Leading with an Eternal Perspective - S & T

S and T are leading a STINT Team (and raising five girls) in East Asia. Like many of you they just came back from midyear/vacation time. After their midyear, there was a 'big people’s conference' for all those serving in their country from numerous countries and including the national staff. (I will leave off numbers for security sake but it was a lot people from a lot of countries and a lot of nat’l staff.)

Speaking of the nat’l staff, S writes, "(they) are heroes to Tom and me. They have chosen to make a stand for Christ in a way that seems unthinkable to us. They have devoted their lives to sharing the gospel with the people of their own country. Though they are among the most educated in their country, they have forgone lucrative jobs in order to make a difference for Christ. Most have been Christians for less than 5 years. Due to the government regulations the risks to them are very real. It was a privilege and so humbling to worship alongside these faithful ones. I think the heart of the Father was filled with delight."

"The country director shared the vision and direction of the ministry," S goes on to say. "It is clear that the vision goes well beyond national borders. It was so challenging to hear them asking God to give them these dark unreached places of the world. It reminded us that God is serious about fulfilling the Great Commission and He is gathering people from every tongue, tribe and nation for Himself. That is what Heaven will be."

On the last day of the conference, T and S got another reminder about the closeness of Heaven. They received an early morning call that their family friends Drew and Nita Meadow’s 2 year old son, Brock, had gone to be with the Lord. He had died very unexpectedly during his afternoon nap. S writes, "We talked with Drew and Nita, their hope is the certainty of God’s goodness and the reality of heaven. We share that hope and it gives reason for tomorrow."

The apostle Paul penned these words from a smelly Roman prison to the church in Philippi, "Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. To live is Christ and to die is gain." For the Apostle Paul things did not turn out as he had expected. Years earlier, he had penned another letter to the church in Rome that he was coming to visit them, raise support and head on to Spain to launch movements. Not long after he penned this, the Holy Spirit warned him that he had been assigned. He would not be STINTing in Spain but he would go to Rome, albeit in chains.

I imagine that many men and women labored before in the country where S & T and never dreamed of what S & T saw this past month. Maybe along the way they were disappointed that their plans got changed. Maybe many days they thought it wasn't worth it. Maybe they were not chained but they felt like they might as well have been. Maybe they thought they were failures and not good enough. Maybe they thought what it was all a big mistake that God choose them and sent them.

To Live is Christ, not 'to live is Andy' or 'to live is ____ ' (put your name here). It's not about me or my plans. It's not about you or your plans. It's about Him. Our hope is not in what we do, its in what He did. It's not in who I am (or think I am) its in who He is.

In a couple of chapters later in this letter to the Philippians, Paul would say that those things he did trying to gain status in God's eyes and churchfolk was really loss / rubbish / pile of dung when compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.

It's Christ. He is the One we serve. He is the one we live for. The gain is knowing Him and being with Him; its experiencing His righteousness that comes only from Him. He will come for us when our STINT on this planet earth is o'er. He will transform our measly bodies to be like His glorious one. To Live is Christ.. to die is gain.

Traveling with Luke

Tomorrow Luke and I will get on a plane. Just us. Well and all the other passengers. I have a week-long conference in SC and Luke is going to stay with his parents.

Luke is homeschooling this semester in Pre-school so he, Grammy and Grand Papa will do little field trips and projects.

We need to be at the airport @ 5:15 am for 6:15 flight. We fly to Dulles arriving a little before noon. Then we take a small puddle-jumper to Columbia, rent a car and drive to Grammy's.
Luke made a poor choice tonight and choice to not take a bath so he will have to get up at 4 am to bathe. Robin will get him up since she is more by the book on Love and Logic and let him choose. Me? I'd just bathe him tonight or let him go w/o one. But then again I don't think he's had one in a week so maybe those sitting near us wouldn't like that.

So this is like the first time we have traveled just Luke and me; though when Robin was carrying Jack and Drew, he and I drove to Moab to meet my parents who were on a bus trip across the West. Of course one day we will make the excursion to PA together.

Walking by Faith - Emily

I am convinced that no other STINT Leader has a situation like Emily Bastine (in the front left pictured with four of her teammates, Kim Bubalo and myself.) Emily is part of the leadership team for México City Focus (Enfoque México). Their vision is to see God transform this city of 25 million people. Emily’s role is to lead the team in the side of this effort that involves launching of spiritual movements on over 400 universities. Not only is she leading a team with such a huge scope but a team of men and women mixed with STINTers and 3 STOP-Outers who just recently showed up.

The Enfoque México team has seen God launch 35 movements in the past two years and are trusting Him for 100 by the end of this school year. (They are hoping for a big push from the Spring Break trips.) Their crazy radical strategy is to simply show up on a campus believing God to lead them to the student or faculty member He has prepared to be a movement launcher. Once Emily and her teammates surface leaders, they then help train and coach them in how to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Sometimes these divine appointments happen within the first hour on a campus and sometimes it takes longer. Case in point, Emily faithfully went back to one particular campus 8 or 9 times before some girl called out of the blue called and gave them a name of a believer.

On Monday, Emily shared with me about another of these divine appointments. “About a month ago I jumped into a taxi to head to a university. That taxi was chafa and so I got out and into another one. I saw that the cabbie of this 2nd taxi had a bible on his floorboard so I began a conversation with him. He told me that he was a Christian and I told him what I do here in Mexico. He promptly told me that he knew a student named Raul who was a strong Christian. He called Raul right then in the cab and put him on the speakerphone. So a couple of weeks later, Kevin (another teammate) and I met up with this cabbie’s friend. Turns out Raul has contacts to other university students and service agencies that would love to partner with us. He is always calling or texting and saying something like, ‘I have this friend who led some classmates to Christ and wants to know if you can help them know what to do next.’”

Emily went on to say. “Raul and I are going to meet with one of his friends, Erika, who is a new Christian that is interested in starting a movement on her campus! And this next week, he is going to help connect us to more students on other campuses to launch movements. I’m continually surprised by the Lord and how He shows up in the most random spots. For me it is about believing that He is the one that is directing the ministry here in Mexico City and I just want to be where He is already at work.”

Hanging out with Emily and her team this week and looking more closely again at Hebrews 11 and parallel passages, I am reminded again that faith is seeing the unseen. If it can be seen with our eyes, is it faith? If it's possible apart from God, is it truly faith? And yet faith isn’t about God doing things – even impossible, faith-stretching things - according to my agenda nor according to my timetable.

“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

In the chapter that follows, the author encourages us to ‘run with perseverance the race marked out for us’. Somewhere in the midst of the paradox of His sovereign will and our willingness to live by faith is that marked-out path. The problem is we don't know whether our marked-out path is like the first paragraph where 'they gained what was promised' and 'received back the dead'. Or whether our path is like those 'whom the world was not worthy of' and died 'without receiving what was promised'.

Perhaps this Spring your team will faithfully go back 8 or 9 times to campus and He will lead you to that one student prepared to be the igniter of revolutionary fire. Or perhaps He just wants to be pleased as you go believing Him for the impossible and yet never seeing what is promised in your time. It doesn’t change the fact that He can, that He will and that He rewards us when we diligently seek Him walking by faith and not by sight… and that He wants us to trust Him with the impossible.

My Little Guy

I came home today to Luke having 105 degree temperature. Robin just took him to Urgent Care. Hope its not that strain of flu going around.

This coming Sunday, he and I have a little trip together. I have some meetings for a week in SC so he is flying with me and staying with his grandparents (Robin's parents). Sure hope he is back to his self by then. (Well maybe not totally back to his self for his grandparents sake but well enough so he can have fun and be spoiled by them.)

Focusing on Mexico City

I'm in Mexico City for a couple of days. I left Denver this afternoon and will have meetings all day tomorrow and then return Tuesday am.

I am here with a group of leaders from US, El Salvador and Mexico meeting about our Mexico CityFocus effort. We are just past the halfway point of the three-year push to see movements on every one of the 400 campuses in this great city. The purpose of our meetings will be to discuss and advise what we need for the next 1 1/2 years and what will be the next stage after we finish this initial effort.

I am excited just to begin to meet with these leaders/friends and dive again on how the Lord can transform this city and all of Latin America as a result.

You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore

I didn't buy Robin roses or any other flowers yesterday. She repeatedly told me not to waste our money on something that will die soon. I realize this could have been a ploy... reverse psychology you know... maybe she WANTED me to buy flowers.

But instead....

• I made her and the boys breakfast of Homemade Lemon Blueberry Muffins.
• I keep Luke and Drew while she took Jack to doctor's office.
• I made her a card.
• I helped Drew make one. When I asked him what he wanted to draw, he said 'boy with runny nose' which is what he was at that time. So we created a card with "I picked this one for you" theme.
• I folded several loads of clothes.
• I went out and bought KT's BBQ and brought it home for dinner. Note to self: while nothing quite says 'I love you' like BBQ, the after effects can kill any romance.
• I watched LOST with her. Okay that was her gift to me.

New Holiday

Since Valentine's Day and President's Day are so close together shouldn't we just combine the two and call it 'Franklin Pierce Weekend'?

He was the President of Love, you know.

Focusing on Christ - Brendan & Sara

Brendan Jorgensen and Sara Thelen are leading together in Karaganda. Last year, Sara led the Serbian team and Brendan was in Astana, Kazakhstan. This is not only their first time in Karaganda but the whole team’s.

Sara, who as our Valentine celebrates a birthday tomorrow, says, “Since we have been here, we have really been amazed at what God is doing. There are thirty believing students involved in the ministry, so one of our major focuses has been discipling these students and training them in sharing their faith and discipling others. We have three ministry teams that the students are involved with: prayer, outreach, and community. In December, we focused on training the students in sharing their faith. Many of the training times were led by some of the older students and student interns. After that we had two weeks of outreach on campus. This was an amazing time because there were several new believers out sharing their faith”, Sara explains. “And from that time we saw four people pray to receive Christ. At the end of the month we got together as a ministry and celebrated everything that we saw God do.”

Sara goes on to add, “Our team has learned a lot about discipleship this year. We have been focusing on the example of discipleship that Christ set. We try to include the students in every part of our lives. We invite them to the English classes we teach, to campus with us when we are sharing our faith, to spend the night at our apartments, and to run everyday errands (grocery shopping, exchanging money, etc.) with us. This way the students aren’t just seeing us for an hour a week, but they are becoming a part of our lives. It’s been encouraging to see how God has used this to deepen our relationships with one another, and grow us in unique ways (we find that we are learning just as much from the students, as they are from us).”

Ironically this past week, I ran into an old teammate of mine – John - when I was on STINT in Almaty, Kazakhstan back in the day. John and I spent some sweet time getting caught up on each other’s lives and reminiscing about our year together. (John was in Almaty a second year so often he was like ‘now were you there when we rode down the mountain with our headlights off and night vision goggles on? ' and stuff like that.)

John and I also talked a lot about ministry philosophy and the things we learned in Almaty. Given that the movement is still going and national leaders were raised up, it’s safe to say we did a few things right (as well as a lot of things wrong). Reading Sara’s update its eerily similar in terms of what we did: building community, training in the basics, letting young believers own the mission very early, etc. I could throw in a few other things that we did or that you are doing right now but why bother.... all good tactics, yes... but...

Even with all the ‘right’ things, lest we fool ourselves, it really comes down to one thing ... or rather One Person. (One in a Trinty sense.) Studying Hebrews, this passage jumped out at me the other day: “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Paul writes something similar in 1 Cor. 3 using a planting analogy… “Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

Sara also wrote, “We have found that it has been easy for us to find our identity in the ministry, in how well things go or don’t go, and how many students we are sharing within a week. The crazier things got in our schedule, the easier it was to confuse our priorities. We have come back this semester with this in mind, and we are making a commitment to encourage each other to focus on Christ and to find our worth in Him (the other things will fall into place).”

May we all trust in Him... keep our eyes on Him... cling to Him... even as we do His work. May what the Psalmist says be true for us: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

Strike Over

Now that the Writer's Strike is over, I will be back posting again myself. No more reruns of past blo posts or scab writers who have been writing on my blog for the past 3 months.

Not so Smart Heart Challenge

Last month, I wrote about the Lafayette Oatmeal Festival and how I signed up for the Quaker Oaks Smart Heart Challenge. Well I have finished eating my allotted days of oatmeal and went to local hospital to get retested on my cholesterol levels.

When I signed up I scheduled a 9 am blood test but I got a notice in the mail that it was for 7 am. Now I usually am awake at 7 with kids but not always ready to go much less ready to be pricked. But I forgot to call and reconfirm the time and just decided last night to get up and go at 7.

So I get there this morning and they had me on the list for 9 am. DOH! But since I was there... I sat down to get my vial of blood drawn. The nurse told me what I usually hear when I get blood tested or give blood, "oh you have great veins, and this will be easy." Great veins... so I got that going for me which is nice.

[Blog Warning for the Squeamish]

Great veins or not, the nurse missed me on the first try. Instead of pulling out and aborting the draw, he proceeded to twist the needle. I am withering in pain but try to act like a man and tough it out. You don't want to be seee as less of a man in the presence of a male nurse.

So we both stubbornly precede... him twisting and turning the needle so he could follow through and find this easy vein and me not showing 'em how much it hurts. We finally both give in as he decides to give up exploring for blood after I through greeted teeth tell him that it really hurts. As it goes for the right arm, I feel myself get light-headed. I don't think I even heard him as he tried to cover his failure with small talk. It took maybe 10 seconds to fill the vial from the right arm.

I'm done he says. But tough guy or not I realize its far worse to faint so I tell him I need to sit for a while. An older nurse sees me and has me lie down since she sees I have lost all color in my face. So I lied down for a little bit until I got my bearings and left... with little oatmeal gift basket in hand.

As I left, all I could think was 'this was not worth it'. So I got free oatmeal and a free pass to the oatmeal bar, I had to eat oatmeal every day for a month. I even think my cholesterol may have gone up since I loaded up with butter to get the gummy stuff down. If you read the fine print on the challenge, you are supposed to exercise and eat vegetables. If you just did that wouldn't your cholesterol go down anyway? And now my left arm is withering in pain. So my advice when you see the "smart Heart Challenge" in a magazine advertising a chance to win some free trip to Sedona, AZ, just so no.

Battle for Texas

Mista Mista

While Robin was at our Parenting Class tonight I had all three boys since they were too sick for childcare. We walked down the street picking up BB Balls. We ended up in the front of John and Jennifer's house and they invited us in. John being a nurse noticed Jack's bad cough and examined him with a stethoscope.

He determined he had a viral congestion in his lungs that could lead to pneumonia. Thank the Lord for good neighbors. So he hunted me down a neighbor's Nebulizer System ("Mister Neb" brand) and called in a prescription for Albuterol Sulfate. After dinner and Robin got home we ran his first mista mista nebulizer.

Jack was a little scared at first but very brave after a few minutes. He has to inhale the misty medicine every 4 hours.

You Never Know

Almost twenty years ago, I was in Kisumu Kenya. My team premiered the Luo translation of the Jesus film and showed it numerous times in Kisumu and the surrounding area working with local churches. It was a life-changing summer and I fell in love with Kenyans.

Now this is Kisumu as Luo tribal gangs have protested the corrupt election. Kisumu gangs of men have armed themselves with machetes and set up burning barricades. Businesses have shut down and workers have fled from the town center.

Hard to imagine a place that meant so much to my heart then being in such chaos. The Kenya staff I worked with and lived with that summer - Reuben and his wife Elizabeth - are in another town now but have taken refugees into their home.

A New and Life-giving Way - Kevin and Kristi

Kevin and Kristi Kneeshaw along with their kids (Caden, Victoria & Isabella) are in Rijeka, Croatia. At least we think they are still there.

Here’s the skinny… On January 25th, the Kneeshaw family and their team returned to Rijeka after two weeks of conferences in Hungary – Midyear and AOA time. They checked their mail to discover that the Post Office had tried to deliver two letters but because we were gone for so long they returned the letters to the sender. One Monday the 28th, they went to the Police Station and found out that basically all the singles were getting or had gotten their visas but the Kneeshaw's had to return to have a little meeting with the Police.

“The trip to the police station went OK today (Friday)”, Kristi writes. “The whole experience was a little surreal. We walked up three flights of stark stairs, walked down a dark hallway into a room with an unsmiling woman who made no eye contact with us. There were no family pictures on the desk, nor any pictures on the walls. It was a tiny room with two big desks with computers on them, but no sign of life anywhere. We were told they had been trying to contact us several times to verify that we lived at the address we gave them but we were never home. So they placed our visa application in the rejection pile and if we had come in even two days later our Visas would have been denied. We gave a legal statement explaining where we where and were told a policeman still had to come by and verify we live at our apartment. They gave no indication of when they might come. It could be a week or it could be two months. In the mean time one of us has to stay close to the apartment.” The

Kevin and Kristi and their team had been seeing God do cool stuff like when Mirja trusted Christ in November and then Mirja’s best friend, Bojan, trusted Christ in December. But now the reality of their situation is if they are denied visas they would have to leave for three months. Kristi says that they are not worrying too much about this yet but asked that we would pray that they would continue to trust the Lord for daily peace. Needing to stay close to the apartment makes it even more difficult to do the basic things like shopping and getting the kids outside for breaks from the apartment. (The picture is them all bundled up waiting for the police.) So they ask too that we pray that the police would come soon and that they would be home or if not the police would just knock on a neighbor’s door who would gladly verify that an American couple with three very active kids live in their building.

I have been reading Hebrews this month. Yesterday I led the weekly devotion/prayer for our office and just read aloud the whole book in one seating. I read it from a less-than-familiar translation and asked everyone to just listen and imagine they were in the early church when this letter was read. (If you are looking for a team study this week, you might want to try it too. It takes about 30-40 minutes to read. And for those who drift off off 5:11 and 12:25 rebukes them.)

The whole scenario of the Kneeshaw’s visa situation is like the old system of worship. Everyone was guilty even if they didn’t know they had done anything wrong. The Holy of holies had a big desk with signs of death: stone tablets and place for atoning blood. People basically just waited around for the priests to check them out year after year and see if we were worthy.

But… Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

There’s so much in this book but here’s a few gems for this week from chapter 10 as we live in this new life and lead others…

Dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house,
· Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
· Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
· Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
· And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Caucusing

Last Night I participated in my first Caucus. I have voted in primaries but never caucused. So at 7 pm, I drive to the local high school and found the table upstairs in the library where my precinct was gathering. There were 12 of us for precinct 35 of the Republicans which I am registered as. Robin is registered without a party affiliation so she couldn't participate and she needed to put kids to bed anyway. She was gracious to let me go.

I fully expected it to be like the Iowa Caucus where you voted for your candidate and then if they didn't have enough votes you voted again until you were left with two and the one with the majority wins. But no.... at least not for the Republicans of Colorado.

It was non-binding straw poll. I voted secretly. They counted them out and my guy actually was third by one vote. I would have liked to voted again for the number two guy who was second by one vote but we didn't do it that way. Then our little precinct/table selected delegates for the county to vote again in March. We were allotted 5 which seems a lot for just 12 people but again it’s based on number of registered voters not the number who showed up.

So one guy elects himself as a delegate and I can tell he is for the guy I am not for. How do I know? Let’s just say he looks like someone in his day that would have driven around my neighborhood on a bike with a coat and tie. So I volunteered myself.

But even the vote on March 8th is non-binding because as a county we will send people to state. Crazy. But maybe by then the guy I certainly hope is not the candidate will have bowed out.

I Stand Corrected

A week ago I lamented about the upcoming Sunday Bowl. Mostly because I didn't care about either team and especially didn't like the Pats. I even went as far as being critical of Tom Coughlin, coach of Giants.

I stand corrected. It was a great game... maybe the greatest Super Bowl ever! One for the ages. Mighty Goliath was slain. And you know, thinking back, Coach Coughlin did do something classy. In week 17 when his team had already clinched a playoff spot and were playing the 15-0 Pats, he went for it. Conventional wisdom says you rest your starters and tank the game. But he was facing history so he played them and in turn it gave them confidence that they could win yesterday

Hopefully we can stop this silliness of crowing teams as "The Greatest Ever" before they actually win anything. But we can say that Archie Manning produced "The Greatest Ever QB Genes". Though Cooper (the eldest) messes up the perfect record.

In Honor of Groundhog Day...

Ned: Phil? Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!
Phil: Hi, thanks for watching. [Starts to walk away]
Ned: Hey now, don’t you tell me you don’t remember me ’cause I sure as heckfire remember you.
Phil: Not a chance.
Ned: Ned… Ryerson. “Needlenose Ned”? “Ned the Head”? C’mon, buddy. Case Western High. I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing. Ned Ryerson, got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn’t graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson, I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple of times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
Phil: Ned Ryerson?
Ned: BING!
Phil: Bing.
Ned: Do you have life insurance, Phil? Because if you do, you could always use a little more, I mean, who couldn’t? But let me tell something - I got’s a feeling [whistles] you ain’t got any. Am I right or am I right or am I right? Right, right right.