John Gunter

Life - Faith - One Bridge

A morning prayer through Psalm 37

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A prayer through Psalm 37:1-12 (Scripture indented)

4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Lord Jesus, may I truly delight in you and your ways during this your day.  May I trust in you above all others and all gifts.  You are good.  My core tells me this and life affirms this.  May my heart truly delight in you and your ways.  When I step away from you, life is confusing and painful.  When I walk with you, delight in you, I am at home.  Father, may I delight in you in everything.

5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Lord Jesus, please grant me the strength to simply commit my ways to you this day.  May I wake up today and do what I know is right, as is testified by you and your Word.  Where my trust and faith are lacking, please help me.  Grant me courage, stamina, and strength today.  May I trust in you in everything, confident in your words that you WILL act.

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

Father, quite my heart and mind before you.  Help me to wait patiently in all things, even as I act in faith and obedience today.  May I see that waiting patiently on you is a quieting of my soul, not a paralysis of my feet nor a lack of giving through my hands.  Your will for humanity is clearly spelled out in your Word.  May I be quiet before you in my [Read more…]

“It’s lonely at the top” – Leadership Isolation

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The statue of David
King David saw isolation open the door for his moral collapse.

I have been grieved this week to read of three high-level men, one in ministry, one in education, and one in politics, who have apparently all fallen in horrendous sin.  Two of the men are being accused of pedophilia and the other of murder.  Like you, I read these accounts and I am mortified over the thoughts of such moral deadness and absolute failure on the part of these men.  They have all taken vows to care for and protect those under their domains of responsibility and done the complete opposite.

It has gotten to the point where stories of “fallen” leaders are the norm, rather than the exception.  Whether it is sexual indiscretion (too many cases in politics and ministry to recount), financial corruption (as is the case in the main story of fallen leadership in the country where I currently live), or emotional breakdown (the recent break of the producer of Kony2012), “fallen leaders” seem to be dominating headlines across the world.

While there is clearly no one answer for this problem, I do think that one of the core issues of moral failure in leadership on this level is ISOLATION.  The “higher” you get in leadership, the fewer the peers and the greater the responsibility. The fewer peers you have, the less healthy outlets there are to “decompress” in life.  The greater the responsibility you have, the higher the emotional toll and stress you shoulder.  The result [Read more…]

Meat Sundays (a typical Sunday in Asia)

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[pb_vidembed title=”Noah rides. . . ” caption=”Noah (and his dad, Scott) Littlepage returning home after lunch today.” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P4Ew5Txcag” type=”yt” w=”480″ h=”385″]

Friendship has truly sustained me in being able to live in Asia for all of these years. As I talked about in a previous post (click here to read “The best and worst of my life in Asia”), I love being able to “do life” with wonderful people over here. The people that come and go from here are a special group. Between my local Asian friends I have made and the Americans, I am blessed to live and learn from so many wonderful people.

It is also a particular joy to be able to see many of the expat children grow up while living overseas here in Asia. Two of my favorites of all time live in the same complex as I do right now. Noah Littlepage (see video above and pic below) will be 2 years old in two months and Maddox Musgrove (see pic below) will be 2 in the fall.

Sundays are typically pretty laid back this year. In years past, I have had to travel on many weekends, but this year I am able to stay home most of the time. This has been

[Read more…]

My worst travel day ever!!! (part 2)

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John Gunter on the beach in Thailand
Me in better times in Thailand

This post is a continuation of the story from My worst travel day ever!!! (part 1).  If you have not read it, please do so first.  For the first part of the story, click here.

Now the continuation of the story. . .

It had not been over 50 hours since I had last laid down.  I arrived in Rayong, Thailand at 12:30am.  At the Rayong “drop off” (bus station would be too generous of a description), there were several men looming in hopes of offering new arrivals various services.  I found a guy with a truck, pointed to the name of my final destination on the piece of paper I had, and we were off.

I was sitting in the passenger seat of a pick-up truck, tearing down dusty back roads in a place I had never been, with a guy I had never previously met.  He spoke a language of which I could only say “hello” in.  I was exhausted to the point of hallucinations (seriously).  The road was desolate.  The surrounding was pitch black.  To say I was a bit unsettled is an understatement.

At 1:00AM, we arrived at an ocean peer in the middle of nowhere.  This place defined the phrase, “middle of nowhere”.  No evidence of human life.  Just a few dilapidated boats tied down to a rusty docks.  The driver looked around in search of a boat owner.  He found and woke up a large, shirtless, Thai gentleman.  I pointed to my trusty piece of paper of where I needed to go.  We agreed upon a price, jumped aboard his junket boat, and set sail on the Gulf of Thailand.

At 2:00AM on Thursday, I finally arrived at Samet Island, Thailand, my desired destination.  My travels were finally over, or so I thought. . .

Samet Island, the place where we were to hold our week of meetings, looks tiny on a map.  Sitting in front of my computer in Atlanta, Georgia, I thought “no problem”.  However, at 2:00am in the middle of a week, it seemed like an ocean of darkness, a vortex of lostness.  As I stepped courageously into the vast darkness [Read more…]

My worst travel day ever!!!

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IPhone Chinese New Year 026
The destination was great, but the travel was awful . . .

I have lived, worked, and traveled overseas extensively for the past 13 years.  One of the legacies of life on the road is an abundance of travel stories, both good and bad.  This is my worst. . . so far.

I had been in Atlanta for a 10 day window for meetings.  Directly from there, I had to fly to a conference in Thailand.

My day started out in Atlanta on a Monday with an 8am meeting.  The day continued with a few more meetings, packing, and eating with my family.  My parents took me to the airport for a 10:10pm flight out of Atlanta.  It had been a quick and intense time in Atlanta since I only had 10 days (it was just enough time to get over jet lag, but then it starts over again when you get back on a plane for Asia).  In addition, it is always an emotional good-bye for me since I rarely know when I will be back home with family and friends.  Getting on the plane, I was already exhausted.

I laid over in Dallas for around two hours and departed from there at 2am Atlanta time.  No big deal so far.

The next leg of my trip was 14+ hours straight to Seoul, South Korea.  With only a few hours of sleep, I arrived in Seoul at 6am on a Wednesday.  I had a 10 HOUR LAYOVER, departing for Bangkok, Thailand at 4pm.  This one was brutal.

Have you ever spent 10 hours in the Seoul Airport International Terminal?  I would not recommend it.   I was told that the airport was a solid two hours outside of the city, so I felt I needed to stay put.  The chairs were steel, with a thin layer of rubber.  The terminal a flood of humanity relentlessly scurrying around from one flight to the next.  No sleep, but I did shave and wash my hair in a public airport bathroom.  Judging [Read more…]

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