Spiritual Journeys Today

The video below is the recording of my first performance of one of my newer songs. It is also the first piece for which I wrote the piano accompaniment. The next words you will read are the ones that I used to introduce that song on All Saints Sunday, November 5,2023.

The song that I’m about to I sing was written in memory of my friend and Brother in Christ, Stu Eickelberg. It was written a couple of weeks after he passed away. I believe God gave me the words and music as message of hope and assurance. I pray that comes through clearly. As I was creating the sheet music, I was struck by the fact that while Stu was the inspiration, the song also needed to be dedicated to that large group of people who have contributed to my spiritual growth and development. I see many of you here today. I want to thank all of you.
Stu, I love you and I miss you!

One Day I’ll Join You There

There’s a hole in my life,
Now that you’re gone
God called you away
From this life, you moved on
You’ve gone to a place,
We will all join you there
Together, we’ll live
Blessed in God’s loving care,

What’s heaven like
Ain’t nobody knows
But I truly believe
It’s where ev’ryone goes
I don’t know God’s great plan
How, what, when, why or where?
I know God’s love ensures
One day I’ll join you there

There is joy in my heart
Though you’re not here with me
For you always will live
In my memory
The love that we shared
My brother, my friend
Seeking God together
Will live on, without end

I can still see your face
I can still hear your voice
I will ever remember
Our shared fears, hopes and joys

There are tears in my eyes
And pain in my soul
One day I’ll join you there
And again, we’ll be whole
For now, I must stay
Right here, where we first met
With you still on my mind
Cause I’ll never forget

What’s heaven like
Ain’t nobody knows
But I truly believe
It’s where ev’ryone goes
I don’t know God’s great plan
How, what, when, why or where?
I know God’s love ensures
One day I’ll join you there

God’s love is my promise,
One day I’ll join you there

In memory of Stu Eickelberg
October 11, 1943 – April 28, 2023

Dedicated to all those who have helped shape my life, especially Jan.
Copyright May 11, 2023 John Lage, Jr All rights reserved.

The chorus to this song is a paraphrase of Isaiah 41:10. The Upper Room Devotional for January 27, 2012 brought it to my attention and the song came to be about in about half an hour or so.

‘Do Not Fear’

Do not fear, for I am with you
Don’t be dismayed, I am your God
I have strengthened you and helped you
Down every path that you have trod
I uphold you with my righteousness
You can depend on me
I love you, I created you
My love and grace will be with you throughout eternity

When the storms of life are threatening
I wish you’d turn to me
When your day is going wrong
I wish you’d call
I’m just a prayer away
It doesn’t matter what you say
Confide in me and I will make you strong

Do not fear, for I am with you
Don’t be dismayed, I am your God
I have strengthened you and helped you
Down every path that you have trod
I uphold you with my righteousness
You can depend on me
I love you, I created you
My love and grace will be with you throughout eternity

When the load you bear, overwhelms you
I’ll lift your heart and soul
When your plans all fall apart
I’ll make you whole
A whispered prayer will do
I’ll comfort, heal and stand by you
I will show you that I live in your heart

Do not fear, for I am with you
Don’t be dismayed, I am your God
I have strengthened you and helped you
Down every path that you have trod
I uphold you with my righteousness
You can depend on me
I love you, I created you
My love and grace will be with you throughout eternity

When you lose control, go off the path
My hand will take the reins
When the hurt is just too much
I’ll share your pain
Remember to ask me
If you do, I know that you will be
Changed by the spirit you’ll feel in my touch

Do not fear, for I am with you
Don’t be dismayed, I am your God
I have strengthened you and helped you
Down every path that you have trod
I uphold you with my righteousness
You can depend on me
I love you, I created you
My love and grace will be with you throughout eternity

Copyright February 10, 2012 John Lage, Jr. All rights reserved.

For the celebration of International Women’s Day here in Panajachel, a new T shirt design was introduced.  Written in Spanish on the front and in Kaqchikel (a local Mayan dialect) on the back, the words mean “I do believe you”. These words come from the supporters of three women who have filed charges with the local police against men alleged to be using a date rape drug on their victims. There have been attempts to sideline these cases, pushing them to the bottom of the pile, or — simply losing them.  This is a common occurrence in Guatemala. The women have endured threats, endless interrogations and delays with the hope that they will drop their cases against the seemingly affluent defendants. They are standing strong, but I have seen in their eyes how hard it is.  Two weeks ago, I was part of a group of nearly thirty individuals who stood in support of these women at a court building in Solola that is dedicated solely to women’s violence cases. Only two supporters were allowed in the courtroom because the room is so small. The rest of us stayed outside and quietly expressed our hope that these cases will finally be granted a fair trial.  I never thought this would be part of the mission work I would do here in Guatemala, but it definitely was where God asked me to be. Please pray for these women while they go through this experience, for the other victims that were too afraid to come forward and for all of the women of Guatemala who face violence every day.

Update:  The Lage Family will be visiting during the month of September! We are anxious to meet with as many of you as possible to share our stories and express our gratitude for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Blessings to all as you enjoy the rest of your summer!

Please pray for us.  We are no longer working with Project Salud y Paz at their request.  Please  continue to pray for that organization, they make a difference for the rural Guatemalans they serve.  We want you to know that while our lives have been changed by this decision, we still feel called to serve here in Guatemala. We just don’t know what that looks like right now. We are and will be okay because God walks with us each moment, each step of every day. Just as he walks with you, no matter what you say or do or believe.  That’s God’s choice, not yours and it is one of the most important truths you will ever be told.  You are a child of God and God loves you, no matter what!  How cool is that!

I have an article I want to share.  I read it a couple of weeks ago.  I think the article is very poorly named, probably in an attempt to make it fit the blog’s theme but please look past that if you can, to see the gem that it is. It touched me so deeply that I have read it nearly every day since then thanks to the alarm I set up to remind me to do so.  The article is built around several of my favorite Bible verses including my personal meditation favorite…”Be still and know that I am God”  For those of you who know me well, you will immediately recognize that the first two words contain the hard part for me because I like to talk just a little.  Even when I’m talking with God.

Here’s the article:

The One Thing Your Marriage and Family Can’t Live Without

I think the article is awesome, at least it was for me personally because as I read it, I felt that peace settle around me and envelop me like the warmest, softest Vellux blanket I ever owned.  I need to hear this…maybe everyday!  It happens nearly every time I read it! Maybe you need to know this peace that passes understanding too!

May you feel and recognize God working in your life each and every day!

John

PS I have since read a number of other things from this author, many of which I don’t agree with for various reasons but this still rocks..

I read a lot of theological based material these days.  It makes me think.  This morning I ran across this article that spoke to me.  Please take a few minutes to read it.

Living Boldly in a World of Shame

My wife and I have intentionally and dramatically cut back on gifts (aka things) to friends and family.  The reasons are partly financial as our income dropped like a rock when we answered God’s call to come and serve here in Guatemala, but we do it primarily because the vast majority of people in North America have far more things that they could ever possibly need but they always seem to want more.  Within our own lives, we fight this same battle against the desire for more things even in our greatly simplified life here in Guatemala.

The alternative we offer is the gift of our presence.  In the case of our family and friends, it is our once a year journey home to spend time with all those we love. Here in Guatemala, it could be attending a funeral of someone we never met to show our love and concern for the still living friend or relative who is hurting so badly in this moment.  It might be sending invoices to teams without whose income our Project Salud y Paz ministries around healthcare and education for the economically poor indigenous population of this beautiful country would not exist.  It might be listening to the incredible stories of faith and discipleship from those who have so little.  It’s sad to say but some do not see the value of presence, still desiring things that they can touch and hold.

There are times when what we are doing here seems to be nothing but a drop in an enormous bucket.  It can be overwhelming and it can be demoralizing.  It is then that I try to see that to the Guatemalans we serve and to those we work alongside, our presence may be just what they need and indeed may be God’s face in this world at that moment.  There are also many times when their presence is exactly the same thing for me.

The author of this article correctly understands and says so much more elegantly than me that presence and listening are sometimes so much more important than trying to identify and fix what we think is wrong.

Be “present” for someone today  As I reread what I wrote here, I was struck by the realization that the “presence” concept we’re talking about here is a lot like what God gives each of us through prayer.  We only have to choose to share.

May you feel and recognize God working in your life today and always!

John

Merry Christmas!
This is the time of year when, first and foremost, we remember the coming of God’s son, Jesus, whom Matthew 1:23 also describes as Emmanuel, meaning God with us. I believe that God is truly with us, each and every day, often in the faces of those around us! We have been fortunate enough to see and recognize this truth many times in 2017.

For us, 2017 was a good year!

Our ministry here at International Hands in Service/Project Salud y Paz is led by a new Executive Director, Kristen Rinaldi, who has pointed our organization back in a more positive direction through an attitude of servant leadership, a desire to work together in ministry with the Guatemalan Methodist Church, and recognition that each person we treat, work with and meet in our journey is a child of God. Our clinics saw and treated over 6100 patients this year with many hundreds more being seen in our rural medical clinics. We hosted 29 teams with more than 400 individuals serving as short-term construction, surgery, medical and dental volunteers this year and expect similar numbers in 2018. We need general and eye surgery teams for 2018. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Rochester could send a surgery team too? Kristen was able to negotiate a new 20-year lease with the church for the two clinic buildings we have built over the years. Considering the state of the relationship between the two organizations when she arrived, this is a major accomplishment.

We are quite pleased to tell you that we will be joined in February by Nikki Gensmer, the 6th long-term volunteer from Christ UMC, Rochester. Nikki will serve as the team coordinator for Project Salud y Paz in 2018.

We are blessed as we continue to feel God’s call to serve here in Guatemala and our work is going well. Jan has been instrumental in improving our ability to track and report on the financial status of the organization, and in assisting Kristen’s learnings about the day to day clinic operations. My work on the pharmacy system included adding a new ordering module that uses historical data to forecast the needed medications for our clinics and rural teams. We used it in August to make a med order from the US through Blessings International, which we picked up last Sunday on the other side of Guatemala City at our shipper, Vine International. John Edmund continues his high school education at Atitlan Multicultural Academy, where he also volunteers as the Director of Technology and where he wants to complete high school. A highlight for him this year was his PSAT score which was 50 points shy of a perfect score, qualifying him to apply for a National Merit Scholarship. He has started to think about college and our trip to the US this summer will necessarily include time spent looking at colleges.

We have chosen to stay in Guatemala again this year during the holidays due to high airlines ticket prices, a shortfall of about 40-50% of our fundraising goal as well as the short duration of John Edmund’s school break. If you feel moved to contribute to our coming year’s expenses, please follow this link to the instructions for donating: http://www.spiritualjourneystoday.org/how-do-i-donate/
Please say a special prayer for our friend, former Operations Director, Juan Toj and his two boys Marcos and Jason. They’ve had a really rough year with the passing of Manuela (Juan’s wife) and the loss of his job at Salud y Paz as well as some other challenging problems.
God bless each and every one of you!

Merry Christmas and may you feel and recognize God’s hand in your life today and always!

Jan, John Edmund and John Lage, Jr.

Below I’m including a Christmas song I wrote in 2011, I hope you enjoy it!
‘Christmas Only Makes Sense’
This song was written Monday morning after driving back from Indiana for most of the night. We were returning from our Christmas gathering with my family. The first two lines of the chorus came to me while I was still in bed. I got up to write them down and my wife asked, ‘Another song?’.
The premise behind this song is that somehow this whole Christmas story just doesn’t make a great deal of sense from a human standpoint, but we must assume that it does make sense from God’s point of view. God’s ways are truly not our ways! God’s love is amazing and unbelievable, yet I know for sure that he is working in my own personal life!
God bless you in the Christmas season!
May you feel and recognize God’s hand in your life today and always!
JOHN

‘Your Ways Are Not Our Ways’
In a manger born, meek and mild
Sent by God’s own hand, is the Holy Child
He won’t rule this world, with a scepter of gold
He will change with God’s love, the beliefs that we hold

We await the birth of the newborn king
Celebrate the joy and the hope that he brings
Not in elegance, not in luxury
Born to common folks, just like you and me
God, Your ways are not our ways, help us understand
Christmas only makes sense, as a part of Your plan

As the angels sing, shepherds quake
Our perceptions fall, ev’ry rule he’ll break
He won’t rule this world, as an earthly king would
He will teach us to work, for humanity’s good

When the star stops there, wise men bow
In the presence of, oxen, sheep and cows
He won’t rule this world, with new taxes and laws
Using the golden rule, our frozen hearts He will thaw

We await the birth of the newborn king
Celebrate the joy and the hope that he brings
Not in elegance, not in luxury
Born to common folks, just like you and me
God, Your ways are not our ways, help us understand
Christmas only makes sense, as a part of Your plan

Herod’s wrath is felt, children die
Out in Bethlehem, heart broke mothers cry
God won’t rule this world, using terror and fear
Preaching hope, love and peace, He’ll make the whole world hear

We await the birth of the newborn king
Celebrate the joy and the hope that he brings
Not in elegance, not in luxury
Born to common folks, just like you and me
God, Your ways are not our ways, help us understand
Christmas only makes sense, as a part of Your plan

In a modern world, it’s still true
Jesus’ birth still means, hope for me and you
He will rule this world showing love for us all
We must follow God’s Son, we must answer God’s call

We await the birth of the newborn king
Celebrate the joy and the hope that he brings
Not in elegance, not in luxury
Born to common folks, just like you and me
God, Your ways are not our ways, help us understand
Christmas only makes sense, as a part of Your plan

Copyright December 19, 2011 John Lage, Jr. All rights reserved.

This was submitted to our church’s newsletter for October 2017.

In 2013, our family traveled to Guatemala so our son, John Edmund, could be exposed to the country and the culture for the first time as he was too young to accompany us on the CUMC mission trips.  One of the memorable things for me on that trip was getting to participate in the morning devotions at the Project Salud y Paz Clinic.  They were in Spanish so I didn’t get too much out of the words, but the experience of being a part of this public ritual, with the patients literally waiting to see the doctor in the next room within hearing distance(as shown above), while the entire staff listened to a local Methodist pastor, Pastor Sebastian, lead us in hymns, give a short message, and end with a heartfelt prayer, always felt so very right.  Due to a breakdown in relations between Project Salud y Paz and the Guatemalan Methodist church, those devotions stopped in early 2016.  Jan and I continued to greet Pastor Sebastian enthusiastically whenever we saw him.  I’m pleased to say our new executive director, Kristen Rinaldi, has placed a high priority on restoring the relationship with the Guatemalan Methodist Church and she is having success in these efforts.  As a result, weekly devotions with Pastor Sebastian have begun again!  There had been 25 small Spanish hymnals in the clinic previously but they had been misplaced as things were moved around during the almost two years in which they weren’t being used.  Jan and I tried to find them, more for use by our short and long-term volunteers, as most of the Guatemalan Christians know all the hymns by heart.  We were unsuccessful but Pastor Sebastian kept asking about them.  I returned only 9 of them to him last month after finding them on a bottom shelf in the patient pharmacy, of all places.  This small and gentle man gave me a huge hug and he smiled the biggest smile you ever saw.

When we used them again for the first time, the hymn he chose was Holy, Holy, Holy.  The devotions were indeed Holy.

May you feel and recognize God moving in your life today and always!

Jan, John Edmund and John Lage, Jr.

And we are looking forward to celebrating with you soon as we will be arriving for a visit on July 12th after nearly a year of being away. We will begin in Rochester, but will also visit family in Indiana and Michigan. John is looking forward to attending his class reunion in Paw Paw, Illinois (we’ll let you guess how many years). It will be a visit filled with joy and connections.  And then, we will be returning to Guatemala on August 18th but we hope to see as many of you as we can while we are stateside.

This past year has seen many changes come to our country, to our world, and in our personal lives. It has been difficult to deal with many of these changes as they prove, at least to us, that our country is not where we thought it was. Issues regarding civil rights, climate change, immigration and healthcare makes us wonder where our current leadership is taking us. Seeing the current climate of fear and hate saddens us deeply. Yet, in the midst of it all, our family is keenly aware of God’s presence and guidance in our lives. Here in Guatemala, we live in the midst of extreme poverty, yet the people here firmly believe God will and does provide for them. We share that belief in good times and bad.

For us, some changes in the past year have been very good. Our son, John Edmund, has found a school that suits him. He has expressed a desire to finish high school here in Guatemala and, after much prayer, we have decided to do our best to accommodate this request. We have also learned that Project Salud y Paz will have a new executive director and we are praying that she will lead us in new directions that will help us to better serve our neighbors in this primarily Mayan area.

We invite you to join us in a Forum on Sunday July 23rd at 10:10am at Christ United Methodist Church where we will share how God’s call in our lives has changed us through the last 2½ years. We eagerly look forward to spending time with you. We will share more about Project Salud y Paz and how it continues to evolve to best serve the people of Guatemala. We will talk about people who work shoulder to shoulder with us, that live in conditions rarely found in the US since the 1800’s. You will hear us thank God for the opportunities he has given us to answer his call to serve. We will ask you for your constant prayers and for you to consider providing additional financial support as we have used nearly all of our non-retirement reserves during our time here. We truly look forward to your many bright smiles and warm hugs as we are grateful for the privilege to greet you once again. Please call, message or email us so that we can arrange to meet up with as many of you as possible. We look forward to seeing you very soon!!

Jan, John Edmund and John Lage, Jr.

Yesterday was Father’s Day in Guatemala, today is Father’s Day in the US.  Yesterday, my son gave me the best Father’s Day gift I’ve ever received.  It was a surprise to him on Saturday but I knew about it the day before.  How can that be, you might ask?

On Friday morning, the director at John Edmund’s school started to text Jan and I about attending the graduation ceremony for the two 2017 graduates, neither of whom we know. There was more to those texts but be patient, I’ll get there eventually.  He asked us to be there but not to tell John Edmund we were coming.  We readily agreed.

It turned out that this small graduation (about 100 people attended) was the best and most moving graduation ceremony any of the three of us had ever seen.  Because the graduating class was only two boys, almost anyone that might have wanted to speak, got their opportunity to do so. Because the school is an international school and teachers do come and go more than in a normal US school, these speeches included videotapes to the young men from former teachers in Spain, Canada and the US.  Three of their current teachers talked about them, as did the school director, as did each of their mothers and fathers. The graduates themselves each got to say what they wanted us to hear including a song from one of the students and a poem from the other in both Spanish and English.  Each boy presented flowers to his mother.

But none of that concerns the surprise gift (for him, because the teacher told us in the texts) my son gave to me yesterday.  He was honored as the first ever recipient of the Atitlan Multicultural Academy (AMA) Volunteer of the Year award for his work with Information Technology at the school.  It made Jan and I so very proud as you can see in this picture.

Thanks, son, for the best Father’s Day gift you could have given me!

I Love You!!!!!

In the chaos of the world these days, I have been struggling to find words to convey my thoughts and emotions in appropriate ways that don’t alienate that who may disagree with my progressive spiritual and political views.  As I thought about this earlier this morning, I remembered a email folder named favorites where I put items from my devotional sources that really speak to me.  I receive emails from at least 4 sources every day.  Recently, I haven’t read them as faithfully as I should but maybe this idea that came to me this morning will help me to revive this habit.  I am going to start posting links to these quotes and devotional materials on a regular basis on a new section of this site called “Spiritual/Devotional Favorites”.  Since my words don’t seem to be coming to me as often now, I hope these quotes inspire all of you, as well as me, to more fully embrace the spiritual habits that help us to live in God more fully.

May you feel and recognize God moving in your life today and always!

John