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Jim Orred

@jimorred

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Est. | 1952
Berlin-based global wanderer, a friend to many, always seeking true north. Son, father, husband, and grandfather. aka: "Chief"

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Brothers-in-law. Freiburg streets. Train to Berlin. by @jimorred

Things I saw in Berlin today. by @jimorred

by @jimorred

by @jimorred

Thanks for all birthday greetings I received yesterday on my birthday 🎂! Now, how’s your Dutch? Judy and I will join a youthful crowd in Utrecht for the SEND NL. by @jimorred

"It won't be quick. It won't be easy. But you'll get through this!" - author and pastor Max Lucado.

We do love the quick and instant. Maybe you dream of winning the lottery, or being surprised to receive a large and unexpected inheritance.
Miracles do happen, but mostly, God works slowly. Somehow, He loves the process as much as the results. Do you?

ASK/SEEK/KNOCK. These imperatives, given by Jesus meant continuous, habitual, and persistent actions. Do you merely want the answer, or even greater friendship with Father, Son, and Spirit?

The Israelites gained their inheritance 'little by little.' Abraham received his promises by faith and endurance. Lots of time passed, but in the process, he became known as a friend of God.

Here in Berlin, I'm enjoying long walks, asking God for more, slowly getting insight, answers, and fresh understanding of the season we are in as a couple.
That's available to us in our modern world. He can be our reward, our inheritance. He will give us some faith adventures along the way. But the centerpiece is His presence. Not just the results. He is the one who initiates friendship with those He created.

I'm grateful to remember the past, but eager for more. It might not be quick or easy. But there is more. As the age of 74 hits me next week, I've never been more filled with hope and joy. And so many wonderful friendships around the globe, as we experienced recently in England and Norway. But one thing I treasure more than anything else: the joy of never walking alone. by @jimorred

Jesus,,,the Word becomes flesh and enters the textures of human life through friendship, conversation, shared meals, touch, and suffering, embodying divine love in a way that reshapes what discipleship means. We come alive through relationships in which we are known, received, accompanied, and drawn into a shared life. Friendship gives substance to belonging. It forms us through presence, shared time, truthful speech, ordinary joy, and the faithful bearing of one another’s burdens. It is one of the places where a person discovers that life is meant to be received and given in relationships.

This matters with particular urgency in a cultural moment shaped by loneliness, fragmentation, mobility, mediated attention, and forms of life that can leave people connected at a distance while hungry for durable presence. Much of contemporary life trains us to inhabit roles, platforms, preferences, and transactions. Friendship restores us to the particularity of real persons: bodies with stories, limits, wounds, gifts, and hopes. It gathers us around tables, walks, homes, prayers, meals, work, grief, celebration, and the unhurried practices through which trust grows.

The Word becomes flesh and enters the textures of human life: friendship, conversation, shared meals, touch, fatigue, suffering, celebration, and death. Jesus does not simply deliver a message about divine love; he embodies that love in a life lived with people. He calls disciples to be with him, and he names them friends. His friendship discloses the character of God’s own life: a love that knows, welcomes, shares, abides, and gives itself. -Hirsch by @jimorred

We first visited this farm 46 years ago. Feels like our second home. @ywamgrimerud by @jimorred

UK🇬🇧—->Norway 🇳🇴 by @jimorred

Berlin. Prayer walks. Declare His faithfulness at the end of the day. by @jimorred

The stunning skyline of lower Manhattan was gleaming as I looked out my window seat, after taking off from JFK airport that fateful morning.

I had flown overnight from Nigeria, and was looking forward to reuniting with Judy who had remained in Hawaii in the fall of 2011.

Suddenly, the Northwest Airlines DC-9 was descending rapidly. I heard the pilot say words I'll never forget: "Folks, all aircraft in the USA have been ordered to the nearest airport. We are landing at Traverse City, Michigan."

There were screams from some passengers, as we watched with horror the live TV feed in the terminal. Phone lines were jammed, and I could not contact Judy to let her know I was OK.

What touched me most deeply, in the following days, was personal messages from colleagues around the world expressing sympathy as our strong and mighty nation was shown to be vulnerable to death and destruction.

What is your memory of that fateful day?

It reminded me of one other day. I was sitting at my desk in my 6th grade classroom when the teacher burst in, weeping uncontrollably. She wrote a new word on the blackboard: "assassination". President JFK had been killed. by @jimorred

About 1200 leaders spent 4 days together in Thailand. So many hugs! But the best part: God showed up in ways beyond all I had hoped for. A concise report will follow. by @jimorred