Education and creativity

rabbit trails and the source of positive

Yesterday I sat in church and listened to a brilliant message. The pastorman talked about our identity tethered to the Father. He took us from the gospel of John to Ephesians 3, talking about the revealed mystery of Christ being God in us, relationship with Him.

Then he shared a story about a monk: A long time ago there was a monk, who wanted desperately to rid himself of  lust for women and all other evil ties to this world, so he banished himself to the hermit life, living alone for 43 years in a cave. Upon his return to civilization, another monk asked him how his time had been. “I have not thought of a woman at all for the past 43 years!” were his first words, giving away that this was all he had thought about.

After this story I gave my mind to wandering about on rabbit trails, my hand scribbling loosely-conjoined thoughts. A few pages back I’d written a simple quote I’d heard or read: “Nothing substantial is built on a negative.” This was the essence of the story shared, that no amount of focusing on weakness makes us stronger. Once realizing our brokenness, no amount of meditation or deliberate focus on separation from this will have the desired effect. Nothing substantial, or good, is built on a negative. And ultimately, everything apart from God is a negative. He is the light that comes into the world and illumines the hearts of men (John 1.9). He is love, kindness, and all good gifts come from Him (James 1.17). Externally, there is no true Life, because He is the source from which Life flows. There are words of Life spoken into the world, great gifts we have which are meant for goodness, because they are good, and in order to lead us to Him and speak of His nature; things like art, music, and trees do this for me. There are also truths spoken into the world, facts and systems which show us how to live, like conscience and the internal knowledge of morality. Religion displays these systems in various narratives, telling of the human plight (sin, the flesh, the physical world, bad spirits, wrath, etc). But this is where true Christianity differs. We cannot fully rid ourselves of this disease by any work we do or mind-trick we conjure, because any effort of our own, apart from God, focuses more on the very thing which does not contain Life.

Instead, we have a God who does the work Himself, putting us to death in that negative nature, and raising us up in Life. Not only that, but He gives us His very nature, redeeming us in His image and sealing us with His own Spirit, so that the things we do will flow out from a source which has infinite love and life to give, from within. He calls us oaks of righteousness, sons of God, salt and light, a city set on a hill, priests, the Righteousness of God in the world.

So where is our focus? What do we spend more time thinking about: our screw-ups, our God’s nature in us?

I’ve not written anything in the past couple of months, not because my life is not exciting, but because i am simply not very good at timely blog updates.

Here is, in concise numerical format, some news from the past couple of months:

1. After the DTS, i had some time of rest, friends visiting Iceland, helping out in the coffeehouse, and having some quality YWAM Iceland team-time to look back and pray forward.

2. Skype, email and letters became very close friends. It just so happened that the incredible woman I was (and am) pursuing was thousands of miles and five hours time difference away.

3. On June second, I flew to Nashville, Tennessee to see this woman. Her name is Felicia Franklin. We met in Iceland last autumn, her coming to do her DTS, and me staffing her DTS, and neither of us knowing what we were getting into. There was such a natural connection between us as friends. And as we played scrabble or sat and talked, I began to realize that there was so much more about Felicia, and after we were in Africa I realized that I wanted to pursue her more deeply than friendship. She is so lovely, kind, sincere, real, passionate, God-seeking, fun to be around. Here are a couple pictures of our time in Tennessee:

in the park

double date with new friends, Evan and Lauren

4. After some time in Tennessee, we went up to Missouri to visit her dad’s family. It was great to get to know them a bit, eat a lot, and help out a tiny bit with the Joplin relief efforts. For more info on that, you can go to Felicia’s blog post: http://feliciamarieplease.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/joplin-cleanup/

5. And lastly, on June 21st I came up to Yakima, which is where I am now for a couple of weeks. hanging out with family and old friends, catching up, and meeting with supporters. The plan is to be here for a couple more weeks, then move back down to Tennessee for the summer. Then, it’s off into the unknown. We both want to go to Iceland, so we’ll see. Prayers are appreciated.

Bless!

Kenya outreach!

Here’s a video/slideshow that the lovely Felicia Marie Franklin created about our adventures in Kenya. She is wonderful, and i’ll write a bit about her later.
Anyhow, you know what they say: a video says a million words. Fortunately, you don’t have to read them all.

Peter and friends

Today I’d just like to tell a quick story about Peter, a 9-year old street boy in Nairobi.
When we arrived in Nairobi as a team after being in the bush-bush, we of course saw the most immediate needs of food and shelter. Nairobi is a city of about 2.5 million people. As we walked through this huge, chaotic city we were faced constantly with street kids and women begging, often high on glue. Seeing these people with compassion, God led us into a really simple kind of ministry: we would buy fruit in the market, go into town, and just sit with the people, praying for them and showing them Jesus however we could.

One day while on our ‘fruit ministry’ we split into groups; mine walked down to the spot where the kids normally sat during the day, but noone was there. Eventually one of the kids named Peter walked up and sat with us. Peter had met us before a few times, so we’d gotten to know him a little bit. Immediately it had become obvious that there was something really special about this boy. He had such a gentle and honest spirit, and seemed not to have been quite so affected by the streets as a lot of the other kids had. He told us that the other boys were with a tall ‘Mzungu’, or white man, who had meetings every friday. I asked him to take us there. He led us through the city, into this sketchy-looking building, up a dark staircase (as we began to wonder about the line between trust and naivety). When we arrived on the roof of the building we saw this tall dutch man he’d been talking about: Jan Jaap. About a week previously, a dutch man on the Athi River base had given me his details, and we’d been trying to get ahold of each other for the past days–it just hadn’t worked. so here we are trying to figure out our outreach focus in Nairobi, and we are led right to the place by a homeless child.

I could say so much more about Jan Jaap and his wife Esther. They have been led by God in ways I can hardly imagine to start their own organization for the least of the least in Nairobi. Three days a week they have meetings either for the street-kids or street-women, wherein they simply pour out love on them, tell them about God, and give them food. They want to start a women’s shelter soon. And everything they do, because it’s led by God, is fruitful.

But for now i’ll just say a little bit about Peter. Over time, it becomes harder to see the potential and life in these kids. To cope with harsh life on the streets, they become addicted to glue, numbing the pain. They are abused, neglected, and starving. Their eyes and mannerisms show the weight of it all.  But Peter still had this inexplicable life in him. When he went to meetings at the roof-church, he was hungry for truth.

For the month we were in Nairobi we hung out with and loved these kids. They kind of stole our hearts. Especially Peter and a couple of his friends. And we were so honoured to be able to just hang out with them and pour love into them for a little while. These kids have stories of abandonment, neglect, survival… but what God’s love does when it enters into their stories is it changes everything. They suddenly have the value that Christ applied to people when He said:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

If you’d like to support the incredible stuff Jan Jaap and Esther are doing in Nairobi, go to:  http://altijdgenoeg.nl/index.php?id=32

It’s all in dutch, but the address in pink is their banking details. Thanks!

quick story of the day.

On January sixth of this year, a team of nine people who love Jesus arrived in Kenya with a plan to be there for almost 3 months, loving people and seeing God released all over the country. This was my DTS team. We had from our first Discipleship Training School in Iceland 7 precious students: 5 from the states, 1 Icelander, 1 German, and my coleader from Holland.
The first place we were was Athi River, a place in the bush-bush just outside of Nairobi. We stayed at was the YWAM base there. It was perfect, being a part of a healthy community as an introduction to this other world called africa. One of the projects we worked with there was an orphanage in-the-making by a lady named Angela. She was a middle-aged Kenyan woman with a lot of laughter and a mother’s heart, who for the past ten years has been dreaming of a place where she could give orphans a home and raise them up to Godly people. In faith, she bought a plot of land in a drought-area and dug a well. Now she is providing water for surrounding shambas (small farms).
Our job as a group was simply to help in the practical work. Before any buildings were built, holes had to be dug and trees planted. It was fun digging in the hard african dirt while still adjusting to the hot african heat. One day while we were taking a break I took a walk with Angela. We talked about visions and dreams for the future, and the faithfulness of God in all things. Here was a woman so sure of the goodness of God as a father, she was willing to work towards what she knew was God’s will in the face of all kinds of unlikelihoods. I just walked along and listened to her stories of God’s constant provision, my faith expanded with each step and sentence.
Most of the knowledge of God we gain in this life, i’m convinced, will come not in huge revelation or audible voice from heaven, but in simple relationship with people, who are the Image of God. In these past months so much was gained for each of us in conversation with people. Angela was just one of the people I learned from while in Kenya. One of the beauties of outreach or just travelling in general is meeting people outside our own worldview. Along those lines, here is a quote from one of my favourite friends, C.S. Lewis:

“it may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

the last six months

How does one even begin to go about the business of processing, evaluating, and summarizing six months of really intense and full, adventure-filled life? I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea, and have therefore been dreading the thought of writing blogs. Today, like every other in the past couple of weeks, I thought, “I really need to get on those blog updates.” And here I am.
Instead of summaries and vague, exuberant posts, I’ve decided just to tell stories. So for the next few days, I’m going to simply post stories of things that God said and did with us in the past six-month escapade. Here are a few pictures which might get explanations at some point: