Wayne Rice

Let me introduce you to our fourth grandchild, second granddaughter and first child of our son Corey and his wife Janna … Layla OraBelle Rice, born Saturday night June 5. She’s beautiful of course, weighing in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces. Can’t wait to spend some quality time with her! Click on the picture to enlarge.

Layla and proud grandpa!

For more pictures of Layla, go here.

It’s hard to believe that such a small fire can cause so much damage.

A week after Easter, an accidental fire in our kitchen destroyed our microwave oven above the stove as well as one small section of our kitchen cabinets. Smoke and soot was everywhere. We didn’t need the fire department because the fire went out pretty much on its own for which we are grateful. What we needed was someone to help us clean up the mess and figure out what to do next.

I called my insurance agent who encouraged me to call a contractor who could help us restore our kitchen to its pre-fire condition. Our insurance would cover it, he said, less the deductible of course.

We found a company near us that specializes in fire and flood damage. They came to our house right away and began telling us what to do. They would take care of everything, they said. To our surprise they recommended that we not stay in the house because the smoke from the fire was toxic and carried carcinogens to every room of the house. They would begin cleanup work the next day and work with the insurance company (which they do all the time) and get our lives back to normal as soon as possible. So we moved into a hotel about 20 miles away from our home. It was the only one we could find that had rooms with a kitchen so we could cook our own food. We are calling it our “homeless shelter.”

That was almost a month ago. I’m not going to mention any names or say anything negative here about restoration companies … but so far this has been one of the most discouraging and frustrating experiences of my life. It appears that Marci and I will be staying in this hotel for another … month … maybe longer? We don’t know. Our lives have been turned upside down, all our earthly possessions (furniture, clothes, other personal property) are in a storage warehouse somewhere (presumably being cleaned), our kitchen has been torn apart and must be remodeled, the walls throughout the house are dirty and must be repainted, and we have no assurance at this point that the astronomical costs of all this will be covered by our insurance.

Obviously, this is a story that is unfolding and we’re expecting a happy outcome. While we are feeling very inconvenienced and faced with decisions and difficulties we never imagined, we are trying to remember that we are all OK, our house is still standing and with the help of God, we’ll get through this. When I think about all the folks we know who lost their homes in the fires here a few years ago (or have had to endure all kinds of natural disasters), I realize that we don’t have that much to complain about.

Yesterday was a good day. Our church (College Avenue Baptist in San Diego) held its first “unified” service, a bold attempt to bring all the generations together in worship and by all accounts it was a wonderful success. God’s presence was obvious in the service and our pastor Carlton Harris preached a very encouraging message on trusting God in trying times.

Well, actually it was another bluegrass Easter at our house this year, but a major earthquake in Baja California (Mexico) had things “all shook up” for a few seconds. It happened while our band was playing the Cherokee Shuffle. Everyone looked a bit startled by the whole thing but we just kept on playing and everyone enjoyed the ride.

We were blessed with another beautiful day for our annual celebration of Easter. We are so grateful that Sunday was warm and sunny (75 degrees). The next day (Monday), a cold front came through and it rained all day.

This year marks the 30th year we have hosted our Easter party. Actually, we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to do it this year as we had some serious damage around our house from winter storms.  But we finally decided to give it a shot about three weeks before Easter and it turned out to be one of the best ever with the earthquake adding an exclamation point to the festivities. He is risen indeed!

For more pictures, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wayne_rice/sets/72157623667669379/

My new book Generation to Generation was  released a couple of weeks ago by Standard Publishing. I just got my copies and I’ve been handing them out to family and friends like a new father handing out cigars. Writing a book and childbirth have a lot in common I think. The process is painful but when it finally comes out, it’s beautiful and there are smiles all around. I thought the cover design on this one was especially nice … thanks to everyone who contributed input on that a few months ago.

This book is for parents who want ideas and help for passing their faith on to their children. It expands on the content of a parent seminar which I created for HomeWord a few years ago. I’m grateful for the very nice endorsements printed on the first page of the book from Jim Burns and Dr. David Jeremiah.

If you would like to buy a copy, it’s available on most book websites like Amazon.co, Barnes and Noble and Christianbook.com. I’m not selling it here on my website yet.

Since the middle of last year I’ve served as a family ministries coach (consultant) for College Avenue Baptist Church in San Diego. The church has caught the vision for becoming a more intergenerational, family-friendly and unified kind of church and they have asked me to help make that happen, particularly in regards to the youth and family ministries. My observation is that for quite some time this has been a church somewhat divided along generational lines with at least two distinct congregations—one that has clung desperately to the traditions of the past and another that has embraced the informal and edgy styles of the contemporary church. There are two services on Sunday morning for these  congregations: the “sanctuary service” and the “gym service.” You can guess which is which.

Being a divided church hasn’t worked out too well for CABC. Attendance declined significantly over the past decade and for several years the church was without a senior pastor. Many of the staff left or were let go. Four years ago the church called a dynamic new pastor, Carlton Harris to lead them out of the wilderness and as he has implemented his vision for unity and change, the church has experienced even more losses in staff and membership. While this is not untypical, it can be difficult for a church to endure.

Against this background I’m happy to announce that I have joined the staff of this historic yet historically forward-thinking church. I have been asked to serve as Pastor to Generations—a position that didn’t exist previously. I’ll be ministering to parents and older generations in the church, while at the same time providing visionary leadership for the middle school ministry, which has always been my heartbeat. I even have a new office at the church with a big picture window! The church wants to do a better job of serving youth and families and connecting the generations, something I’ve been speaking and writing about for the past twenty years. So this seems like a perfect fit for me, a chance to put my words into practice. The church is only a few miles from my home so we don’t have to relocate and the job is part time for now, allowing me to continue conducting parent seminars, playing bluegrass music and pursuing some of my other interests.

It’s definitely going to take some time for me to learn how to be on a church staff again (I haven’t done that in, well, decades), so I’m certainly going to make a few mistakes. I’ve already made some. But along with the struggles that CABC has experienced in recent years, I’ve felt some positive momentum just in the last few weeks that I have a hunch will blossom into something really special, a significant piece of what God wants to accomplish in San Diego. I’m excited about this opportunity.

Marko, Nate and me

I went to Junior High Winter Camp at Forest Home last weekend with the middle-school group from College Avenue Baptist Church. It has been a long time since I’ve bunked down with a group of middle-school boys as a cabin counselor. Other than being seriously sleep-deprived, I had a wonderful time. The camp was packed with kids (not sure how many but my guess would be around 500 kids and their leaders). We also had some spectacular winter weather–torrential rain on Friday, hail on Saturday, then snow on Sunday morning. The kids loved it.

The highlight of the weekend for me was being able to watch our son Nathan in action. He is the junior high director for Forest Home and besides planning the program, supervising the staff and solving problems that come up, he is a terrific up-front person who leads most of the meetings and activities. I had his job some 40+ years ago and never did it so well. I am so proud of him.

The speaker for the weekend was Marko (Mark Oestreicher), an old friend and the former president of Youth Specialties. Even though I’ve always known Marko for his expertise and experience in junior high ministry, I  don’t think I’ve ever heard him actually speak to junior high kids. He did a great job. He’s obviously very comfortable with them and the kids connect with him easily. The boys in my cabin group had lots of good things to say about what they learned from Marko’s teaching.

Alas, I woke up Monday morning with a cold. It’s great to be back doing youth ministry again!

OK folks, I’ve written a book which will be published later on this year … part memoir, part youth ministry rant … and the publisher has suggested this cover design. There’s still time to change things, so your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Everything is up for grabs … concept, images, title, subtitle, etc. … so tell me what you think works and what doesn’t. Thanks!

(click on the image to make it bigger.)

When I was editor of Youthworker Journal many years ago I conducted a phone interview with the late priest Henri Nouwen for an issue we were doing on personal spirituality (spring 1993). I recently found the mini-cassette of that interview tucked away in a desk drawer and thought I’d make a digital copy of it since old cassettes tend to deteriorate over time.

You can listen to our conversation below. It took place about a year after Marci and I (and six other friends) spent a week with Henri at his residence in L’Arche Daybreak near Toronto, Ontario, Canada in December 1991. We talked a little bit about that time together at the end of the interview.

The topic of this particular interview is prayer and in the magazine we titled the article “Gazing at Jesus: A Conversation with Henri Nouwen.”

While this interview was edited for the magazine article, no editing was done on these audio recordings. I did however break it into four segments. They vary in length, from about seven minutes to more than thirteen. Only the first question is indicated below.

After listening to this 15-year-old conversation again, I am re-challenged to shift some priorities in my life and spend more time with God in prayer. How about you?

If the mp3 audio player is not displaying or functioning properly below, just click on the links and you will hear the interview in your Quicktime or Windows Media Player.

Segment One: “Why is prayer so important?”

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Segment Two: “How do you ‘listen’ to God when you are praying?”

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Segment Three: “What is contemplative prayer?”

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Segment Four: “What is a spiritual director?”

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I received a letter today from Compassion International which is posted below because God may be leading you (as he is Marci and I) to reach out to help the thousands of people who have been impacted by yesterday’s earthquake in Haiti. I have great confidence in Compassion and the good work they do. Anything you or I do to help will be put to good use by the good folks at Compassion.

Years ago I made a trip to Haiti with Tony Campolo and my understanding of poverty was deepened considerably. Never before had I seen such widespread suffering. I can only imagine now what this disaster has done to the people of Haiti and the mission organizations who have been working over the years to serve them. Let’s keep them all in our prayers and if possible, give to help bring some relief.

The text of the letter:

The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.

Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.

I am asking you to please send a generous gift today to help these precious children and their families.

We are working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:

* Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
* We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
* We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.

We need your donation today. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.

Thank you for caring,
Mark Hanlon
Dr. Wess Stafford
President, USA

P.S. If you would like to give by phone, please call us at (800) 336-7676. Check donations can be mailed to: Compassion International, Colorado Springs, CO 80997.

Well, the news is out about the future of Youth Specialties and I’m happy to report that it’s very good. YouthWorks, the Minneapolis-based ministry that purchased YS from Zondervan a couple months ago has re-hired Tic Long to come back in and lead the organization. I wrote in a previous post about the high regard I have for Tic and the crucial role that I know he played in the success of YS over the years. I’m confident that under Tic’s re-energized leadership (he got an unexpected but certainly much-needed sabbatical after his termination last July), YS will emerge from this transition with its mission and vitality very much intact. Tic sounds to me like he’s fired up and going to hit the ground running.

Tic e-mailed me recently to tell me that he was returning to YS with the subject line “God has a sense of humor.” So true. I have a feeling that God was grinning a little bit when a week or so before Christmas, I was having breakfast at an El Cajon restaurant with a youth pastor friend of mine and unexpectedly, in walked Tic with the guys from YouthWorks. We went through a series of awkward introductions after which they sat down in the booth right behind us. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about although I had a hunch. The familiar laughter that I overheard from Tic was certainly a good sign. I had been praying that something good would come of all the Youth Specialties turmoil of the last few months and in a crazy turn of events, God let me actually be in the same room when he answered that prayer. A sense of humor indeed.

I’m very excited for Tic and everyone else at Youth Specialties. It will be fun to see how God prospers YS under the YouthWorks banner.