John Gunter

Life - Faith - One Bridge

Epic birthday surprise

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Mom and Dad during this epic birthday surprise.
Mom and Dad during this epic birthday surprise.

I’ve never been good at surprises. The excitement of whatever is to come is almost always too big of a burden for me to bear. I don’t like this about myself, but it’s true. I do love surprises, though. I’m just not very good at them. This fact is what makes this story that much more enjoyable to remember.

It was March 2011. I was having a local visa issue, so I needed to leave the country for a week or so in order to work it out. This had to be done by the first week in May or I would be in trouble with the local authorities.

I could do this in Hong Kong and this is what I planned. However, [Read more…]

The legacy of a father’s presence

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(L) One of my favorite pics of Dad and I; (R) Dad and I when I surprised him with a visit for his birthday 2 years ago
(L) One of my favorite pics of Dad & me; (R) Dad & I with a surprise visit for his birthday 2 years ago

One of the first video of tapes of me that exists is this scene . . . it was the front yard of my parent’s house. I was tiny, maybe 3 years old. I wore cowboy boots, shorts, and a baseball cap (I guess I have always been aesthetically challenged). There was a miniature baseball mitt on my left hand.

My shoulders were slumped over and my knees bent, as I crouched waiting for baseballs to be hit my way. My next door neighbor and lifelong friend, Boone Benton (he is six years older than I am), did the hitting. Though I was thrilled with life at that exact moment, there were no smiles. I was the definition of focused intensity, at least for a 3-year old in cowboy boots and shorts.

Cards on the table; most of the balls went around my glove and through my legs, but I clearly loved it nonetheless. I would chase the ball down from behind me and throw it back to Boone with every bit of strength I could muster up. I didn’t mug for the camera. I just went about the business of honing the skills of a middle infielder.

The video is grainy and jumpy, but my memory is not.

Thinking of that video, two things come to mind about my youth. The first is superficial, while the second has impacted my life for the good well beyond my temporal comprehension. [Read more…]

My two Asian earthquakes (and what I’ve learned)

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Pics taken by a friend two days after the big earthquake.
Pics taken by a friend two days after the big earthquake.

“Get back in the car and drive off of the bridge!!!” These words broke the chaotic, rancorous silence as I anxiously shouted in the local language at our terrified cab driver. My world was in the process of crashing down. . . literally.

It was May 12, 2008 at 2:28pm. My good friend, Paul Quiros, was with me. I had been working with him all week in investigating the possibility of his law firm opening up a practice somewhere in this country. Our second leg of the journey landed us in the middle of a bridge, seemingly at the end of the world for most people in my life in America.

As we drove and talked and prepared for our next meeting, the bridge underneath us abruptly began moving. When I say moving, slamming back and forth is more like it. It was a packed road. There were buses and trucks and cars back to back as far as the eye could see.

EVERYONE panicked in abject fear, abandoned their vehicles, and ran. No one really knew where they were running, but frantically run they did. Paul had the presence of mind to yell that we had a better chance of survival by staying in the car and getting off the bridge than we did running.

I screamed at our driver to get back in the car and drive. His eyes were literally [Read more…]

An open letter regarding prayer and (seemingly) Bible contradictions

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As was the case a few weeks ago, I wanted to share another “open letter”.  This one was to both the same girl from the previous letter (CLICK HERE to read it) and her best friend.  In follow-up to the question about dating, they sent me the following questions regarding prayer and the Trinity.  I answered their questions by explaining my principle in dealing with seeming contradictions of faith and the Bible.

Tools of the trade for writing and emailing. . . at a local Starbucks
My setup at a local Starbucks. . .

I know this is more technical than any other post on this blog, but hopefully it will be helpful to someone with similar questions.  Again, I do not claim to be a theologian, but rather a Christian who has wrestled with my own faith on many levels.  This email is the product on some of my personal wrestlings.

As was the format with the letter on dating, the first part of this post is the email the two women sent to me.  Following this is my response.  These are both abbreviated, as I deleted the personal content of the exchange.  (I have added some headings in this post to better assist in organizing it.) [Read more…]

“Baseball Saturday” for the glory of God. . . (video included)

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The men of Baseball Saturday; me, Rush Stuart, Scott Littlepage, Tyler Leuck, Andrew Ols, Ty Nash, Michael Gregory, Conner Norton, Sean Doody, and Manny Mann.
The men of Baseball Saturday; me, Rush Stuart, Scott Littlepage, Tyler Leuck, Andrew Ols, Ty Nash, Michael Gregory, Conner Norton, Sean Doody, and Manny Mann.

Saturday was special here in my neck of the woods. The American men in our city decided to get together and hang from noon on. In this city of many millions (literally), there are only a handful of Americans who live here permanently. My guess is 30-50 in total. This is probably a generous guess, as I personally only of know 22. Of that number, 11 are men.

Ten of the eleven men I know in this city decided to dub the 6th day of last week. . . “Baseball Saturday”. The content of the day was simple; American food and baseball all day. We were to both play baseball and watch baseball in the midst of gorging on red meat and other such American culinary delights.

We met for lunch at McDonald’s (the only “American restaurant” within an hour of where I live). After destroying our bodies, we headed over to a local university in search of a field to play baseball. Between all of us, we have seven baseball gloves, two baseball bats, and four actual baseballs, so “playing baseball” is a pretty generous description of what we were planning.

We found a soccer field, but were quickly dispersed by an official university function.

We ended up finding our way to a dimly lite, closed basketball gym on campus. We decided the place was perfect for our “Plan B”. [Read more…]

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