With comfort-zones, it's really difficult to wade slowly, step-by-step into uncertain territory. Like a swimming pool, we want to turn around and get out as soon as the water gets cold. Sometimes we just have to dive in headfirst, hold our breath, and hope for the best.
I've spent the last few days diving into church planting. We (My friend/roommate/partner Daniel) have spent many hours with Dan, the pastor of Gateway West. GW will be our church home for the summer. It's a church plant about four years old, and it seeks to serve the community, evangelize, disciple, and develop leaders. Unlike many churches, though, GW doesn't just claim these goals in word only. With Dan's leadership, the church takes definite action to reach these ends. I'll write more about the church's ministry at a later time (once I become more familiar/involved and am not dead tired).
I've had several casual encounters with people over the past few days, whether it was on the bus, the train, the Healthline, or any other time I've been out and about in the city. In these conversations, I try to discover natives' feelings about Cleveland. So far, I've noticed a consistent theme: a lack of hope. People are frustrated with jobs. Frustrated with crime. Frustrated with education. I've met no one who claimed to love Cleveland, and few have even desired to stay in Cleveland. I talked to a young guy on the train this morning, and the subject of church came up. I asked him what churches could do to actually help the people. He replied that he wished churches would help get people better jobs... Coupled with the discovery that 1/3 of the households in the first neighborhood I'll be working in are below the poverty line ($15,000/year), that statement was powerful.
Jesus Christ is the hope that Cleveland needs. With Christ, people will be set free. The drug addictions, the alcoholism, the violence, the homelessness, the abuse... The solution is Christ. I believe that's why I'm here. By playing just a small part in bringing the hope of Christ to the hopelessness of darkness, my soul finds contentment. Christ cares. If He cares, then why do we drag our feet?
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Quick Cleveland Update
The past couple of days have been crazy busy. Everything is going well, and I'm starting to get more of a routine figured out.
Friday: The Amazing Race
The goal was to figure out how to use the mass transit system of Cleveland. Well, my team and I figured out how NOT to use the mass transit system. Literally, we either took the wrong bus route or went the wrong direction more than we did it right. However, you can learn from mistakes, and we at least have some experience behind us now.
Saturday: Work and Outreach
Saturday morning, we all did various jobs around the Vision House. It went well, and I now know how to install blinds in a window. What I learned most: instructions are essentially useless. Just do what makes sense.
In the afternoon, we helped Dan from Gateway Church West pass out flyers for their upcoming VBS event. My group (Me, my roommate Daniel, and the pastor's son Elijah) ended up hitting around 150 houses. It was four fairly long streets, and we did it in around 2.5 hours. However, flyers are distributed differently up here: you don't knock on doors. We just placed the flyer somewhere on the house's front porch, only speaking to people who came out to greet us or were already outside. It was very efficient for such a large neighborhood, but it also highlighted cultural differences. In this neck of the woods, it's apparently generally considered rude to interrupt someone by knocking on their door to "solicit."
All in all, I'm tired but excited. Tomorrow, Daniel and I will serve at Gateway West (Short for Gateway Church West). Dan is the pastor/church planter that we'll be coordinating with, so I'm excited to get to spend some time in fellowship and worship with our brothers and sisters that we're here to help.
Friday: The Amazing Race
The goal was to figure out how to use the mass transit system of Cleveland. Well, my team and I figured out how NOT to use the mass transit system. Literally, we either took the wrong bus route or went the wrong direction more than we did it right. However, you can learn from mistakes, and we at least have some experience behind us now.
Saturday: Work and Outreach
Saturday morning, we all did various jobs around the Vision House. It went well, and I now know how to install blinds in a window. What I learned most: instructions are essentially useless. Just do what makes sense.
In the afternoon, we helped Dan from Gateway Church West pass out flyers for their upcoming VBS event. My group (Me, my roommate Daniel, and the pastor's son Elijah) ended up hitting around 150 houses. It was four fairly long streets, and we did it in around 2.5 hours. However, flyers are distributed differently up here: you don't knock on doors. We just placed the flyer somewhere on the house's front porch, only speaking to people who came out to greet us or were already outside. It was very efficient for such a large neighborhood, but it also highlighted cultural differences. In this neck of the woods, it's apparently generally considered rude to interrupt someone by knocking on their door to "solicit."
All in all, I'm tired but excited. Tomorrow, Daniel and I will serve at Gateway West (Short for Gateway Church West). Dan is the pastor/church planter that we'll be coordinating with, so I'm excited to get to spend some time in fellowship and worship with our brothers and sisters that we're here to help.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Here in Cleveland
Greetings from Cleveland, Ohio! Today's writing will be entirely to update anyone who is interested in the status of my mission trip. If you are not interested in particulars, don't keep reading this post. It will bore you, and I won't be offended. :)
(As a side note, you can now follow my blog via email if you wish. Simply enter your email address on the right hand side of the page to receive a notification any time I create a new post.)
All I can say is wow. If the next two months of this trip are as great as the first 24 hours, this summer is going to be mind-blowing. And I expect they will.
First, I have been introduced to passionate, dedicated, and energetic brothers and sisters in Christ who are going to become some of my closest friends. In fact, we hope to become like family, because we will need to love each other selflessly and have intimate relationships to survive the stress that living in cramped quarters for two months is likely to bring. Last night, we all circled up and gave our testimonies. There is something stirring in hearing the intricate nature of God's work in individual lives!
We are staying in what Kevin (Our mission coordinator, AKA the boss) calls the "Vision House." Notice it is a "Vision" and not a completed project. It's a little rough (there's a plumber working right now so that we can use both showers at once). Much construction needs to be done, but we'll work through it all. I'll post pics sometime to show what I mean. The unpolished nature of the house will makes life very interesting, especially here at the beginning! I'm excited, though, because our whole team gets to live together- definitely worth any lack of convenience.
The VH is a duplex bordering downtown Cleveland. The location is ideal for missionary work because it is right in the center of the city, and our teams will be branching out into all nooks and crannies of the Cleveland area throughout the summer. VH has three stories and 10 bedrooms. The guys (10 of us) live on one side of the house while the girls (4 of them) and Kevin and his family live on the other side. My bedroom is in the loft, which I share with three other guys. It's going to be fun!
Also, we have two students living with us who are seeking asylum from their home countries. They came to Christ about 5 months ago, and they cannot return home because of threats by their families to their lives. Please keep them in your prayers! Pray that they will be granted extended visas so that they do not have to return to their country where they would be killed for choosing to follow Christ.
Today, we finally learned more precisely what we will be doing. Essentially, we are assisting in the development of two or three brand new churches. According to Kevin, we will be very knowledgeable in church planting by the end of the summer. I AM EXCITED!!!
We began by learning the "regions" of the city as the NAMB workers here in Cleveland have developed. Essentially, we will be prayerwalking each street in the regions we are working in, conducting research necessary for the birth of new churches/bible studies. We will go door-to-door to ask questions such as "What do you see as the greatest needs of your community," and "What do you see wrong with churches" (If they individuals are resistant to the presence of a church." Hopefully, we will strategically document each street in the region, marking household interest level, learning the needs of the communities, finding people willing to host gatherings, and piecing together the overall community perception of Christ. Part of our assignment includes using map-making software to create maps that subsequent church planters and mission teams can utilize. Above all, we will seek to remain open to opportunities to develop relationships with people, love them, and point them to Christ.
Additionally, we will lead short-term trips as they come in from throughout the nation. Needless to say, tomorrow will be spent learning the city up and down, from the bus lines to the ends of the subways.
Throughout the summer, there will be some fun opportunities as well. We are going to travel as a team to Niagara Falls, one or two Cleveland Indians games, and possible Cedar Point, one of the country's premier amusement parks. I'm looking forward to see what God is going to do this summer, through the fun times, the tough times, and the times of stretching that leads to spiritual and personal growth.
Please lift up me and my team in prayer. The prayers of God's people are powerful, and you can pray specifically for...
*Open hearts and minds to the gospel
*Receptiveness to our presence and questions
*Physical needs of the communities (Will update as I learn more)
*Our friends seeking asylum
*Physical protection (There are some high crime rates in the city)
*Spiritual warfare (always a part of any missionary endeavor)
*Spiritual growth for me and my teammates
(As a side note, you can now follow my blog via email if you wish. Simply enter your email address on the right hand side of the page to receive a notification any time I create a new post.)
All I can say is wow. If the next two months of this trip are as great as the first 24 hours, this summer is going to be mind-blowing. And I expect they will.
First, I have been introduced to passionate, dedicated, and energetic brothers and sisters in Christ who are going to become some of my closest friends. In fact, we hope to become like family, because we will need to love each other selflessly and have intimate relationships to survive the stress that living in cramped quarters for two months is likely to bring. Last night, we all circled up and gave our testimonies. There is something stirring in hearing the intricate nature of God's work in individual lives!
We are staying in what Kevin (Our mission coordinator, AKA the boss) calls the "Vision House." Notice it is a "Vision" and not a completed project. It's a little rough (there's a plumber working right now so that we can use both showers at once). Much construction needs to be done, but we'll work through it all. I'll post pics sometime to show what I mean. The unpolished nature of the house will makes life very interesting, especially here at the beginning! I'm excited, though, because our whole team gets to live together- definitely worth any lack of convenience.
The VH is a duplex bordering downtown Cleveland. The location is ideal for missionary work because it is right in the center of the city, and our teams will be branching out into all nooks and crannies of the Cleveland area throughout the summer. VH has three stories and 10 bedrooms. The guys (10 of us) live on one side of the house while the girls (4 of them) and Kevin and his family live on the other side. My bedroom is in the loft, which I share with three other guys. It's going to be fun!
Also, we have two students living with us who are seeking asylum from their home countries. They came to Christ about 5 months ago, and they cannot return home because of threats by their families to their lives. Please keep them in your prayers! Pray that they will be granted extended visas so that they do not have to return to their country where they would be killed for choosing to follow Christ.
Today, we finally learned more precisely what we will be doing. Essentially, we are assisting in the development of two or three brand new churches. According to Kevin, we will be very knowledgeable in church planting by the end of the summer. I AM EXCITED!!!
We began by learning the "regions" of the city as the NAMB workers here in Cleveland have developed. Essentially, we will be prayerwalking each street in the regions we are working in, conducting research necessary for the birth of new churches/bible studies. We will go door-to-door to ask questions such as "What do you see as the greatest needs of your community," and "What do you see wrong with churches" (If they individuals are resistant to the presence of a church." Hopefully, we will strategically document each street in the region, marking household interest level, learning the needs of the communities, finding people willing to host gatherings, and piecing together the overall community perception of Christ. Part of our assignment includes using map-making software to create maps that subsequent church planters and mission teams can utilize. Above all, we will seek to remain open to opportunities to develop relationships with people, love them, and point them to Christ.
Additionally, we will lead short-term trips as they come in from throughout the nation. Needless to say, tomorrow will be spent learning the city up and down, from the bus lines to the ends of the subways.
Throughout the summer, there will be some fun opportunities as well. We are going to travel as a team to Niagara Falls, one or two Cleveland Indians games, and possible Cedar Point, one of the country's premier amusement parks. I'm looking forward to see what God is going to do this summer, through the fun times, the tough times, and the times of stretching that leads to spiritual and personal growth.
Please lift up me and my team in prayer. The prayers of God's people are powerful, and you can pray specifically for...
*Open hearts and minds to the gospel
*Receptiveness to our presence and questions
*Physical needs of the communities (Will update as I learn more)
*Our friends seeking asylum
*Physical protection (There are some high crime rates in the city)
*Spiritual warfare (always a part of any missionary endeavor)
*Spiritual growth for me and my teammates
Monday, May 20, 2013
Beggars at the Door
"A ragamuffin knows he is only a beggar at the door of God's mercy."
For those of you who follow me on twitter, you have seen this quote from me once this week. Rich Mullins was a man who truly understood grace. He knew that he was totally dependent on God's mercy, and he lived his life by the assurance that flows from such faith. Once again, his words have reminded me of the amazing love of God.
Today, I heard an interview of Rich that had been recorded before his death. Talking about serving God, he said something along the lines of, 'To be used by God is not a big deal. Look at Pontius Pilot, Judas Iscariot, and the Roman soldiers. They were used by God. What is truly amazing is to be wanted by God...' (NOT to be taken as a direct quote. It is a rough paraphrase).
I felt like a freight train hit me in the chest. I'm going to have a Rich moment. Why pretend? The people God rebuked most were the spiritual know-it-alls. Sometimes I can't even seem to get a grip on the simplest of sins. I hate them. I despise them. Yet I fall to them. How am I supposed to be a missionary? How can I be used by God with the simple struggles I have?
With these thoughts running through my head, I realized again... I can't be what I want to be. I'm a ragamuffin. A beggar at the door of God's mercy. Yet, in His love, mercy, grace, and power, God has flung wide open His doors.. The reason I can be used by God at all is that I am wanted by God. God made a way for us to be His children: the suffering of the cross. The wrath of God on His son. The separation meant for us paid by Christ. The defeat of death and sin by the resurrection, and the forgiveness found through faith in Christ. Our debts are paid. "For sin will not rule over you, for you are not under law, but grace..." (Romans 6:21)
God's grace is the ship that carries us through life. I try my best to avoid the snares of darkness. I pray for help. I turn to Him for guidance. When I fall, His grace is there to pick me up. His mercy never ends. I've heard it said, "You can NOT out-sin the grace of God." That truth lets me live. Without it, life is an endless trap, with no way out of our nature of flesh. One day, we will be set free once and for all. Until that day comes, God still covers us with His mercy.
We are all beggars at the door. God, though, uses beggars to turn the world upside down. He always has. He always will.
For those of you who follow me on twitter, you have seen this quote from me once this week. Rich Mullins was a man who truly understood grace. He knew that he was totally dependent on God's mercy, and he lived his life by the assurance that flows from such faith. Once again, his words have reminded me of the amazing love of God.
Today, I heard an interview of Rich that had been recorded before his death. Talking about serving God, he said something along the lines of, 'To be used by God is not a big deal. Look at Pontius Pilot, Judas Iscariot, and the Roman soldiers. They were used by God. What is truly amazing is to be wanted by God...' (NOT to be taken as a direct quote. It is a rough paraphrase).
I felt like a freight train hit me in the chest. I'm going to have a Rich moment. Why pretend? The people God rebuked most were the spiritual know-it-alls. Sometimes I can't even seem to get a grip on the simplest of sins. I hate them. I despise them. Yet I fall to them. How am I supposed to be a missionary? How can I be used by God with the simple struggles I have?
With these thoughts running through my head, I realized again... I can't be what I want to be. I'm a ragamuffin. A beggar at the door of God's mercy. Yet, in His love, mercy, grace, and power, God has flung wide open His doors.. The reason I can be used by God at all is that I am wanted by God. God made a way for us to be His children: the suffering of the cross. The wrath of God on His son. The separation meant for us paid by Christ. The defeat of death and sin by the resurrection, and the forgiveness found through faith in Christ. Our debts are paid. "For sin will not rule over you, for you are not under law, but grace..." (Romans 6:21)
God's grace is the ship that carries us through life. I try my best to avoid the snares of darkness. I pray for help. I turn to Him for guidance. When I fall, His grace is there to pick me up. His mercy never ends. I've heard it said, "You can NOT out-sin the grace of God." That truth lets me live. Without it, life is an endless trap, with no way out of our nature of flesh. One day, we will be set free once and for all. Until that day comes, God still covers us with His mercy.
We are all beggars at the door. God, though, uses beggars to turn the world upside down. He always has. He always will.
Necessary Rest
I noticed tonight that I last wrote a post over a month ago. Time absolutely flies.
School wrapped up well. I managed to fill my last two weeks with lots of... well... life. Much study. Much writing. Much time with friends. The week of finals, my friends and I had a surreal reality check: our freshman year was essentially over. We coped by finding adventures that only finals-hazed brains can discover. Within 48 hours, we studied at Waffle house well into the night, drove 45 minutes to explore a river, searched for a coffee-mug tree (take a cup, leave a cup), went to Spanish church, AND I learned to drive a stick-shift. And all of us took at least three finals. All of this in the pouring rain. Most of it at night. What a time...
The past two weeks have been radically different. The rest I've had was beyond needed. It was necessary. My body is caught up on sleep, my mind relaxed, and my soul prepared for my upcoming sojourn in Ohio. I've slept as much as I wanted (sometimes a bit more), worked out my worries on the keys of the piano, and allowed my imagination to run wild in the pages of Tolkien's The Silmarillion. I feel like I've had a two-week Sabbath, sitting back from work, relaxing, and enjoying the time with my family that has been the blessing of a lifetime.
Concerning Ohio: I will keep updates coming through this blog. I'm really excited, even though I haven't the slightly clue about the specifics of what we'll be doing. One thing, though, God has continually placed on my heart: trust. Trust in His spirit to work. Trust in His grace to use my efforts. Trust in His protection. Do my best, offer it all, and the results are up to Him. For followers of Christ, success is not a marked, defined outcome. It's obedience. In obeying, we find the greatest fulfillment and truest satisfaction that our stay in this world has to offer.
School wrapped up well. I managed to fill my last two weeks with lots of... well... life. Much study. Much writing. Much time with friends. The week of finals, my friends and I had a surreal reality check: our freshman year was essentially over. We coped by finding adventures that only finals-hazed brains can discover. Within 48 hours, we studied at Waffle house well into the night, drove 45 minutes to explore a river, searched for a coffee-mug tree (take a cup, leave a cup), went to Spanish church, AND I learned to drive a stick-shift. And all of us took at least three finals. All of this in the pouring rain. Most of it at night. What a time...
The past two weeks have been radically different. The rest I've had was beyond needed. It was necessary. My body is caught up on sleep, my mind relaxed, and my soul prepared for my upcoming sojourn in Ohio. I've slept as much as I wanted (sometimes a bit more), worked out my worries on the keys of the piano, and allowed my imagination to run wild in the pages of Tolkien's The Silmarillion. I feel like I've had a two-week Sabbath, sitting back from work, relaxing, and enjoying the time with my family that has been the blessing of a lifetime.
Concerning Ohio: I will keep updates coming through this blog. I'm really excited, even though I haven't the slightly clue about the specifics of what we'll be doing. One thing, though, God has continually placed on my heart: trust. Trust in His spirit to work. Trust in His grace to use my efforts. Trust in His protection. Do my best, offer it all, and the results are up to Him. For followers of Christ, success is not a marked, defined outcome. It's obedience. In obeying, we find the greatest fulfillment and truest satisfaction that our stay in this world has to offer.
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