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Epilogue to the LOST saga. I love this show.

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One of the added bonuses of working at Hope is that you learn to cook if you just pay attention. Today, Cott and I are tag-team smoking some pork butts and beef briskets for a meal for our friends in ministry at Meridzo in Lynch, KY. As we’ve developed our friendship with this ministry, we have also developed a heart for the people in the Tri-City area, and it’s a joy to partner with them in big ways and small. Drew and Leah are incredible people doing an incredible work, and the Kingdom is breaking in there. So much of the ministry of Jesus took place around food; He always used the most elemental things to speak of the divine. I wonder how he’d use brisket? (Oh, and there’s a theory around Hope that one of the reasons Jesus is coming back is because he’s never had pork barbecue. It’s not scriptural, but I think it’s kinda fun to think about.) Zoom

One of the added bonuses of working at Hope is that you learn to cook if you just pay attention. Today, Cott and I are tag-team smoking some pork butts and beef briskets for a meal for our friends in ministry at Meridzo in Lynch, KY. As we’ve developed our friendship with this ministry, we have also developed a heart for the people in the Tri-City area, and it’s a joy to partner with them in big ways and small. Drew and Leah are incredible people doing an incredible work, and the Kingdom is breaking in there.

So much of the ministry of Jesus took place around food; He always used the most elemental things to speak of the divine. I wonder how he’d use brisket?

(Oh, and there’s a theory around Hope that one of the reasons Jesus is coming back is because he’s never had pork barbecue. It’s not scriptural, but I think it’s kinda fun to think about.)

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Fighting the Urge to Belong

For those who’ve followed along both here and at other blog sites/FaceBook, the Hope Mission trip to San Pedro Sula was incredible. As I’ve talked to people from the team, it is still hard to put into words what we saw and experienced. Debriefing this experience will take a while, and the real impact of this trip will more likely be seen in our lives than in our stories.

As I’ve been back, I’ve wrestled with stepping back into everyday life and everyday rhythms. Part of this could be my own journey of faith; I feel more and more called to foreign mission as I grow. But the real struggle, the real fight, is not allowing missions to be constrained to “what I did on (fill-in-the-blank) trip to (some-foreign) place”.

I read a great post yesterday by David Paul Dorr, where he challenges his readers to view every action of the Church (meaning the living organism that is the Body of Christ) as mission. He states,

“It’s hard to think like missionaries.  It is not intuitive to see the world where WE LIVE as missions.  After all, it’s home.  We speak the same language, we wear similar clothes, listen to similar music.  But we have forgotten, or maybe never learned, that we are really different.  This culture doesn’t share similar assumptions about God, man, justice, love, righteousness, etc.  We don’t have a common language anymore for these concepts.”

I thank God for trips like the one we had, because it underlined something I easily forget in my day-to-day life: choosing to serve Christ means that you will always be set apart from this world. It should never completely feel like home because the Kingdom is both already and not-yet.

And I have to resist my natural tendencies to make a home here and try to belong or blend in. Mission sets you apart (or makes you holy), and this holiness is sacrificed when I choose to fit in here. The mission of God will always be counter-cultural in some way, as will the people of God in whatever cultural context they find themselves in.

Even, and perhaps especially, in the culture in which they should most easily blend.

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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

7 plays

Reckless

The Blackthorn Project

I’m chasing the Aaron Strumpel recommendation with a the title song from the Blackthorn Project’s newest release, Reckless. If you liked Aaron, you’ll dig this project, too.

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When I lived in Baton Rouge, I occasionally got to visit a great church there called Grace Life Fellowship. Their pastor, Frank Friedmann, has always been an inspiration to me and a great pastor to many dear friends of mine. I remember on one occasion, Frank talking about moments in worship where lifting your hands wasn’t enough; that at times, you need to lift a defiant fist against our enemy, against the kingdom of this world, against even the parts of ourselves that seem unstoppable and sure to win. Jesus has overcome. His Kingdom will reign forever. This week has been full of moments where it seemed like the Kingdom of God had all but lost to injustice, sickness, poverty and death. Yesterday, Bo and I carried a woman from our distribution center back to her house in Los Bordos; we carried her because the Dengue she contracted had weakened her to the point where she could not make it back to her house. Our medical team had done what we could, but she was tired of fighting and needed medical care that she doesn’t have access to. Bo and I traded carrying her the distance to her house. When we arrived, her house was locked, so we waited with her to prevent theft of her food and medicines while someone went to find her father, who had the key to her house there. As we stood waiting, I kept thinking about the gospel, and how foreign and even absurd it seemed: to preach that death had been conquered to a woman who was dying. Yet, it has been defeated. The Kingdom of God is still breaking in. The Light of God will shine when all else fades. I found myself making that fist in my heart, holding it up against the darkness of Dengue and the doubt in my own thoughts: “He has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!” This is our hope. All I could do was clinch my fist around that and hold it up. This trip has changed me. It’s changed us, to the point where many of us don’t know how to be this version of ourselves. And that’s a good thing. I covet your prayers, as I’m still wondering what this means for my tomorrows.

When I lived in Baton Rouge, I occasionally got to visit a great church there called Grace Life Fellowship. Their pastor, Frank Friedmann, has always been an inspiration to me and a great pastor to many dear friends of mine.

I remember on one occasion, Frank talking about moments in worship where lifting your hands wasn’t enough; that at times, you need to lift a defiant fist against our enemy, against the kingdom of this world, against even the parts of ourselves that seem unstoppable and sure to win.

Jesus has overcome. His Kingdom will reign forever.

This week has been full of moments where it seemed like the Kingdom of God had all but lost to injustice, sickness, poverty and death. Yesterday, Bo and I carried a woman from our distribution center back to her house in Los Bordos; we carried her because the Dengue she contracted had weakened her to the point where she could not make it back to her house. Our medical team had done what we could, but she was tired of fighting and needed medical care that she doesn’t have access to.

Bo and I traded carrying her the distance to her house. When we arrived, her house was locked, so we waited with her to prevent theft of her food and medicines while someone went to find her father, who had the key to her house there. As we stood waiting, I kept thinking about the gospel, and how foreign and even absurd it seemed: to preach that death had been conquered to a woman who was dying.

Yet, it has been defeated. The Kingdom of God is still breaking in. The Light of God will shine when all else fades. I found myself making that fist in my heart, holding it up against the darkness of Dengue and the doubt in my own thoughts:

“He has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!”

This is our hope. All I could do was clinch my fist around that and hold it up.

This trip has changed me. It’s changed us, to the point where many of us don’t know how to be this version of ourselves. And that’s a good thing. I covet your prayers, as I’m still wondering what this means for my tomorrows.

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Footage from the food distribution yesterday in Los Bordos.

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I know that I have began to sound like a broken record, but this week has been unexplainable. Just when I think I have experienced all that I can handle, God puts me in a new situation. He continues to push my mental envelope and the emotions that I have felt. I have struggled with the level of injustice, my heart has broke with the amount of poverty, and I have broken down at the sight of the homeless. I have felt anger, frustration, helplessness, and sadness. But, in every event and circumstance I have seen the Holy Spirt at work through people and I have seen God’s grace, mercy, and faithfulness in action. I have run the gamit of emotions, but I sit here on our final night of ministry and feel blessed to have been a witness to God’s work.
Bo Cracraft, a fellow team member here in Honduras. Read more here.

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Unclean. In the Gospels, we often find Jesus talking to, interacting with, and even touching and healing the people of his world that were considered unclean. These are the feet of a man we met yesterday at Manos Unidos. He works in the watery streets, delivering packages and finding odd jobs to get by. He owns a pair of shoes and a pair of socks, both of which are regularly wet and never leave his feet, ut of fear that they may be stolen while he is sleeping. Seeing Chuck, Roxanne, Sandi and Elise help this man with his feet, along with many others who needed medical care, reminded me of Jesus’ compassion for those deemed unclean. Some were deemed so for breaking social codes, and others simply because they were, indeed, unclean. But this never stopped Jesus. As these men and women poured into Manos Unidos, we encountered a world we’d never seen before; prostitution, drug-addiction, the homeless and helpless. Tim, Kevin (our translator) and I cut men’s hair yesterday. It is a stretch to say that I have any hair-cutting skills whatsoever; luckily, they only wanted a certain guard length (3,2,1 or no guard, my speciality). One of the men in my chair was mentally destroyed due to huffing glue; as he sat,a shell of a man, and I shaved his head, I found myself wondering: can Christ really do anything for this man?  And the Holy Spirit quickly responded to me: well, a haircut is a start, and there’s a meal at 3:30… I have so far to go. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Pray for Shari and Terry and the ministry of Manos Unidos. They are touching the lives of the untouchables of San Pedro Sula, and they are doing so with the same boldness of Jesus. We were blessed beyond measure to serve along side them yesterday. Zoom

Unclean.

In the Gospels, we often find Jesus talking to, interacting with, and even touching and healing the people of his world that were considered unclean.

These are the feet of a man we met yesterday at Manos Unidos. He works in the watery streets, delivering packages and finding odd jobs to get by. He owns a pair of shoes and a pair of socks, both of which are regularly wet and never leave his feet, ut of fear that they may be stolen while he is sleeping.

Seeing Chuck, Roxanne, Sandi and Elise help this man with his feet, along with many others who needed medical care, reminded me of Jesus’ compassion for those deemed unclean. Some were deemed so for breaking social codes, and others simply because they were, indeed, unclean. But this never stopped Jesus.

As these men and women poured into Manos Unidos, we encountered a world we’d never seen before; prostitution, drug-addiction, the homeless and helpless. Tim, Kevin (our translator) and I cut men’s hair yesterday. It is a stretch to say that I have any hair-cutting skills whatsoever; luckily, they only wanted a certain guard length (3,2,1 or no guard, my speciality).

One of the men in my chair was mentally destroyed due to huffing glue; as he sat,a shell of a man, and I shaved his head, I found myself wondering: can Christ really do anything for this man?  And the Holy Spirit quickly responded to me: well, a haircut is a start, and there’s a meal at 3:30…

I have so far to go. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Pray for Shari and Terry and the ministry of Manos Unidos. They are touching the lives of the untouchables of San Pedro Sula, and they are doing so with the same boldness of Jesus. We were blessed beyond measure to serve along side them yesterday.

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His Provision Will Be Seen

Yesterday was another incredible day in San Pedro Sula. Each day we’ve been here, we’ve been in different situations of ministry where service or testimony ended up being tailor-made for our team. It reminds me of how the Lord lead Israel through the desert, going ever-before them by pillar or cloud.

For example, one of our stops yesterday was at the town square. There, it is usually required to have a permit to speak publically, though this rule is seldom followed. However, depending on which police officer finds you first, you can either be given permission or denied, and often with gringo’s involved, denial and bribery is the norm.

When we stepped off the bus yesterday and began walking around the square, looking for a place to set up shop, the first police officer we saw approached Justin quickly, then embraced him. Apparently, they’d met this man before, where he was on duty at the stadium there, and had prayed for he and his son. This man created space for us to set up, even moving some things around so we could have the best area of shade for the audience to sit in.

We saw salvation there and prayed for healing. It was a powerful time, and there was an extra confidence about us because we had already seen God go before us, making his provision clear and sure.

As I’ve thought about that simple but profound fact, that God has gone before us in the path that he calls us to, I’ve been convicted as to how often I lose sight of this. His faithfulness to provide in a way that will be seen does not necessarily mean I will see it before I move in faith. These moments are a gift, and a reminder that the Lord is faithful.

I’m also thankful for the Christ who has gone before us, the author and pioneer of our faith, the one who conquered sin and death, that we too may know this victory through his son.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Cor 2:14)

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