Category: The Adventures of JB

Tomorrow my niece and nephew are supposed to be having a birthday party, but unfortunately it’s been cancelled because bad weather is keeping my parents and I from traveling there [1].

In preparation for this visit I got the normal items (cards and presents) but knew one more thing had to be done.

Mr. Tickle Monster had to wish them happy birthday.

I’m not necessarily sure how this began, but sometime during my first furlough in 2009 while playing with my niece I came up with the ingenious idea of bringing my thumb up to meet the hands four remaining fingers to create something that looked like a mouth.  Of course this resulted in chasing her around a room, and often tickling ensued.

His original name was “tickle monster” but we eventually decided on “mr. tickle monster [2].

My nieces love of mr. tickle monster continued to grow as he always had a habit of showing up during my Skype chats with them from Australia, or in pictures I took of myself while there.

During my current stay in the States my nephew has also learned to enjoy mr. tickle monster though his response is different from hers [3].

So last Friday I created a video of myself along with mr tickle monster saying happy birthday; think the worst ventriloquist act or stand up comedy routine you’ve ever seen, and you will get the general idea.

Editors note: Just in case your interested in getting a copy of this video forget about it. The only two in existence are with me and my brother who will play it for them (but may be willing to sell it to the highest bidder).

Okay now for the big question…what in the world does the tickle monster have to do with returning to Melbourne?

Just that God gives each of us different gifts and talents (for instance I can entertain children and create ridiculous looking videos). And each of those are meant to be used for His Glory.

To take this gift of connecting with children and not use it would be like the parable Jesus told about the servant who buried a coin his master had given in the sand instead of using it wisely.

So I look for ways to use this gift in the States and Australia (sometimes using mr. tickle monster [4]). And practice that connection so the Lord will be honored by its involvement in ministry.

Don’t worry you won’t be seeing mr. tickle monster in any of my sermons or Bible studies. But rest assured he will be ready to control a group of rowdy children 🙂

January 22, 2015

Dearest Friends,

As the Visa process continues one of my prayers is that the Lord will allow me to become involved in short-term missions work until it’s completion.

God chose to answer that prayer in a unique way as I met a professor from Piedmont International University while walking to dinner at Church on a Wednesday night.

She explained that they needed someone to teach two classes in Chittagong, Bangladesh on January 13, and asked if I would be willing to do it.  I agreed so soon all my time was focused on Christology, and Classic Christian Literature classes.

A  few days before the trip however I received an email saying that the classes would have to be canceled .

The reason for this is a rival political group in Bangladesh had setup a roadblock in Dhaka (one of the Countries largest cities) and weren’t letting anyone through.

This would make it impossible for my students to come from the Northern area of Bangladesh to the south where our classes would be held in Chittagong.

Obviously this was disappointing, but of course the students safety is the most important thing.  The class has been rescheduled for June 2015 if I’m still in the Country

The blessing is I now have the material for two classes that can be used for discipleship or evangelism (The Christology class in particular).  I cannot help but believe the Lord had another purpose for creating these lesson plans so I’ve begun praying that He will give opportunities.

1. To teach the material in short-term missions trips overseas
2. Teach it as modules or messages in local Churches
3. Use material for one on one discipleship
4. Use material for Bible studies with unbelievers
5. Or offering it in an on-line format

Please pray the Lord would allow me to share with others our great need for a Redeemer

With Love,

John Wilburn

As a child I loved to read books. What began with The Great Cookie Thief (a classic children’s book), and Paddington bear (my first real chapter book) continued as I devoured the Hardy Boy Mysteries [1], and Chronicles of Narnia.

Today that love for reading manifests itself with the number of book I’m reading that could be referred to as “Epic-Fiction [2].” Think things like the Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit with plenty of adventure and complicated storylines.

While I will probably never stop reading epic-fiction, my heart was challenged the other day by just how many books on my kindle fit into that category

Actually it wasn’t so much the huge amount of fiction in the list that bothered me, but the small amount of books that dealt with political or social issues that people face on a daily basis.

The truth is most of us read to escape the stress or drama of life. After a long day it’s incredibly fun to imagine myself riding into battle with Aaragorn and Legolas, or hleping Sam and Mr. Frodo enter Mordor [4].

There is definitely a place for books like this in our library, but books cannot just be used to escape reality…they must be used to challenge our thinking.

The sad fact is we live in a broken world that constantly tries to find hope or fulfillment outside of God. Even worse than this they don’t realize man cannot fix these problems since He is broken [5] as well.

It’s the responsibility of Believers to develop and share a worldview that takes this brockeness into account. And of course that involves saturating our minds with Scripture, as well as books written from a Christian perspective.

Books that Have Challenged My Thinking:

1. Conviction to Lead: By Albert Mohler
2. Men People are Big and God is Small: Ed Welch
3. Is God Anti-Gay? Sam Alberry
4. Soul Virgins: Doug Resenau
5. Mere Christianity: CS Lewis
6. Manhood Restored: Eric Mason

I thought about this responsibility while reading Ben Carsons latest book One Nation that had a very different affect on me than the epic-fiction books.

1. It convicted me over my lack of knowledge
2. It challenged me to further my education
3. It clarified the dangers our Country faces
4. It destroyed some of my excuses for not doing more

In other words it changed my way of thinking.

If we as Christians are going to display a Biblical worldview the habit of reading books that change our lives must be revived [6].

For me that means saying goodbye to my beloved fictional characters and wrestling with the challenges of a broken world.

Oh don’t get me wrong I will still join them every once in a while in defending Helms Deep or rescuing a fair maiden. But it’s important to fight the battles of reality first.

A big part of Missions [1] and ministry in general is a willingness to help those in need with an attitude of humility. Experience has taught me many times that connecting with others in love has great power.

However there is a small amount of people (lets say 15%) who you won’t be able to make happy. And learning how to deal with those people in an attitude of humility is also a huge part of ministry.

One of the ministries I’m involved with is computer tutoring once a week at a local library where students can use desktop computers provided by library staff. We were going over some basic Microsoft Word commands when I noticed one of the students was getting very angry.

Somehow her computer had been set up in way that kept the ribbon (part of Word where you find basic commands like save or print) from being viewed properly. When she moved her mouse near the area of the ribbon it would appear, but the moment she moved away it would disappear.

Obviously this made completing commands on her computer quite difficult so I don’t blame her for getting frustrated.

For the rest of class we tried everything to fix the problem:

1. I attempted to find a way for the ribbon to be viewed properly
2. Brought in two other library personnel to work on it
3. When they couldn’t fix it I offered to get her another computer
4. When she wasn’t interested in doing this I apologized, and promised it would never happen again

Now for 85% to 90% of people, that would have taken care of things…but not with this woman

1. She sighed deeply
2. Complained about how she hated that computer
3. Rolled her eyes when it wouldn’t work properly
4. And finally folded her arms and refused to attempt the work

The first three times she did this I apologized again and explained there was nothing we could do to fix the problem. Eventually though I stopped trying to apologize because nothing was going to make her happy (except for fixing her computer which we couldn’t do).

Sadly there are people in the world who you just can’t make happy. The easiest thing to do in this situation is either completely ignore them (like I did) or get angry with their unfair demands.

The flaw with ignoring people you can’t make happy is they quite often refuse to be ignored. And obviously getting angry damages our Christian testimony, so instead we must approach them with love and humility.

While I definitely don’t have all the answers about dealing with these kinds of people, here are some things that computer class taught me about showing them love.

1. Make sure you understand what the real problem is (they are usually upset about other things going on, and that experience is just what sent them over the edge)
2. Explain that they aren’t the only ones with that difficulty (there were at least three computers in the room with the same problem, but the others didn’t complain about it)
3. Ask how you can help (“Okay I think we understand the problem, now how do you want me to fix it?”)
4. Be calm and gracious at all times refusing to raise your voice
5. Make sure you understand what they are saying  (“Alright it seems like your angry because we aren’t working hard enough on the problem is that right?”)
6. Try to look at it from the persons perspective  (She may have felt disrespected because we weren’t trying hard enough to fix it in her mind)
7. Make sure she understands your perspective (Only focusing on her means I am ignoring six other students)
8. In a spirit of humility ask for clarification  (“I’m sorry I have a hard time understanding why your so upset about the computer not working properly. If you could help me understand why this is so important to you I think we could come up with a solution.”)

Of course there comes a time when you must step away from people who refuse to be happy, but in my opinion that should be our last resort.

Sadly there are people in this world who are looking to complain or pick a fight with someone. While we aren’t called to give them complete control over our lives, it’s important to remember God calls us to love them.

The day after Christmas I went for a five-mile run up the road near my house. There were two reasons for this.

1. It gave me a chance to try out the awesome new Garmin running watch I got for Christmas
2. I was able to evaluate just how “out of shape I was” (It took a few steps to find out the answer was “A LOT”)

So as January began I started focusing on getting back into “running shape.”

Since the new year is a time when everyone wants to get in shape, some of my friends will approach me with questions about fitness or exercise. One of them told me last week about her desire to start walking since it would lead to weight loss.

While my friend was right about this, it was my responsibility to share with her a deep dark secret about exercise. One that would dramatically change the way she viewed fitness.

As a public service I’m going to share this secret to all of you, however I won’t be held responsible for your actions.

No seriously if you don’t want to know the secret just scroll down, or better yet just click that back button.

Are you sure you want to know? I mean really sure?

Okay come closer…

Closer…

A little closer…

(whispering) exercise can’t make you skinny

You can’t say I didn’t warn you

Now it’s true that walking, running, or other forms of exercise can lead to weight loss [2]. However you will find two things are true.

1. That weight will be gained back
2. You still suffer from a lack of energy

I could go into a deep explanation but basically being fit (skinny) comes from the amount of calories that you consume instead of how much you exercise

For instance if I’m eating 2,500 calories a day (national average for men is 2,640) and burning 300 through exercise (thirty minutes of exercise , 10,000 total steps a day) then 2,200 is left over.

According to an online calorie counter I would have to eat a maximum of 1,950 a day to lose two pounds a week (the first week is closer to 1,500 a day).  So that’s around 250 calories a day converted to fat, doesn’t seem like a lot I know…but trust me it adds up.

To lose one pound a week individuals are encouraged to cut 500 calories a day.  So unless you want to burn that much through exercise, then a changing of eating habits is necessary.

This kind of information can make people go crazy with diets that starve them or nutritional supplements when they don’t have to.

Are you ready for another secret?

Snacks are where you get almost all of your calories

See we shouldn’t be focusing so much on eating healthy meals (since most of them are already healthy). The real question about weight loss is “what do you reach for when your hungry at 3:00 in the afternoon?”

My core mistake over Thanksgiving and Christmas was eating junk for snacks instead of making a smoothie. It’s a proven fact that eating fruits or vegetables (especially in smoothies) will do a lot more to curb your hunger than something filled with carbs.

Believe it or not getting myself back into a healthy eating plan (when your hungry drink a smoothie) is a huge step towards returning home to Australia. For true ministry demands lots of energy, patience, and extremely hard work.

So last week I broke out the blender again and returned to my healthy eating plan (currently starting week two of what I call a three-week detox program). But this time I think I’ll really stick with it.

Because I drink smoothies not to keep myself fit, I drink smoothies so I can minister to the people I love.