Worship on the Rocky River

This week was mainly a recoup/preparation week. We took Tuesday off to settle back in from camp, created instructions for PowerPlant teams (NAMB's summer short-term missions program) on Wednesday, went to leadership development and an Indians baseball game on Thursday, and worked with Jeff Bodziony and Forward Church on Friday (worthy of an entire post by itself). Yesterday, we had another day off, and I went stand up paddleboarding for the first time ever. I am always amazed by the beauty of nature and its power to teach us about its Creator.

My friend Scott and I rented stand-up paddleboards from a store near the mouth of the Rocky River. The river is a shallow, swift-running river that flows through a valley on the west side of Cleveland. Resembling a typical river in Appalachia, it has some small rapids and is lined by striking sedimentary cliffs. After paddling upstream for a bit, we followed the river all the way down to its mouth where it empties into Lake Eerie. I traveled a little faster than Scott, so I managed to make it all the way before the time came to turn back. The sight that I encountered lead me into more sincere worship than any church service has in a long time.

There were no large boats entering the river, so for a few minutes I just stood on the board, bobbing gently in the waves and looking out over the vast expanse of the lake. The cliffs towered to my left, and on my right a jetty reached far out into the lake. The mere majesty of the sight took away my breath. My first thought: I wish I had my camera! My second thought brought me into worship. Once again, God used nature to remind me of eternity. More striking than the power of the waves, more beautiful than the sunlight bouncing off the water and cliffs, an eternity spent in the presence of God will be. We're so small, yet so blessed. Compared to the enormity of the cliffs and beauty of the lake, I was nothing. God, though, sees it fit to desire a relationship with me, to forgive me, to hold me. All I could do was stand in awe of our awesome God. One day, the Rocky River will fade, but the glory of God will last forever.

Nature holds a thousand mysteries and ten thousand wonders. We are blessed to have such a creative, loving God, who gives us with the beauty of a natural world.    

For anyone who doesn't know what stand up paddleboarding (SUP) is, below is a random picture of a man riding one. 

Stand Up Paddleboarding 

A Week in the Mountains

It has been a long, tiring week. That seems to be the story of the summer, but this week was exceptionally draining. We summer missionaries spent from last Wednesday to this Monday as camp counselors at Camp Ba-Yo-Ca in Sevierville, TN, serving as chaperons for a group of 100 students from Cleveland and Toledo. It was a mixed experience for me, an experience in which I encountered some unbelievably frustrating situations and some unbelievably rewarding ones.

Most of the frustrating situations involved younger kids who refused to listen to anything but their own desires, while most of the rewarding situations involved standing alongside teenagers as they began their spiritual journeys. I became friends with one guy in particular, Romella. His sincere curiosity about God and the bible refreshed my spirit, and his challenging questions pushed me to desire God's word more. Seeing his desire and occasional confusion, I realized that I need and want to know more about explaining scripture to others in a way that teaches them to study the bible themselves.

Along those lines, Stefanie, Scott, and I were responsible for planning and teaching a bible lesson for the Mt. Calvary Baptist boys, a group of about 20. Our trial-and-error approach (we didn't know we would be responsible for that until the day of the first lesson) was fun, and the whole thing was a learning process. In the end, I can sum-up with one word what I learned from this dabbling in education: involvement. At least with our audience of preteen to teenage boys, involvement was essential. Our most successful lesson was one in which we practically didn't "teach" (in the lecture sense of the word) much at all. Instead, we broke the group up into smaller groups, had them read different Old Testament stories of obedience/disobedience, then guided each group as they shared what they learned with the others. All we really "taught" was a wrap up lesson, connecting all of the themes of obedience/disobedience and showing how they related to our relationship with God. That took about 3 minutes. I wasn't sure how it would turn out at first, but I found out that praying for and trusting the Spirit to work has awesome results. It may not always turn out as hoped for or expected, but the most precious gold still comes out of simple, filthy mines.

It was amazing to see the mountains again. Man, I've missed them here in Ohio. God's power and majesty is displayed gloriously in those hills, and something about the clean air and rustic atmosphere refreshes the soul. Sometimes, we need to just take a moment to look at the beauty of the earth and let that blessed peace swell in our souls. 

As the Rain and Snow

Last week was less intense than before, but it was every bit as busy. City of Hope did a VBS with the help of a mission team from Kentucky, and two kids from the community were saved. Praise the Lord! City of Hope assigned two young, maturing leaders in the youth group to mentor the converts. Ben called the mentors "prayer partners," and the goal is to have the mentors and the learners grow by praying together, studying the bible together, and bonding together in love and spiritual accountability. I love the idea! Not only does it help the young in Christ grow, but it develops two future leaders of the church.

Wednesday, on the other side of the city, we helped Dan Graham's missional community group with the community garden they spearhead. Basically, the purpose of missional community groups is to meet together regularly, intentionally bonding in love while tangibly serving the city. Gateway West holds these meetings in place of Sunday evening services, to show that the great commission is fulfilled by going out rather than just inviting in.

In the garden, Daniel and I relocated a pile of debris and edged the sidewalk. Later, the whole missional community gathered in the garden, enjoyed lemonade and watermelon, and weeded ALL of the plots (regardless of whether it was one of ours or not). Looking over the garden, with some plants fully mature, others new babes, and still some not yet surfaced, I was reminded of Isaiah 55:10-11...

For just as rain and snow fall from heaven

and do not return there

without saturating the earth

and making it germinate and sprout,

and providing seed to sow

and food to eat,

11 

so My word that comes from My mouth

will not return to Me empty,

but it will accomplish what I please

and will prosper in what I send it to do.  

It is incredibly easy to become discouraged when serving God. More often than not, ministry doesn't move at the pace we want it to or accomplish the exact goal we want it to. Yet, if we truly trust God's word, we know that our obedience is making an impact. By living out God's word in deed and speech, we are remaining faithful to the promise that God provides the harvest. Because of our weakened bodies, we will become frustrated and tired- it's to be expected. However, when that happens, we are able to learn what it means to rest in Christ and to trust Him as the source of all success. Some results we may see grow to maturity, but others will remain underground for a future harvester to gather. As Paul said, God makes it all grow. 

We must be faithful to go out. Those who have a deep relationship with Him inevitably learn that love, obedience, and boldness is the key to true ministry. God's word will accomplish its purpose in due time. Until then, we trust and obey.        

From Cleveland

The past 10 days or so have been tiring and trying, but the work has been rewarding on many different levels. First, our work with City of Hope has uncovered several promising leads. Through our survey work, we have come into contact with some individuals who show potential to be community leaders. As perceived by the community, the area's prevalent needs include abandoned houses, a sense of community, and positive activities for the kids. Next, we plan to follow up with our contacts and work out details of partnering to begin joint church-community programs that will aid these needs. The process will be lengthy and difficult, but we are trusting in God's faithfulness and power. Of course, the goal is twofold: to help the community and to develop relationships by which to share the gospel. Please pray that we will have wisdom, insight, and creativity in developing successful outreach programs, and pray that God's word will penetrate the community and bring souls to salvation.

Personally, the biggest concern I have right now is transferring leadership of the outreach project from us summer missionaries to the believers at City of Hope. We are only here another month or so, and we have other projects besides community research and follow-up that we need to take care of. If the City of Hope members do not take up where we leave off, then our work's impact will be minuscule. Pray specifically that God will raise a group of passionate leaders who will claim as their own the vision of branching out of City of Hope's walls. Among the congregation, there are those who have the potential, those who have the knowledge, and those who have the excitement. Now they need to put one foot in front of the other. Hopefully, we'll get to meet with some of the up and coming leaders of the church Saturday or Sunday to teach them about survey work and out-of-the-box ministry. I trust the Spirit to work in them and guide them, shaping the vision into what He would have it be. To do that, I simply pray that our brothers and sisters will be open, obedient, and resilient.

We've had some fun the past couple of weeks, too. I went to Cedar Point (one of the world's best theme parks) a week ago today, and I found out what it was like going from 0 to 120 MPH in three seconds. Think drag racing with an open cockpit. SO MUCH FUN. :)

Blessings, all. Continue to pray for opportunities, boldness, and perseverance.    

The Week's Tidings

Today, conducting missional research finally became a reality. After three weeks of planning, training, side projects, and false starts and delays, we were able to begin survey work and door-to-door flyer distribution for City of Hope Church. We're working with Pastor Ben Curry, and we are excited to get out into the community and let our presence and mission be known.

City of Hope is in the Hough ward of Cleveland. First, the team (Now officially consisting of me, Daniel, Chris, and Ben Curry) put together a demographic report taken from census information. Then we explored and prayerwalked the area, met with Ben, made a target map, and began discussing ways for City of Hope to reach the needs and be set apart from the MANY "traditional" churches in the area. 

There is a plethora of "high" churches in the Hough community. Catholics, Lutherans, Seventh Day Adventist, Independent Baptists, etc. have a very strong presence, but the lostness and brokenness of Hough continues to increase. Something's wrong with this picture. Therefore, City of Hope has to find a way to show Christ to people in a way that is uniquely set apart from other churches. We believe that the answer is to be seen not as a church, to be seen not as "Christians" at all. We have to be Christ-followers. The "Christians" in the area are seen as the old-timers stuck in tradition who would rather complain about how the community has gone to the pits than invite their neighbor over for coffee. We have to get out IN the community, make our faces known, be actively striving to meet their needs and show them that Jesus really does love them. By just being there we're making a statement. Several native believers here have told us that this community's biggest need is for people to talk. By being different, by living our lives in a loving way, we can show that there is something about Jesus that has power. We can show that Jesus saves and Jesus causes change. 

City of Hope meets in a former Lutheran church building with a school building attached to the side. They hope to reopen the school as a Christian charter school because Hough's lack of education is appalling. The ripple affect of educational deficiency is made evident by the unemployment, poverty, substance abuse, and violence of the ward. By opening an affordable (hopefully free if they raise enough funds), quality school and providing free tutors and mentors, City of Hope desires to begin tangibly improving the community's quality of life.      

Two unfortunate circumstances occurred this week. One, someone broke into the church and stole the copper plumbing. The day after getting that fixed, the former Bishop of the Lutheran church came back and took all of the sanctuary's chairs, a good deal of its can lighting, and some mic stands. Since City of Hope launched several months ago, the Bishop has allowed Ben and his congregation to use the chairs. However, just after we get the chairs rearranged and comfortably adjusted to the space, the Bishop changes his mind. It's just one more attack by the enemy to frustrate City of Hope's work. But God wins. Always.  

We'll get new chairs in a couple of weeks, thanks to a blessing coming from NAMB. On a positive note, we surveyed several streets and made some really good contacts. Several people said that they wanted to come on Sunday, and several others were eager to meet with Ben over a cup of coffee to discuss City of Hope's vision and purpose. It's exciting to see God working already. There will be ups and downs, I'm sure. God has a purpose for all things, though, and even the downs teach us something about Him. We must praise Him in all things, and in all things trust and obey. There is no other way.        

A little Rest

Sometimes a little rest goes an awful long way.

After a week of slaving over VBS, walking my feet off, and helping cook for a short-term team of 85, I have been absolutely exhausted. On top of it all, my allergies have been killing me. Today, though, Kevin gave us an off-day... rest is a beautiful thing. I slept in, played some card games, and went hiking in Cuyahoga National Park. I am thankful for the time to relax.

Tomorrow, my team (Daniel, Chris, and I) meets with Ben Currie (our church-planter) to go over the survey and hopefully finally get to begin the research we've been training for. Although we've been involved in mission work and outreach, the actual church planting research process has been very stop-and-go. Once again, I've been reminded that God's timing is radically different from my own. Praise God that He is in control!

In other news, some of my best friends from NGU have reached their places of service for the summer. I now know people serving Christ in Israel, West Africa, Mexico, Ireland, Southeast Asia. Please keep all of us in your prayers. Especially pray for boldness. If we are to do God's work, willingness to speak/obey is imperative. It always has been. And so it always will be.      

Excuses?

It has been a long, tiring week. Missions work is anything but easy. I'm learning much, though, and loving pretty well every minute of it. Warning for any future missionaries: wherever you go, take a good pair of walking shoes. A REALLY good pair of walking shoes.

Wednesday, our team prayer-walked and invited communities to Gateway West's VBS/blockparty. It took hours... Very long hours. My partner, Will, (here on a five day mission trip) was great. He kept up with me with ease, talked with boldness, and didn't complain about the heat and sun. He offered no excuses... Even though he was crippled. For 5.5 hours, Will rolled his wheelchair along the asphalt and up driveways, even pulling himself onto porches when needed. He didn't look at what he lacked (properly working legs); he focused on what he did have: a relationship with Christ and the chance to serve. He took no excuses. Love doesn't let excuses hinder action, and joy can be found in all things when we count our blessings rather than dwell on our circumstances. Thank God for people like Will, and for giving us all the chance to learn from each other.