Author: Jon Gauger

How do you celebrate a two-year-olds’ birthday? For our family—with a grandson who loves trains—that meant a meal at Two Toots Restaurant.   The big draw at this unusual eatery is a model train that runs throughout the place. On the tracks, a locomotive pulls eight flatbed cars, each fitted with a basket that actually hauls your meal right to your booth. So there’s Caleb watching this train hauling burgers and fries. Every single time that train went around the track, he got excited.  Every single time they sounded the horn, he bounced in his seat. Every single time the train…

Heroes rarely get the press they deserve.  At least not in this life. Take Samuel Whittemore, for example. I'd never even heard of the man until I learned that he was one of the men most admired by a friend that I admire. Samuel Whittemore was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1696.  A farmer by trade, he was a patriot at heart. At the age of 78, Whittemore became the oldest known combatant in the War of Independence.   Here's how it happened. British forces were returning to Boston, having just fought the battles of Lexington and Concord.  As you may…

When you run a business, the name of that business is…..well, big business!  Branding experts tell us we want crisp and cool.  Something with a little razzle dazzle.  Something that positions our product or service in a way that people will remember. But in West Africa, they take a different approach.  Traveling through Ghana, the roads are lined with wooden stalls selling everything from fruit to phone cards to photocopies. Most of these so called shops are between three and six feet wide—that's it!  And most all of them are clearly marked with a business name hand painted on a…

Darkness has descended upon Ghana and we are stuck in a poky line of traffic streaming into the capital city, Accra.  The stop and go driving leaves me pondering two signs I saw earlier in our travels to the Cape Coast. This morning, as we cruised along the George Walker Bush Highway (named for the U.S. President that brought financial aid to this West African nation) I saw a billboard that I really liked.  It said, “Behold, I am coming soon.”  And the quote, of course, is attributed to Jesus. “What a great sign,” I thought, as we rumbled down…

What does true greatness look like? I think I saw a glimpse this week. Imagine a training conference for Christian media professionals from all across West Africa. Envision197 participants from 15 countries all gathering in Accra, Ghana to learn practical techniques in radio, video, leadership, and social media.  Moody Radio calls it the “Global Partners Training.”  The conference featured energetic presenters, powerful worship, great preaching at night…not to mention delicious meals.  Over the course of the conference, I figured they served a total of 2000 meals to our group. Unlike typical American conference centers, there were no “built in” facilities…

They say that we either waste time, use time, or invest time. Several weeks ago, my wife and I enjoyed the weekend company of five year old Joslynn, our granddaughters. The little blonde kindergartner is reluctant to leave our house on Saturday.  Doesn’t even like to get changed out of her pajamas. But she loves to make paper airplanes, which we take great pains to color before folding and flying.   Joslynn is not content until we’ve created not just one or two planes, but a fleet sufficient in number to replace an entire wing of the United States Air force.  But…

Toxic baloney.  When it comes to worldwide media coverage of Israel, that’s increasingly the diet we’re being fed.   And that toxic baloney is slowly poisoning the hearts and minds of millions. Example #1: The Land Listening to today’s media, one gets the notion that Israel is a greedy land grabber, reluctant to share with anyone else. The fact is, the Arab world is nearly 800 times the size of Israel. Not eight or even eighty.  But eight HUNDRED times as large.   So why is Israel being pressured to give up the tiny slice it has to the many who have…

Gizmos and gadgets. You'll see a ton of them if you go camping. Over Memorial Day, I couldn't help but notice the massive amounts of stuff people trotted out to their campsites. There were all kinds of ingenious quick-shade gizmos.  Few who lugged them out and set them up could resist the urge to hang from them cute little lights of various themes.. Then there were more traditional dining canopies—their netted walls and zippered doors defying the most eager of flies a share in a meal in the great outdoors. I saw all kinds of cooking implements.  Things for which…

Time capsules—we've all seen these eclectic collections stuffed into cornerstones of new buildings in an attempt to give future generations a cultural snapshot of a previous era.  My wife and I discovered that we actually own a time capsule—our pop-up camper, also known as a tent trailer.  For the uninitiated, it's a metal box with a roof that cranks up, revealing canvas sides and a set of beds on each end.   It's like a tent—only much nicer. But more than a decade ago, we upgraded to a hard side trailer known as a fifth wheel.  It's nicer yet.  Thus, for…

Sin. “Everybody” says “nobody” talks about it anymore. So I’m about to. Sin is falling short of God’s perfection, His holy standards.  The Bible teaches that “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23).   No Christian would argue that “the wages (or results) of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Most of us are comfortable acknowledging the wrongness of sin, its penalty, and the way out of sin God offers through Christ.  But acknowledging our sin in the nitty gritty of life…that’s a different story….