ramadan- do you hear the call?

It's Ramadan.


Most of us have heard this Arabic term, a reference to a special time for the Muslim world.  Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and the month in which the Qur'an was revealed.  It is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, a time for fasting, prayer and devotion to God. 

Throughout the month (August 1-30 this year), Muslims will refrain from food and drink during the daylight hours, and will attend services in the evenings, along with eating together throughout the nights.  Their aim is to draw closer to God, finding favor with him through these disciplines, and using introspection and devotion to become more consecrated.  They recognize fasting as a means to develop greater self-control, as well as a way for greater recognition of the needs of the poor throughout the world.  Ramadan is a time for the Muslim community to draw closer to God and to each other.

As the Muslim world prays, what will Christians do in response?  My hope is that the community of Christ-followers worldwide will lift their Muslims neighbors before God's throne, asking Him to indeed reveal himself in power and in truth to those who are seeking his face.  Unfortunately, the sad reality is that too many Christians find little impetus to pray for Muslims.  We too often view them with suspicion, fear, or from a safe distance.  After all, it's easy to not really care about those you don't really know.  But a recent comment from a friend put it all in perspective.  He told me, "I have a friend who's a Muslim and he's a great guy. I sure don't want him to go to hell."  That's the key isn't it?  To change your heart, your attitude, your outlook, you must enlarge or change your circle of friends.  Because you gain a completely different perspective when someone you never knew, maybe never cared to know, becomes connected to your life.

Why not use the month of August to pray for followers of Islam, to pray that they may find the truth and hope for life in Jesus?  Pray that God may reveal himself in dreams and visions to Muslims who are looking for a closer spiritual connection. Pray that walls of separation that exist between Muslims and Christians may begin to crumble.  Pray for your own life and your opportunities to share the love of God with Muslims around you, that God will bring you into meaningful contact with someone from Islam, that you will learn to see these people as God does.  

Because it's Ramadan...and it's time to pray.

australia's aboriginality

As we round the final turn and begin our run toward the finish, our Australia team has been blessed and sometimes overwhelmed with all God has shown us here in Queensland. A good portion of our last two days has been spent with the indigenous (aboriginal) community- observing, interacting with and learning from them as they live out lives straining toward a greater recognition and equality in this setting.

"Deadly" is a good term here!

  We spent the better part of Friday at NAIDOC(National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) which celebrates the indigenous cultures of the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  It is a festive, carnival-like atmosphere with much joy and thankfulness for the heritages presented.  We watched dances, heard singers and speakers, and interacted with organizations and vendors providing social services information for those in attendance.  

This afternoon we learned to throw boomerangs (some learned better than others) with Goma Conlon, an indigenous pastor and good friend.  He also demonstrated the playing of the didgeridoo (way cool) and talked about what it mans to be a follower of Christ in the aboriginal setting.  Following this, we hopped over to the church at which he and another indigenous pastor are working an shared evening service with them.  It was a great blessing to gather and worship with them.  Josh drummed for their worship team, Don and Alexis shared testimonies and Alexis sang.  What a rich history of stories and struggle were present  among those members!

I thought you might like to share one more collection of photos of this great team:

NAIDOC festivities in downtown Brisbane

Josh and Luke made a new friend

Papa Fresh in da house!

Time for chocolate fondue at Max Brenners

Don sharing testimony at Saturday night service

Remember these guys?! They were the bomb!

Josh and Alexis with Saturday night worship team

Please pray for our last hours here.  I'll preach Sunday morning at Ann Street, and Josh will speak for their Youth Church in the evening.  We want more chances to share the hope that's within us before we leave these shores.  Will you ask God to provide them, and for us to boldly speak of what He's done with our lives and what He wants to do for all who come to Him?  Thanks!  

We'll see youse soon- good on ya!

eidsvold doesn't sound australian

Our 2011 Australia GO! Team has had an incredible experience so far!  We just returned from 4 days in Eidsvold, a small community about six hours from Brisbane.  Our goal was to serve the Christian Center there, along with its new pastor, Mark, and his wife, Alex.  We had such a great time with kids and adults alike, playing sports, working through Bible lessons and crafts, singing, eating and running around together.  We also got better acquainted with different adults in town, learning much about the issues and circumstances surrounding this small community of both white and aboriginal residents.

It's tough to quantify our take-aways from this experience, or the impact we were able to have.  One local businessman did tell me that he appreciated our group being there, even for a few days each year, because he saw positive influence in kids' lives from our interaction with them.  He told me that our presence is a reminder of normality (imagine someone referring to us as normal!), that the world is bigger and more functional than what is seen only through the local lens of the town.  He thanked us for coming again, and offered his encouragement for our return next year.

The following are some more snaps of our last couple of days.  I'll write more about Eidsvold and other good stuff a bit later:

Pastor Mark and his wife, Alex

Prayer circle before leaving Eidsvold

Captain Luke, superhero of the crafts debris!

Lianna mixing it with kids during crafts

Craft Woman Leslee and her monkey

Beautiful Eidsvold kids

Josh and Clinton

Which way back to Brisbane?!

Alexis singing to an appreciative audience

Don (aka Papa Fresh) and the girls, Leslee and Daun

Please keep us in prayers as we head into our final weekend here.  Pray that we'll finish well and will take every opportunity to share the most important message on our hearts.  Pray that we will remain focused on the task at hand and not too distracted by thoughts of getting back to our "regular" way of life.  And pray that God will speak to us, even as He speaks through us, concerning lessons He's been showing us while serving here.  We just can't afford to be the same people when we return as we were before we left.


And those around us can't afford that either.

GO! Australia in Fine Fashion

GO! Australia in Fine Fashion

Wow! it's been a whirlwind first week here in Brisbane for our team. We've tried to update our activities via Facebook, but our long days/evening schedule has hindered blogging up to this point.

Ann Street Church

We made it here with no worries, surprising our missionary (Daun) with her father (Don)!  It was great to see her stunned expression at the airport as he came out the ramp! More than anything throughout this week, we've been impressed with the need and opportunity for relationships.  The young people of the Ann Street Church are so open for friendships, and those connections matter to them.  People with whom we've come into contact are also open to finding more about us and connecting with us on some level.  These opportunities are abundant and fairly easy to negotiate- something all of us are able to do!

Community BBQ

We've been to an island off Brisbane's shore with the church, visited a zoo, cleaned and begun repainting Ann Street's Fellowship Hall, eaten kangaroo, served a Community BBQ (like our Community Supper), dined at the Pancake House in the city at midnite, attended a farewell service for Ron Tatum (visiting for a month from Southside Christian Church in Inglewood), and prayer walked in the city...just to mention a few things. Tomorrow (Sunday), Mike will preach a combined service (Ann St. regulars and their Korean church), then we'll pack up and head to Eidsvold, a small, predominantly aboriginal community 6 hours from here.  Chances are there'll be no way to blog there, so we'll catch you up on our return next Thursday.  Meanwhile, thank you for your prayers and love (keep 'em coming!), and enjoy a few recent snaps:

Daddy Don

Luke the artist

Josh and St. John

Alexis and the Ann St. mob

Work crew gettin' it done

In 'N' Out training pays off 

Beach bunnies!

Mike keeping an eye out

We've experienced a lot in a short time, and there's more to come!  Pray for opportunity and boldness as we represent our God here.  We love you all
!

what makes a church look good?

I had lunch yesterday with Kevin Haah, lead pastor of New Life Christian Church (www.newcitychurchla.com) in downtown Los Angeles.  Kevin is the church planter of this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-socio-economic congregation that's grown to about 250 in just a few years.  New Life is a breath of fresh air on the streets of LA, and is a significant expression of hope in a culture that is in such great need.


Kevin and I talked about a new plan to involve churches in a church planting network (CPN) that would dream, plan, fund and encourage a collection of new church plants in the Los Angeles area.  We also talked about the urban church, and God's design and plan for it. We talked about examples from the book of Acts, from Jerusalem to Antioch and beyond. And we marveled at the ability of that first church to transcend class and cultural boundaries to demonstrate a community unlike anything the world had seen.

We talked about Acts 16 and the first "members" of the church in the city of Philippi.  The first person mentioned was Lydia, a seller of purple (Kevin called her a fashion executive!) who opened her small group of Jews to Paul in a gathering by the river (there was no synagogue in the city where the Jews could meet).  Lydia was a businesswoman, a woman of influence and position and a Jew.  And she found new direction and hope in the message Paul offered.


The second person impacted was a slave girl with a demonic spirit that allowed her foretell the future. Her owners made their living from her abilities...until Paul cast that evil spirit from her and gave her the chance to be what God had designed her to be.  This girl was homeless, bottom-of-the-barrel, even less than human in the eyes of those around her. Yet in Christ she now found her meaning value.


For all their work with this girl, Paul and Silas got tossed into prison, where their willingness to remain intact following the earthquake that freed all the inmates, gave them opportunity to share good news with their jailer and bring him and his family to salvation in Christ.  That man was a blue-collar company man, part of the dominant class, a man who managed the violence of life. But he found his peace through the Prince of Peace.


A female Jewish entrepreneur. A demonized riff-raff slave. A government enforcer.  As different from each other as possible.  Yet they were cornerstone pieces of what was to become the Philippian church.  God never intended for his people to have to look like each other on the outside. To have life experiences in common. To have to come from the same race, culture, class or life direction. In fact, his power and glory are much more powerfully demonstrated when those of us from vastly varied backgrounds find unity and oneness through what he's done for us. Through his sacrifice. His death. His gift of life for the world that he loves so much.

And when we gather around what we do have in common- a Savior who has called us, redeemed us and commissioned us- we create a community unlike anything the world understands. A community where "natural" barriers (e.g. race, culture, class, education, income) mean increasingly less and where love, acceptance, partnership and mutual edification take center stage.  Urban churches...and maybe more and more churches everywhere...must reflect this kind of look, because in so doing we reflect our immediate community.  And in so doing, we also reflect the bigger picture that will one day envelope all those who claim allegiance to Jesus.  That's heaven, of course.  


And if you don't feel comfortable with what I've described now, you're really gonna be disappointed on that Day.

a church without God? (another Kenya update!)

Every time we embark on a GO! Team adventure, God provides special people and opportunities for us to find.  Our time in Kenya was no exception.  While in Masii, we met Laura, a young French woman who was finishing an internship with a local NGO located in the same building where Tumaini had its offices.


Laura became close friends with many Tumaini people including William, the pastor of Masii Christian Chapel.  What made the friendship even more interesting was that Laura was a devout atheist.  Not only did she not believe in God, it made no logical sense to her how or why others would profess such a belief.  Laura was not shy about her views, and she and William had countless conversations about the plausibility of Christianity.  


We had the pleasure of meeting Laura shortly before her return to France, and we discovered some impressive dynamics about her relationship with the Christians in Masii.   She attended church services regularly, sang, contributed and fellowshiped in a personal and powerful way.  The church didn't convince her about the existence of God (yet) but it showed her something she'd never seen before- the unconditional love and caring of community.  And though she could deny the reality of God, she couldn't (nor did she want to) deny the reality of the love that a group of people from another culture showered upon her, even though they were on different pages when it came to faith!


The one thing Laura told us she wanted to do upon her return to France was to begin a church that had all the same fellowship components as those in Masii, but a church that didn't have to believe in God!  We chuckled as we talked about how that would ultimately look, since the love she'd found represented God himself.  And though it may sound strange to you that she wanted a church without God, I understood her sentiment as a tribute of the highest order to the believers there. She has perhaps never experienced such community in her life in France.  Yet people in another country, because of their faith took her in, accepted her, and by loving her made her hungry for more. She may not understand this as God's love (yet), but I believe she will.  And we're praying that this love will cause her to search until she finds it somewhere among God's people in her own culture.


I love the fact that the church in one small town made an international impact on one unbeliever simply by loving her the way Christ told them to. She promised us that she'd keep her mind and heart open to the possibility of God, and we told her that we would pray for her. Even though she's an insistent atheist. Even though she doesn't understand what she can't see. Even though she doesn't believe.


Yet.

there's no place like home (kenya update)

There’s no mistaking being here in Africa. The moment I step off the plane, the sights, the sounds, the smells and the atmosphere bombard my senses and scream to me that I’m not in Kansas anymore. I look around each day and remind myself, “I’m in Africa!”

There are so much that’s so different from what I’m accustomed to. Of course, Kenya is filled with…well, Kenyans. That’s obviously different. The driving, on the left-hand side of the road and, in Nairobi just about anywhere a driver chooses, is different. The warmth and kindness of friends and strangers here alike is pleasantly different. Foods, sights, conveniences, homes and much more- different.

But let me tell you a bit about last Tuesday. Pastor William of the Masii Christian Chapel, took Pastor Josh and me to make calls around town. We walked a distance from the primary part of town to a community known as “Kosovo.” It’s an alcohol brewing area, and most inhabitants are social outcasts. We got there before 10 a.m. and everyone had already been drinking for some time. We were invited to sit and as we conversed, the elder of the group, Peter, asked us if we believed they were misguided to drink as much as they did.

A conversation quickly blossomed. A conversation about what ought to control us, and deeper lordship issues. About Jesus making wine (OK, they said it was beer) and about making God happy. About the shame and self- contempt they felt because church people usually preached at and condemned them. About feeling unwelcome, uncomfortable and unloved in church. And about who Jesus might hang out with if he came to Masii. Suddenly, Africa felt a little more like home than it had.


We stood talking with a friend of William’s on a main street. A young man, obviously drunk approached us (is there a sign on me or something?!) and introduced himself as Abdullah. He insisted we buy him lunch, which William declined. He then asked us to follow him- actually, I think he dragged us- into what we thought was a restaurant to pray for him. Sitting with him in a booth of sorts, we realized we were in a bar and the half-empty glass of beer between us all was his. He poured out his heart, lamenting of his addiction to drink and the destruction it had caused. How he spent whatever money he earned on beer, even if it meant he didn’t eat. How he was tired and wanted change. He begged us to pray that he would be delivered. With tears in his eyes we prayed. And then we bought him lunch. Hmm, sure seems a lot like what I do at home.


William took most of our group to a corner of town where 15-20 young men gather daily to sell drugs. As we met these men, I had the opportunity to present the gospel to them. I spoke as William translated, and we found ourselves quickly surrounded by even more men, coming over to see what was happening with the wazungu (whites). A car pulled up behind us, something was removed from the trunk , something from within our midst replaced it, and it sped off with its newfound treasure. As we prayed with these guys, I saw the hollowness, the hopelessness, the longing for something better in their eyes. And somehow, I felt pretty much like I was at home.


I realize again how alike we are. That although customs and externals may not be the same, we’re not so far apart. Our very essence cries out for value, for freedom, for meaning and purpose, for love. From others and from God. We may dress ourselves in contextual uniqueness, but at the heart we’re very much alike. Don’t be fooled by what you see on the outside. It’s about the inside. It’s about people and our need to be right. With others and with God. In Kenya, in Africa, in America.


It’s good to be home.

tumaini...it's all about hope

It's 2:30 a.m. and I'm awake.  Preparing for our early morning flight that will take us (eventually) to Kenya.  That's where we'll spend the next couple of weeks working with Tumaini International Ministries.  Tumaini, founded by Stanley and Rose Mutunga, is a Kiswahili word that means hope.  Their focus is to come alongside AIDS orphans, through sponsorship, education and encouragement, and walk with them in their journeys toward adulthood.  These kids have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and usually live with grandparents, other relatives or friends.  Life is hard at best, and sponsorship ($35 monthly) makes the difference between failure and success for hundreds of children, both young and old.

We'll leave LAX at 8:00 today and touch down in Nairobi about 7:30 Wednesday night (11 hours ahead of LA time).  All Thursday and Friday morning will be in this capital city of 4+ million, as we will visit different ministry sites in one of the largest slums in Africa.  Then Friday we'll travel 2-3 hours south and east, to the small community of Masii, where Tumaini has its offices.  Doctor Ron Jurgensen (my favorite dentist!) is with us again and we'll pull teeth for a week for those who'll walk for hours just to sit in his chair and find the relief his skills can bring.  We'll also visit some of the children that our church sponsors, as well as meet with the new church there as they are designing strategies for planting a church in the nearby city of Machakos.  It promises to be a great couple of weeks.

Our team of seven includes KACC and Parkcrest Christian Church (7th St. campus, Long Beach), and our desire is to continue to partner with Parkcrest in this ministry of compassion and church planting.  Please pray for us as we travel, adjust, connect and serve.  Pray for divine appointments with those who need to hear good news, and for boldness to share.  Pray for unity within our team a life-changing experience...for Kenyans and Americans alike.

I recently read some words in Psalms that spoke to me in a fresh way about Tumaini:

He [God] raises the poor out of the dust,

And lifts the needy out of the ash heap,

That He may seat them with princes-

With the princes of His people.

                                          Psalm 113:7,8

Tumaini's work has lifted hundreds of children and adults alike from the dust, from life's ash heap, and is even now preparing a new generation to sit with leaders and movers of their land.  Because they're giving an opportunity to those who needed it.  Because they're giving compassion and care to many for whom no one else cares. Because they're giving a vision to many who had lost sight of their futures.

Because they're giving hope.