The Answer is Jesus

There’s an old joke told about a pastor giving a Children’s Message. He starts talking about a little animal that is gray, it gathers nuts during the year and stores them for winter, it lives in trees, you can see them scurrying along telephone wires… He keeps going, hoping one of the children will identify the little creature. Finally he asks, “Does anyone know what kind of animal this is?” One little boy responds, “Well, I know the answer is Jesus, but it sounds like a squirrel to me.” It’s an oldie, but a goodie.

This past Monday we sent out a prayer letter, asking for some emergency assistance. We needed to come up with a deposit for four tickets to Thailand, in order to save four slots for the trip our church is taking in July. We didn’t have it, and sent out a request for people to pray for a $400 miracle. We needed it in four days. I am beyond happy to report that we received the needed funding to reserve four tickets! And not only that, but some folks pledged ongoing support for our time overseas. Thank you all. 

One friend wired money to Wal-Mart. There was a form to fill out and some information I needed in order to receive the money. There was also a security question. “The answer is ‘Jesus’”, my friend told me. The next day I went to pick up the wire. The clerk said, “We have a security question. It is: ‘Who are you depending on?’”

Ain’t it the truth.

"You Look Like a Missionary"

This morning my wife took the kids to school. We take turns (okay, she takes more turns than I do, but I digress). Since it is usually before we have to get ready for the day ourselves, we don’t tend to dress up for the occasion. Sweats, t-shirt, baseball cap, that sort of attire. This morning as she came out to the kitchen, she was wearing a pair of socks that were clearly a size too small. I looked at her and said, “You look like a missionary”. 

This is not a compliment. 

She laughed, looked at me, and said, “So do you”. 

What does a missionary look like? It used to be that missionaries were not the most fashionable members of society. Churches would take up collections from people of their old, cast-off clothes, and send them in care packages. Consequently, many missionaries were “gifted” with threadbare shirts and faded dresses. I heard a story once of a missionary who captivated the people of the village he was serving in by putting in and taking out his contact lenses. I remember being amazed. A missionary with contact lenses? Is that Christian? 

You don’t need to be a fashionista when you’re in the middle of the Kalahari. Right?

Things are changing. The world is a different place. Missionaries are no longer relegated to the clothes that are in such bad shape that Goodwill won’t even take them. And yet in some ways, things aren’t all that different after all. We’re headed to an area of the world where there aren’t many churches, and really no facilities for churches. No paid staff, no stained glass windows. No sound system. We’re getting rid of a lot of stuff to prepare for going. Yeah, even some of our clothes. Because it’s not about sacrifice. It’s about willingness to share with others the great news of what God has done for you. It’s not about facilities and clothes. It’s about serving people who are hungry for the hope that you bring them. 

And just like before, we will need people to partner with us, both in prayer and in finances. Because it’s not just our work or our mission. It’s God’s work and God’s mission. By partnering with us, we will be working together in the mission of God to the unreached peoples of the world, sharing with them the love of God. 

What does a missionary look like?

The Opportune Moment

Towards the end of “Curse of the Black Pearl”, Captain Jack Sparrow tells Will Turner, “If you were waiting for the opportune moment – that was it.” You see, Will is in love with Elizabeth Swann, but he’s afraid to tell her. He’s “waiting for the opportune moment”. Problem is… it never seems to come. He lets chance after chance pass him by. 

How often do we wait for our own opportune moment, only to find that it has once again passed us by? How often do we find ourselves wanting do something but feeling like we need to wait until we have just a little more money? Just a little more free time? Just a little more training or knowledge? Just a little more assurance of success? 

Jack isn’t speaking to a specific point in time. He’s really saying that we make our own opportune moments. We’re surrounded by opportune moments. 

Every moment is an opportune moment.

We’re taking advantage of the opportune moment to prepare for Thailand. Yes, it means that we have to get rid of a lot of our stuff. Yes, it means that we need to try and find people who will partner with us both prayerfully and financially for at least the next few years. Yes, it means learning about a new culture, eating new food, and living in a new climate. 

We don’t create opportune moments, God provides us with opportune moments. All of us. Are you waiting for the opportune moment? This is it.

Full Circle - Sort Of

“June of 2011 was my last official month in the UMC. As the first weeks of July came to an end, we sat down expectantly waiting for the latest news on the grant-writing process. It was revealed that the grant I had hoped for had gone to someone else. I was unemployed.” That line is from the first installment of this blog. It’s a bit vague. And it’s a bit misleading. The grant didn’t go to someone else. It was written by them for themselves, so that they could have a job. 

Honestly, I can’t begin to describe how angry I was at the time. I made the reference vague because as Christians we’re not supposed to be mad. Especially when God is clearly in the details. We’re supposed to be forgiving.

Not gonna lie. I was not in a forgiving mood. At all. Strange how time heals.

It’s been a few months, but now that we’re through the busy retail season I’m dipping my toe back into Restorative Conferencing. Covering a few conferences here and there. Remaking some of my contacts. Getting back in the game so to speak. This afternoon I’m heading over to the office to pick up my first new case.

Guess who I’m picking the case file up from. Uh huh. That part of the story has come full circle.

Apparently she has come to the insight that there were some hard feelings. Ironically, there aren’t any anymore. Had that not happened, we would not be in the process of preparing for Thailand. We would not be connected to Pioneers and we would not be heading overseas. 

Did God cause that to happen? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t tend to think God causes the bad things but he certainly uses the bad things. There is no question in our minds that God used this bad thing to turn it for good. That part of the story has come full circle.

But the circle is far from complete. It’s more of a spiral, and we will have opportunity to revisit this event many times for many purposes. The journey is just beginning.

You Say You Want a Resolution

(apologies to the “Fab Four”)

Here it is, January 3, and I still haven’t broken any resolutions. That’s so much easier to accomplish when you consider that I haven’t made any resolutions. Well… that’s not true. Not completely anyway.

If all goes according to plan, we’ll be heading overseas in about eight months. There’s a lot of planning involved in that, a lot of preparation. We have to think about learning the language. We have to study the culture. We have to consider what is involved in planting churches and training up leaders in an unfamiliar land. And we must think about what else we’ll be doing there and in what other ways we’ll be serving in the Name of Christ. We’ve got a lot to take in.

We also have a lot to get rid of.

That’s our resolution this year; to decide what to get rid of. 

For everything we own, we have to decide if it is something we want to pay to ship overseas, whether it is something we want to pay to store, or whether it is something that we simply need to get rid of. A lot of our stuff is falling somewhere into that last category. Some of it we’re selling. Some of it we’re “regifting”. And some of it we’re just doing away with. For most of it, we’re better off just getting rid of it and getting new stuff. As we need it.

Isn’t that kind of the point of resolutions anyway? 

We come to the New Year with all kinds of stuff; preconceptions about ministry, preconceptions about people, preconceptions about who we are and what our place in the Kingdom is. And we’re left with pretty much the same three choices. Are our preconceptions worth taking along with us on our journey? Are they something perhaps incomplete or incorrect that we just can’t bear to part with? Or are they something that we just need to dispose of? Yeah, for the most part, it’s best to just start over from scratch. 

For the past few months, God has been leading us through the process of changing our perceptions; of challenging what we thought was reality. Of causing us to rethink what it means to have faith and depend fully on God. Of what our place in the Kingdom is. We’ve been challenged, we’ve been afraid, and we’ve been stretched. But mostly we’re been awestruck. We’ve been awestruck at the marvelous complexity of God’s purpose, and how God goes about the myriad details of accomplishing that purpose. And we’re honored to be a part of it all. 

We resolve to stay right here, letting God pare down what we take, what we keep, and what we lose.

“Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.” ~ Sholem Asch

Andrea informed me that we needed to do our Christmas letter. But the more we began to discuss it, the more difficult it was to come up with something to put in it. We’re in limbo; that time between when God told us we were going overseas, and when we actually go overseas. That valley time in between the mountaintops. That feeling like God has you on the slow boat, and the winds have died. It’s hard to describe your journey when it doesn’t really feel like you’re going anywhere. We were warned about this. Informed is probably a better word. No, on second thought, warned is right. We were warned because it’s easy to let yourself give up hope. 

“It’s time once again for the annual Christmas letter. Ever notice how it’s easier some years to write these than others? It’s kind of that way for us. In a very real way we have lots of news… in another very real way we have nothing new.”

“Our ‘really big news’ is something that is still a ways off on the horizon. For those who haven’t heard, we have gotten connected with a missionary organization known as Pioneers International. They have appointed us to join teams currently planting churches and working with street kids and human trafficking victims in northern Thailand. We’re targeting being in Thailand hopefully by next August. In the meantime, we’re preparing; getting ready to make a very exciting transition.” 

“Dave has had a bit of a career change. After twelve years pastoring, he took a sabbatical and is currently working at Sears – learning all there is to know about mattresses. Andrea is working as part of the transport team at Magic Valley Hospital. We’re also all helping out caring for refugee families being served by our church, and both boys are enjoying their kids and youth programs. We’re currently living in Twin Falls, Idaho.”

Part of that ‘not giving up hope’ is moving forward in spite of not feeling it as strongly. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).” Those words aren’t supposed to just encourage us with what we believe; they are to motivate us to keep going regardless of how we feel. They’re a reminder that, even though we might not sense it, God continues to move and walk beside us and make things happen. 

“I wish we had more to share about our future plans, and in the coming weeks and months you will probably hear more. For now, though, we’re enjoying a less stress-filled holiday season. It’s very refreshing. We’re hoping the same for you: that this season that used to be known for joy and peace might be known for that again; that in the midst of the pressure to give the perfect gift you might find that the perfect gift is you; and that you would know the ultimate love of the universe wrapped up as a baby born in a barn.”

“From all of us to all of you; a very merry Christmas.”

What a Long, Strange Trip – of Pretzels and Pathways

The path God has us on is like a pretzel. Sometimes it’s one of those straight ones, and sometimes it’s… well… it doesn’t seem so straight. But the path is always there. 

It’s been awhile since I submitted anything to the blog. That’s because I’ve been working. Retail. Seasonal at Sears. A whole new world. But I digress…

We successfully made our way down to Orlando. We met first with the shrink, who assured us that we were indeed crazy enough to make this life transition. We met with the financial people who let us know how much support we need to have raised in order to go. We met with the committee who – admittedly, rightly so – had concerns about our commitment level given the rapidity of our decision. They were swayed once they heard the whole story; it was clearly a God thing. And we met with the man in charge of church partnerships, who went to high school with the Senior Pastor of the church we have been attending. 

Largely because of that connection, we finally had a sending church. And, in another fine irony; it turns out that the church – unbeknownst to us – already has a Thailand connection. They sponsor an orphanage about three hours from the city where we’re expecting to be. 

We returned to Twin Falls… and we were still without work. Both of us. We entered limbo (more on that topic in an upcoming blog). Our target time for leaving for Thailand is next August. But we began to wonder what it was that God was going to do to get us to then. More applications, and more turn downs. Then… Sears. 

This is unlike anything I’ve ever done (well… I did sell Scout-o-Rama tickets door to door when I was eleven…). My birthday present to my wife was the first shift I was scheduled. She began working the next day doing transport for the hospital. 

For the time being – besides working where we are – we’re beginning our preparations for a move to a vastly different culture half a world away. Making our way along the circuitous route that God has laid out before us. A long, strange trip indeed.