1. I always wished that I had been born on February 29th. I dont particularly like birthdays and I love the unique.
2. Also, I heard again today that the Bible says "Fear not" 366 times. I have not checked that out to see if it is true, but I do know that His grace is sufficient to cover my fears every day of the year. And, for a fearful person, the thought of leap day being covered is extra encouraging.
3. I do not know anybody who was born on February 29th.
4. God is Good!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Clueless Kids!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Tanduk Coffee...Kopi Luwak
A few weeks ago, I met a new friend named Ken. Ken roasts coffee and I roast coffee, we became fast friends. Ken is a retired Marine helicopter pilot who now focuses on serving and volunteering in his retirement. Indonesia is home to the world's most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak. Kopi Luwak is special because it is processed in such a unique way. You can learn about processing coffee by clicking here. Anyways, this coffee is processed not by humans or machines, but, no pun intended, by an animal. It is processed in the most natural of ways. Yes, straight through the digestive tract. An animal that looks like a raccoon likes to eat the coffee, but doesn't chew the seed. Therefore, after a day or so the coffee bean "reappears" fully processed. Thus, the most unique and expensive coffee in the world. (You can find it at Amazon for $100+/lb) Yep, thats right and you can join me in enjoying this bold, but mellow goodness. So, check out Tanduk Coffee and get some for yourself. And, for the less adventurous, they also sell some very good "traditionally" processed coffee. Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Ash Wednesday
In Jamaica, Ash Wednesday is a big holiday. School closes, businesses close, and everyone is on full fledged holiday. Previously, while we were in the states, Ash Wednesday would often pass almost unnoticed without much thought. But, we have come to really appreciate the remembrance. Whether it is in remembrance of Jesus' 40 day fast and triumph over temptation or any of the other 40's in the Bible, this time has served as a healthy preparation for our celebration of the cross. May we all look to the cross and remember the blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Meetings? Blessings?
We were extremely blessed this past week to host our JOC (Jamaica Organizational Committee) from the States. The week consisted of traveling to most of our ministries on the island where our church sends material aid as well as meetings, meetings, fellowship, and more meetings. It was an exhausting week for all of us, but it was blessed. Our ministry to the deaf of Jamaica is only possible through the support we've received from this group. Our sending organization, "Apostolic Christian World Relief" is doing lots of growing. You should click on the link, check them out, and then sign up for the email updates to stay current. Anyways, the "Jamaica Organizational Committee" is some of the fruit of this growth and is set up to support all of the work in Jamaica. This group of three brothers has come alongside us in very real and practical ways over the past year. We are very thankful for their hearts for the Deaf of Jamaica.Thank you John, Alan, and Loren (and a special thanks to your wives)
Monday, February 20, 2012
January update
January 2012 Plattner Family Update
It’s the middle of February and I cant think of any kind of intro to our update. I typically try for a thoughtful or quippy intro but time has got the best of me. Also, it is our best intention to write meaningful content every month for our accountability to those who care and give such wonderful support. But, with no intro and poor content, we acknowledge sending this update out as a mater of discipline and not delight. So, here is our update for the month of January in its fully sorry state.
January was full. We flew back to the island on the 3rd and picked up our first team on the 7th. The team was great and we enjoyed the fellowship of our friends from Little Rock, Arkansas. The next week was a board meeting. This means lots of traveling and lots of hosting as board members fly in for the meetings. The board members flew out just as we welcomed our second team of the year. This team comes every year from Dayton, Ohio. The team did some great work in the school and with our staff. And, in a blink, our January was gone.
Our family continues to experience profound blessing. Between our fits of complaining and extreme selfishness, we stop and marvel at God’s grace on our lives. From our children’s growth, to our marriage, to our opportunities to minister, we give thanks. We have fellowshipped with some wonderful people and have been blessed by the Body of Christ. Thank you so much for your ongoing support of our family.
Love,
Kirk, Keri, Drew, Truitt, Daisha, and Danae
Monday, February 13, 2012
A blast for the past
Saturday, February 11, 2012
The 8%
I dont repost much of what I read, but this is an exception. Below is a post written by Gabe Lyons for His son's birthday. It really rocked my world. Keri has such a profound heart for Down Syndrome and her passion has melted my heart. This article is profound and needs read by the masses.
http://www.qideas.org/blog/to-cade-and-the-eight-percent.aspx
My son Cade is a survivor.
Eleven years ago this week, Rebekah and I celebrated the birth of our first-born. Despite his Down syndrome diagnosis, we were overjoyed to welcome this new life into our family.
But not everyone welcomes children like Cade.
It’s no secret. People with Down syndrome have been targeted for extinction. In November, the New York Post heralded The End of Down Syndrome and profiled a new, safer test for pre-natal detection. Before this test was available, 92% of Down syndrome diagnoses (and many times false diagnoses) resulted in the mothers choosing to terminate their pregnancies. With these new tests, some experts foretell the end of Downs.
Why the rush to rid the world of people like Cade?
Certainly, it isn’t because his disability physically threatens anyone. Rather, Down syndrome children pose a different kind of threat to society—the in your face reminder that our aspirations for “perfection” may be flawed. People like Cade disrupt normal. Whether it’s his insistence that everyone he says “hello” to on the busy streets of Manhattan respond in-kind or his unfiltered ability to hug a lonely, wheelchair-bound, homeless man without hesitation: people like Cade bring new dimension to what normal ought to be.
I’ve been encouraged to see several pop-culture venues putting on display just how normal children like Cade—and the surviving 8%—really are.
I was surprised and delighted when I opened a Nordstrom catalog a few months back and saw a young boy with Downs syndrome posing as a model for children’s clothes. No mention or special attribution was made of it. But there he was, hanging with a few other boys, included as one of the gang. The way things ought to be.
Then again, last month, dozens of major news outlets picked up this story line when the same young model was included in the latest Target ad campaign. One father and advocate, Rick Smith, took the story viral when he posted 5 Things Target Said Without Saying Anything on his blog.
Only two weeks ago on the popular show Glee, a sixteen-year old girl with Down syndrome was portrayed beautifully. Her character showed life as a high school teenager, a member of the cheerleading squad dealing with the pressures of modern teen life. During the episode, you could hear her internal thoughts playing out as the writers took a bold step forward in portraying how it might feel to walk in her shoes.
But these public displays of inclusion are only part of how we counter the extinction of those with Down syndrome.
Why do the majority of expectant parents determine not to carry these pregnancies to full term?
Fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear that life will never look the same.
Fear that they won’t have what it takes day to day.
Fear that they themselves, won’t be accepted.
We—as humans—feel ill equipped to handle life-altering uncertainty. If we could see the future, we’d do everything we could to keep things safe. Yet it also seems that when we can control the future, we don’t do well. In the case of prenatal diagnosis, when we catch a glimpse of the predicted future, nine out of ten times we choose not to permit the adventure of life with a Down syndrome child! We buy into the utopian lie that we know what’s best for ourselves and for this world.
This is where community comes in. Mothers, Fathers, family members and friends need each other to come alongside and encourage that the Creator has a full intention for this life. To use this story to challenge our understanding of what it truly means to be human. To dispel our temptation to control, preserve order and protect a superficial version of what a perfect family must be.
When our second and third children were en utero, Rebekah and I were highly encouraged to do prenatal screenings; but we politely declined. While we knew we had the highest odds of repeating a Down syndrome birth, it made no difference to us. A life was a life. On our worst days, we focused on the fear of the unknown. On our best days, we focused on trusting God to give us the strength to parent whomever’s life we were about to be given the privilege of stewarding.
So, why should you care about a Down syndrome diagnoses? This isn’t just about Down syndrome. It’s about our understanding of the common good.
The historic definition of the “common good” is the most good for all people. But today this definition has a competitor called the “public interest.” In this presupposed progressive view, the most good for the most people is all that matters. Only one word changed but the implications are enormous. A commitment to the common good demands we value the elderly, the disabled, the unborn and those unlike us. It’s an old, rooted conception being lost on a generation consumed with progress.
We must allow life in our world that doesn’t follow our scripted narrative.
We must have the courage to choose that which is good over what is convenient.
Our fellow citizens have fought hard to encourage and protect diversity and acceptance in our society. We wear political correctness as a badge of honor; but the rising statistics of pregnancies terminated after a Downs syndrome diagnosis reveal the hypocrisy of our celebration. We see equality as sameness and diversity in shades of color. We embrace differences when they fall within our market-driven, politically correct framework but rarely when they disrupt our status quo. When a fetus is diagnosed with Down syndrome and the mother chooses not to carry the child to term, more is lost than her future inconvenience and fear. The world loses another soul in its greater body.
What would you do if you were faced with this challenge? If you had an unplanned pregnancy over the age of 35 and a prenatal test showed that your child might be a candidate for Downs, how would you and your spouse face this decision? Would you be open to a new kind of perfection? One that disrupts your current life, but that could bring a deeper meaning you’d never imagined. All this because you walked with courage into the unknown.
Cade’s life, and those like his, offers an alternative view of the good life.
These individuals alter career paths and require families to work together.
They invite each of us to engage, instead of simply walking by.
They love unconditionally, asking little in return beyond a simple acknowledgement.
They celebrate the little things in life, and displace the stress that bogs most of us down.
They seem to understand what true life is about, more than many of us.
They offer us the opportunity to truly value all people as created equal.
Happy Birthday Cade! I’m so grateful that God let us be your parents. You’ve changed us in ways we would have never changed ourselves. You’ve given us permission to measure loving kindness over productivity. You’ve offered us a glimpse of God’s grace while shattering our preconceived ideas of what is most important. We love you!
To Cade and the Eight Percent
http://www.qideas.org/blog/to-cade-and-the-eight-percent.aspx
My son Cade is a survivor.Eleven years ago this week, Rebekah and I celebrated the birth of our first-born. Despite his Down syndrome diagnosis, we were overjoyed to welcome this new life into our family.
But not everyone welcomes children like Cade.
It’s no secret. People with Down syndrome have been targeted for extinction. In November, the New York Post heralded The End of Down Syndrome and profiled a new, safer test for pre-natal detection. Before this test was available, 92% of Down syndrome diagnoses (and many times false diagnoses) resulted in the mothers choosing to terminate their pregnancies. With these new tests, some experts foretell the end of Downs.
Why the rush to rid the world of people like Cade?
Certainly, it isn’t because his disability physically threatens anyone. Rather, Down syndrome children pose a different kind of threat to society—the in your face reminder that our aspirations for “perfection” may be flawed. People like Cade disrupt normal. Whether it’s his insistence that everyone he says “hello” to on the busy streets of Manhattan respond in-kind or his unfiltered ability to hug a lonely, wheelchair-bound, homeless man without hesitation: people like Cade bring new dimension to what normal ought to be.
I’ve been encouraged to see several pop-culture venues putting on display just how normal children like Cade—and the surviving 8%—really are.
I was surprised and delighted when I opened a Nordstrom catalog a few months back and saw a young boy with Downs syndrome posing as a model for children’s clothes. No mention or special attribution was made of it. But there he was, hanging with a few other boys, included as one of the gang. The way things ought to be.
Then again, last month, dozens of major news outlets picked up this story line when the same young model was included in the latest Target ad campaign. One father and advocate, Rick Smith, took the story viral when he posted 5 Things Target Said Without Saying Anything on his blog.
Only two weeks ago on the popular show Glee, a sixteen-year old girl with Down syndrome was portrayed beautifully. Her character showed life as a high school teenager, a member of the cheerleading squad dealing with the pressures of modern teen life. During the episode, you could hear her internal thoughts playing out as the writers took a bold step forward in portraying how it might feel to walk in her shoes.
But these public displays of inclusion are only part of how we counter the extinction of those with Down syndrome.
Why do the majority of expectant parents determine not to carry these pregnancies to full term?
Fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear that life will never look the same.
Fear that they won’t have what it takes day to day.
Fear that they themselves, won’t be accepted.
We—as humans—feel ill equipped to handle life-altering uncertainty. If we could see the future, we’d do everything we could to keep things safe. Yet it also seems that when we can control the future, we don’t do well. In the case of prenatal diagnosis, when we catch a glimpse of the predicted future, nine out of ten times we choose not to permit the adventure of life with a Down syndrome child! We buy into the utopian lie that we know what’s best for ourselves and for this world.
This is where community comes in. Mothers, Fathers, family members and friends need each other to come alongside and encourage that the Creator has a full intention for this life. To use this story to challenge our understanding of what it truly means to be human. To dispel our temptation to control, preserve order and protect a superficial version of what a perfect family must be.
When our second and third children were en utero, Rebekah and I were highly encouraged to do prenatal screenings; but we politely declined. While we knew we had the highest odds of repeating a Down syndrome birth, it made no difference to us. A life was a life. On our worst days, we focused on the fear of the unknown. On our best days, we focused on trusting God to give us the strength to parent whomever’s life we were about to be given the privilege of stewarding.
So, why should you care about a Down syndrome diagnoses? This isn’t just about Down syndrome. It’s about our understanding of the common good.
The historic definition of the “common good” is the most good for all people. But today this definition has a competitor called the “public interest.” In this presupposed progressive view, the most good for the most people is all that matters. Only one word changed but the implications are enormous. A commitment to the common good demands we value the elderly, the disabled, the unborn and those unlike us. It’s an old, rooted conception being lost on a generation consumed with progress.
We must allow life in our world that doesn’t follow our scripted narrative.
We must have the courage to choose that which is good over what is convenient.
Our fellow citizens have fought hard to encourage and protect diversity and acceptance in our society. We wear political correctness as a badge of honor; but the rising statistics of pregnancies terminated after a Downs syndrome diagnosis reveal the hypocrisy of our celebration. We see equality as sameness and diversity in shades of color. We embrace differences when they fall within our market-driven, politically correct framework but rarely when they disrupt our status quo. When a fetus is diagnosed with Down syndrome and the mother chooses not to carry the child to term, more is lost than her future inconvenience and fear. The world loses another soul in its greater body.
What would you do if you were faced with this challenge? If you had an unplanned pregnancy over the age of 35 and a prenatal test showed that your child might be a candidate for Downs, how would you and your spouse face this decision? Would you be open to a new kind of perfection? One that disrupts your current life, but that could bring a deeper meaning you’d never imagined. All this because you walked with courage into the unknown.
Cade’s life, and those like his, offers an alternative view of the good life.
These individuals alter career paths and require families to work together.
They invite each of us to engage, instead of simply walking by.
They love unconditionally, asking little in return beyond a simple acknowledgement.
They celebrate the little things in life, and displace the stress that bogs most of us down.
They seem to understand what true life is about, more than many of us.
They offer us the opportunity to truly value all people as created equal.
Happy Birthday Cade! I’m so grateful that God let us be your parents. You’ve changed us in ways we would have never changed ourselves. You’ve given us permission to measure loving kindness over productivity. You’ve offered us a glimpse of God’s grace while shattering our preconceived ideas of what is most important. We love you!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Copy Cat!
The other day we tried to get Truitt's 5 year old picture. From the moment I told Truitt to get his nice clothes on for the picture, his little sister went in to full "jealous mode." She lives in this mode for 83% of her life. Honestly, from their morning breakfast together in which they argue about who is using whose spoon, these guys are always jealous and fighting. So, the whining and begging for her picture started. She wanted to get her picture too and with her special dress. I hate whining, taking pictures stresses me out, and I am not a very good dad. So, minus the special dress, I gave in to the girl green with envy. So, we carved some time out of Truitt's photo shoot for her to get her pictures. And, as proof of the depths of her "jealous mode," we provide you the following pictures in which she had to copy Truitt's exact pose as to not be outdone by big brother. We died as we looked back at the pictures. This girl is something else. We love her like crazy and she makes us crazy!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Po' Boy
Friday, February 3, 2012
Wascally Wabbit!
Last year, when our school got some rabbits, we discovered a latent gift in Truitt. Not long after his first experiences feeding and watering the rabbits, he became a self-proclaimed rabbit farmer. Since then, he has always had an affinity for rabbits. So, as his birthday rolled around, we thought a rabbit would be a good gift. Here are a few pictures of Truitt meeting his new rabbit.
Meet "Silly Sally!"
And then, why not a gift themed birthday cake!
Meet "Silly Sally!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)