Thoughts on poverty…

As Jesus ministered to people, he fought poverty. He did this in two ways. First, he healed people of sicknesses and debilitating physical situations. This would allow the person to no longer be secluded socially, meaning they could legitimately pursue employment or servanthood. They would be ceremonially clean. Also, Jesus took care of the heart issue. A lot of people are unable to work because of something internal, like intense bitterness or hatred that clogs a person’s heart and head from being able to focus clearly. The deep emotional problems could impede a person’s ability to work consistently or productively. When Jesus forgave them, a heart transformation took place and they had the ability to rid themselves of the guilt, emotions or depraving effects of sin. If we take this model to a modern era, we could be effective in fighting poverty just as Jesus did. Take care of people’s physical and spiritual needs. If you get rid of the excuses to work, then they will have to own up to who they are inside. At that point, they will either choose to move on in God’s forgiveness and make something significant of themselves, or they will go back to self-pity and self-deprecation; rendering themselves beggars of pity, and “helpless” aside from others’ charity.

This may come across as a little harsh or hard, but it also comes from not knowing every circumstance of every person who is living in a poverty situation. I am only writing out of a general sense from the stories I have encountered in life, not an all-encompassing knowlegde.

Not sure what to do

I still have this desire inside of me to go to Africa some day. I don’t know when that opportunity will arise. I think the desire started when I was much younger, maybe 12 or so. At the CMA church of which I used to be a member, I had the fortune of meeting many missionaries. They told amazing stories of adventures, people who were very different from me and of what God was doing in his world. I believe it was then that the smallest seed of curiosity was planted. By the time I reached college, I was able to take courses about any subject I fancied. I took a few which touched on Africa, its history and its geography. I was sold. I needed to go see it for myself. I needed to affect change. I needed to help whoever and however I could.

So, it still comes down to waiting to see what happens in the near future – what direction my life takes.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Here are some thoughts that I found about being a disciple. I gathered them from various sites by Jewish and Christian communities. Here they go:

Talmid is the Hebrew word for disciple, it means student.

Talmid’s job is to learn everything that his master had to teach.

The disciples of the first century Judaism learned everything from their teacher, and they learned to be just like their teacher. They learned the stories that the teacher told. They learned the lessons that their teacher taught. They learned to eat the foods that their teachers ate, the way their teacher ate them. They learned to keep the Sabbath the way their teacher kept Sabbath and to give charity the way their teacher gave charity. They learned to pray the way their teacher prayed and fast the way their teacher fasted. They learned how to keep God’s commands the way their teacher kept them. The disciples followed their teacher everywhere he went, and the teacher taught his disciples everything he could.

Then, after a disciple was fully trained, he would become a teacher and teach disciples of his own.

Every disciple fully trained will be like his teacher. – Luke 6:40

Disciples regarded their teachers higher than their own fathers. This was a servant to master relationship.

There are 4 jobs of a disciple: memorize their teacher’s words, learn their teacher’s traditions and interpretations, imitate their teacher’s actions and raise up disciples.

Matthew 28:19-20 shows that what we are to do is nothing more than what disciples are supposed to do anyway, make more disciples.

The disciples of Jesus were never to take the role of master, because unlike the masters of the Pharisees or the men of the Great Assembly or sages like Hillel or Shammai, Jesus is still alive. Followers or Jesus are forbidden to make their own disciples because their job is to raise up more disciples of Jesus.

Jesus was the kind of rabbi that had authority to teach new interpretations of the scriptures. Sermon on the mount is full of examples of this kind of teaching.

The purpose of the talmidim was to totally duplicate the lifestyle of their Teacher.

Hebrews 13:7

It is a daily effort to deny self, know the Savior’s way of life, and live accordingly.

John 13:34-35

Luke 14:26

These thoughts came from here, here and here.

Relationships

Today was filled with relationships. It started out with a breakfast with Gill and Caleb, where we shared vision and dreams, ideas and fears. It was awesome. Plus, Gill cooked some omelets for us that were amazing. We were able to encourage and pray for each other. We discussed how too many people who love Jesus live in too many shallow relationships. You go places to be seen and ask superficial questions about each others’ lives, without taking into account who God has placed in your path and what he may want to do in and through that relationship.

Then, I was able to go have lunch with four of my small group guys at Zaxby’s. Brandon, the intern came along as well. It was a lot of fun and we got to tell some crazy stories. It was awesome to be able to connect with the guys and to see them respond to me as their leader. I hope that I will continue to pour into their lives as I lead the small group. It was good to hang out with Brandon again, I think he has tremendous potential and a real passion for missions. We talked about going to Africa and what organizations to look into. I can’t wait to see what God does in his life.

Then, after lunch, I was able to meet with Jake and ask him some questions about relationships and life. He is so amazing and encouraging. He always knows the kind of advice that I need and doesn’t mind asking tough questions. I appreciate all of the help that he has been to me through the last five months. He told me that any future relationships I pursue need to not be based on my tendency to be idealistic and romantic, but on reality and appropriateness. I put a picture in my mind of what would by amazing and then try to make it happen whether the relationship is ready for it or not. I must guard my heart and her heart from me taking the reigns of the relationship. I must wait on and be inspired by God for success in any relationship.

Next I had the chance to catch up with one of my old roommates and talk to him about relationships and work and life. It is always a pleasure to talk with him because he is so humble. He makes you feel like you are such an outstanding person, but the whole time you realize that he is amazing as well. He has a bunch of potential as well. His heart is sensitive to others’ needs and he has a penchant for serving people. I love to be around him. I hope his time in the army goes well and that he doesn’t lose sight of God’s direction for him in the middle of all the other orders.

I called Dad on the way from the old house to my apartment and asked him about what he thought about my relational readiness. He asked some tough questions about healing and moving on from the past. It was good to talk to him and have to explain it out loud instead of just letting things bounce around in my head. I may have to move home if I can’t find a job that can take care of my bills and such. This has an upside and a downside. Cheaper living, being near the family and getting a chance to relax for a little while are great things, however, I would miss the church and my friends and miss a potential relationship. I don’t really know what to do, but I know that God has my life under control. I just have to trust him and keep looking for his hand’s movements.

Home group was great tonight because we were able to be really candid. Struggles were discussed and we shared encouragement and prayer for each other. It was refreshing.

I finished the night with a friendly phone call. It was a fantastic day, all in all.

Tonight

I had home group tonight, which was awesome.  We talked about Judges 17 & 18, the story of Micah and his idols.  It was really interesting what you can learn from other people’s mistakes.  We discussed life paths and trusting God to provide direction for us when we keep his word in our lives.  It seems to be a pretty common theme among guys my age.  I was encouraged by the guys and we told stories and gave advice.  One of the guys posed an interesting question about being a robot for God.  If you could give up free will to do exactly what God wanted of you all the time, would you do it?  It made us all think about grace and loving God by choice and what does obedience look like.  It also brought up God asking us to do stuff that we don’t desire to do, like move somewhere else away from home to serve him.

After home group, I went to one of the guy’s houses to see their new fire pit, which was awesome.  It was about five feet across and was made of thin cinder blocks in a circle about a foot high, with stones on the outside for aesthetics.  I tried to help with the original design a few weeks ago, but this was much better.  They made a gravel trail from the house to the pit and lined the path with Christmas lights.  The only problem with the experience was the railroad tie that they threw on the fire made the smoke smell like roofing tar.  I still smell like the smoke.  Then we watched part of a really awesome video called Open Road.  It was about going across the country on a road trip to talk with successful people about how they followed their passion to get where they are.  It was really amazing to hear the stories.  I would not mind doing something like that some day.  I guess I should get on that soon if I am going to do it.

After I left, I was able to pick up a guy who’s truck had broken down and was two miles from his hotel walking around in the freezing cold.  He told me that even a police officer had refused to help him.  I think it was a divine appointment from God.  He offered me money for the ride, but I refused so that I could ask him to come to NewSpring instead of paying me.  I had sympathy for him because three or four years ago I had a similar situation where no one would pick me up when my truck broke down.  I really hope that he does come to one of the services in the next week or so.  I know I could have used the money he offered, but I felt it was worth turning it down to show how free God’s love is.  Hopefully we will see if it pays off.

During the home group, I felt like I really needed to just follow a desire that I have had for a long time.  Go to Africa.  So, I went to Google and looked up mission trips.  I filled out an information request at a website, and I would love to lead a group of people in serving God in Africa.  I also looked up a job at the local YMCA that was recommended to me.  Hopefully one of those will work out, either them or the marketing job in Greenville.  I know God wants to do something huge in my life, I just don’t know where to look yet.

Goals from last year

I had six goals from last year that my direct supervisor at the church asked me to set: three personal, three professional.

My personal goals were: get married, run a half or full marathon and read at least 9 books.

My professional goals were: pursue a full time job that can support being married, find better ways to take advantage of my gifts and abilities and lastly, to run/plan/experience a mission trip (preferably not in SC).

How I fared:

In my personal goals, I only accomplished one. I was engaged until August of last year when following the prompting of the Spirit, we decided to break off the relationship. This was a fantastic decision. Partially because I didn’t want to force a marriage with someone who had already backed out of the relationship, and partially because I realized that in so many ways I was not ready for that kind of relationship. I had begun to idolize her and had begun to pour myself out endlessly to salvage something that I would have known was ending if I had spent that time with God instead of just her. I have no problems with her, I still think she is an amazing person with tremendous potential, however, I know that marriage is not for either of us right now. I was planning to run a marathon with her. I am not a runner by habit or by interest. I was running for health and relationship reasons. When the relationship ended, so did my motivation to run. I would not mind running a half-marathon some day, I will just have to re-motivate myself. I did, however manage to read at least 9 books. They were: Integrity, Transforming your Temperament, Developing the Leader Within You, The Serving Leader, Next Generation Leader, The Ragamuffin Gospel, The Five Love Languages, Creating Community, Epic, Desiring God, Experiencing God and The Hush (which is an as yet unpublished book that my father wrote and I had the privilege of helping edit). I think there was at least one more, but I can’t think of it right now. I may come back to this if I figure it out later. The best books were Temperament, Serving, Ragamuffin and Integrity. Dad’s book is great, but it is unpublished, so I will leave it out for now. On the other hand, Community and Developing were both not quite worth my time. The book on community was just a regurgitation of the method that the supporting church uses and how you can do the exact same thing that they do. It does not go through the reasoning or theology or even the creativity of the group model, just a recipe for groups. The Developing book was chock full of errors in the text. I don’t claim to be grammatically perfect, or a perfect speller, but I do expect someone who publishes a book to have someone else read it before printing it. There were no less than 15 errors in the first 15 pages. That is unacceptable to me. Also, it was just a meta-list of to do’s for leaders and borrowed quotes from great men and women. Enough of that.

My professional goals went a little better. I was able to pull off a mission trip, however it was not outside of the state. This past Summer I was able to produce, through God’s help, a slightly more successful version of Mission:Anderson. We had many more students and the work was more substantial in nature. Although it was done during the hottest week of the Summer, no one had any medical issues. Praise the Lord. That attempt was more successful for my personal progression as a leader as well. I forced myself to delegate the projects and tasks in preparation to my co-workers, giving me some much needed breathing room. It was a complete blast and I was able to forge some great relationships with students by working alongside them. That is ministry to me. I was also able to hone my gifts and abilities across the year. I was involved in multiple videos for not just the student ministry, but was given the privilege of starring in some videos for the main service. The crowning moment was being asked to do an MC gig at the volunteer appreciation night. This was coupled with a video where I was playing Ron Burgundy. The church leadership seems to appreciate and trust my gift to be funny. I am very grateful for that. I was given different responsibilities for the student ministry as well. One was to pull of a Friday Night Live for the Uprising week. Mission:Anderson was another. Those worked on my leadership abilities and creativity. Also, being asked to be a part of the Gravity team for the new merged student ministry format was a privilege. I am able to work on my creative process and share many ideas with my fellow staff. The best part of being able to be part of that team is knowing that the result will be changed lives through the work of the Holy Spirit when the final product is presented. The one goal that I did not bring to fruition was the full time job deal. I am still looking today. I know God has something amazing planned for me. I just have to trust him and wait to see just what it is.

Africa Rescue

Here is an idea that I had on 2/12/06:

Have a halfway house/orphanage on the coast of the Mediterranean that takes children from war torn African states and puts them in a place where they have a chance to not only survive, but succeed.

Either the children can be adopted or can stay and relocate when they reach 17-18 years old.

This venture would need lots of political ties for visas and travel clearance. It would have to have plenty of language training for the people who work at the facility.

All of the young boys would be taught trade and job skills. Instead of being taken from their village and made part of a militia group, they could have a chance to work and produce. All of the young ladies would be in charge of taking care of all of the younger children, including babies. This would teach the parenting skills that they would miss from growing up as an orphan.

It would also need ties to countries in Europe who speak the corresponding languages that the children speak. That way there could be a work program set up for the older children to go work in a country where they can raise children without constant war threats.

Have ties with local schools or eventually have a school as part of the facility.

Start the venture off with only 12 or so children with high intensity discipleship as the main focus of the entire experience. Then, when they have gone through 5 or more years of the program, you can allow them to disciple some of the new, younger children. That way, everyone is both learning and teaching as they go through the process. Then, you give the most solidly founded and trained 17-18 year olds to go back to their homes or countries and become a sort of missionary.

At first, it would require traveling around Africa to find children who are able to come to the orphanage, but eventually, it would be recognized as a success and people and governments would want to send their children the program.

There would have to be special care given to the placement of children in the facility. If two children from warring factions of one country are put together before any progress is made, it could be very difficult and detrimental to not only the children from the country, but also the other children who live in the home.

It may be easier to locate the home on the coast of Spain, or on one of the Greek islands so that there would be easier ties to Europe and the EU.

Potentially go multi-site as demand grows for the benefits it provides the children.

Possibly have a location in the Caribbean to expand for help with Haitian and Cuban refugees. It could eventually expand to where a large parcel of land is purchased in America or Africa for a community of “graduates” to settle and create a safe community from which to launch a new life. The graduates would use the skills they have acquired to build the community from the ground up.