthdays or on the 23rd and then Quincy's will be on the 25th.) On the 25th we'll be flying up to Seattle where we'll set sail to Alaska on the 26th.

Doesn't it sound odd to hear of a missionary family going on a cruise? I almost feel guilty about it, even though we aren't paying a dime.

I hope the rest of you have a fun time getting back to school.

Rush Family Update (with more pictures)

July 30 , 2007

The Church in Jocotan
Yesterday was a great day in Jocotan. They invited more of their family to come be with us and to share a big meal together. (Omar is pictured to the right with his mother, Lucia, and his sister, Flor) They even invited Tim’s friend Felipe, whom they’ve met once or twice, to join us.

Because of a huge rain storm, most of the family wasn’t able to arrive until after the study time. (None have cars so they had to wait for the rain to let up before they could take public transportation.) But after we ate together, Omar took the lead in sharing communion. It was very encouraging to see him take the initiative to draw the family together, even those that might mock him for it, and tell them why we were about to share the bread and juice. Felipe really enjoyed the experience and commented how he’d like to be a part of the church in the future. Please keep praying for Felipe. He continues to study with Tim and loves spending time with our family, but drags his feet when the conversation turns to discipleship and commitment to Jesus.

Summer Interns
This summer, our team welcomed two interns from ACU. Carissa and Marcela (with our teammate, Toni, and Kim) spent two months living with the sisters in Mariano Otero. They were full-time Spanish students while involving themselves with various ministry opportunities. They spent time with each of the missionary families and most of the churches at least once. They came with great attitudes and willingness to do anything they could think of or that we could ask of them. They were especially helpful to our family as we hosted a campaign group from Alaska. As Tim was on bed rest after his surgery just before the group arrived, the interns helped Kim with some of the leg work needed to organize a couple of the days’ events and joined us during all of their free time.

Campaign Group

A group from Juneau, Alaska came to work with us for a week in July. They were led by Bruce Baird who was Tim’s roommate when they were AIM students 15 years ago in Lisbon, Portugal. The group consisted of 3 adults, 4 high school students and one very cute baby.
As none spoke Spanish, it was a new experience for all of us. Our past groups have been mainly Spanish-speaking.

We put them to work painting a house for our sister Adriana, as well as painting and cleaning in parks, serving food to the poor and visiting a children’s home. They also brought clothes they had collected to give away.

Though they couldn’t speak with those they were sharing with, it was fun seeing how communication was taking place. We gave the majority of the clothing away while we were in Mariano Otero.

The church there is well known in the neighborhood and everyone also knows that the “gringos” who come through are friends with the Christians. So even though we didn’t pass out literature or invitations to a specific event, they knew he clothing was a gift from the church.

On Sunday they joined us in Jocotan where we had somewhat of a bilingual worship time. It went surprisingly well going back and forth from Spanish to English. Both Lilian and Omar were excited to share their stories with the youth. They said that the young people impressed them and taught them a lot about being faithful, since most have known God from their childhood. But, I think the youth were more impressed by hearing from Lilian and Omar about how their lives are being radically changed by God.

Connecting With Other Churches
Though the churches each meet in their own neighborhoods, all who lead in the different groups desire to foster a greater sense of community between the churches. Through monthly leaders meetings as well as all-Church assemblies, training times and other occasions, even the more recent members of our family are feeling united to the brothers and sisters from across Guadalajara and La Piedad (3 hours away). Being a part of a larger family helps when a particular church goes through a period of crisis, such as what the church in Jardines del Valle experienced when several had serious health problems at the same time.
As with any family, when one member is hurting or struggling, the whole family is affected. This last month our brother Martin Camarena, from La Piedad, began drinking and using drugs again. This breaks our hearts as he is such a wonderful man who God uses mightily to advance his kingdom. We hate to see Satan gain ground in Martin’s life. But we’ve also been given reason to praise God as His church has reached out to Martin and his wife Rosa. We were especially grateful that Omar also offered to call Martin and give support as a Christian brother who understands because of a similar past. We see this as a growth step, as he used his unique past struggles to minister within the body. Our teammate Nancy was saying that Rosa and her kids seem more peace-filled during this crisis than in times past and it appears to be largely due to feeling connected and supported by other Christians. Please keep the Camarena family in your prayers.

Quincy’s Graduation
On the 5th of July, Quincy graduated from Kindergarten. God provided for Quincy (and our family) a great beginning to his educational experience and we do not take this for granted. He really answered all of our prayers in this area. We are curious to see how things change and how God will work as Quincy moves to a new school in September.

Almost Like New

Well, I went to the doctor yesterday and I’m almost done with the whole healing process. He told me I could begin being more active, but couldn’t do anything strenuous or lift anything heavy. Nor could I bend over. (That one is still weird to me.)


That is good and bad news as we have a campaign group arriving today from Alaska. It is good that I can drive them places and hang out with them, but bad that I can’t really be involved in the work part of it. And though I can speak more, my throat still gets sore after talking. And the leader of the group is my old friend Bruce. (We were AIMers together in Portugal over 15 years ago.) I’m sure there will be many stories that will need to be relived. Thankfully, Kim is on top of things as she’s done most of the prep work while I’ve been laid up the past two weeks. (I nominate Kim for mom and wife and missionary of the year. She’s been incredible.)

I can’t remember if I mentioned this in the comment section of the last post, but the original surgery went well (2 weeks ago). But last Monday I started coughing up blood and they ended up having to go back in and redo some stitches as well as cauterize a vein. Fun stuff.

Funny Side Note:
When we went to the doctor’s office yesterday, we parked in the parking garage and took the elevator two flights up. (Mom, if you’re reading this… go ahead and turn away now.) When we got in the elevator and the doors closed Kim was feeling silly, and lunged at me as if we were going to make out in the elevator. However, there was someone trying to catch the elevator that we were unaware of and he hit the button to open the door and ride up with us. Kim was in mid-lunge as the doors suddenly opened. PRICELESS! Kim could not stop laughing and apologizing to the guy who couldn’t stop giggling to himself and looking away.

on hold

Well, the surgery isn’t cancelled but it has been delayed. When I said I wasn’t sick; that was wishful thinking. I felt at the time that I might be coming down with the colds the kids are sharing. It’s now official: I'm sick. But, we’ve rescheduled for Tuesday which gives us a little more time to get prepared.

They’re Coming Out!

For years, everyone, but my doctor has agreed, they’ve got to come out. They are huge and do not belong there. (I’m talking about my tonsils here.) Each doctor says, “Oh, let’s try this or that thing and watch them for a while first.” Of course, that’s what the doctor in Lubbock said before I moved to Amherst. The doctor in Amherst said it before moving to Guadalajara and the doctor here said the same thing before I changed doctors. Of course the new doctor said the same thing. But all that has changed now! (Even when I was a little guy, I remember my dentist asking my dad and my dad asking our family doctor, “Are you sure those things shouldn’t be pulled out?)

The weird thing is they’re coming out at a time that I don’t FEEL sick. I am sick… or my tonsils are anyway. I’d love to go into detail, but it would only be fun to do so if we were sitting across the table from each other and I could see the look on your face.

Anywho, Friday’s the big day! You might want to keep my wife and kids in your prayers as the recovery time for an adult is quite a bit longer than the recovery time for a child. I’m not certain which way it goes for an immature adult, but we’ll find out.

Happy Fathers' Day to all you proud papas. Especially mine! And it just so happens that my dad is turning 60 today, the 18th of June. Can you believe it? 60! Click onto his link to the right and join his eBirthday party.

This is the fam at our Fathers' Day Baseball extravaganza. Kim and a few others rented the baseball rapido field and we had a HUGE day. All the kids got to bat each inning and run the bases. It was way fun.

Looks like Kim needs a Cardinal jersey for Mothers' Day next year. ...just what she's always wanted.

Quote of the Day

From Philip Yancey's book on prayer, "We who barely comprehend ourselves are approaching a God we cannot possibly comprehend (p. 48)."

Or, myself to Karsyn just a few minutes ago. "No, no punkin, we don't eat anything that falls into the potty."

Cline Paden

I just read a friend’s blog on the funeral of Cline Paden. For some time now I’ve wanted to visit with someone who attended the funeral to find out if it did him justice. Of course, how could a couple of hours of anything do justice to a man like Cline. However, my friend and teacher, walked away renewed and inspired. Sounds like he spent time with Cline.

This got me thinking about a speech I had to give at Texas Tech almost 10 years ago. The assignment was to interview someone and then give a speech on the topic of the interview. I chose Cline, though I really didn’t know what the topic would be. It didn’t matter, Cline did.

I just sat in awe as he told me his story; about his desire to do mission work. He told me about his sadness when he realized God didn’t share that vision for his life. Instead, he learned, God wanted him to help train other missionaries.

The interview probably lasted an hour and a half. In the end, I might have asked two questions. But we had a theme: The Power of One. I told my class at Tech about the power of one person stepping out in faith, doing what they believe is right. When I took my seat after my 10 minute speech, I overheard two of the cool kids in class saying to each other, “Man, I really need to do something with my life.” Ha. Cline wasn’t even in the room, and he was inspiring college kids to reach for something higher than themselves.

American Idol

Have you heard the news that Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson are going to be fired from American Idol? I have no idea if it is true or not, but that's the headline on my AOL news. The shocker is that Brittney Spears might be in line to replace Paula. Eeck.

Who would you suggest? I see the creepy guy who played Greg Brady being a good choice.

That’s What She Said

The other night, at the dinner table, I heard Kim say the following: “Clark, stop putting that fork between your toes and put it back on your plate.”



In her defense, she’s now claiming she said that last part with a smile on her face. I’ll let any of you mothers of small children make the call on that one.



Do you think Karsyn's misery is the source of Clark and Quincy's happiness?