Drew in Missions

I’ve got less than two months left in Thailand, and I’m hoping to make the most of them. That meas tackling new challenges head on. I received one of those challenges this week. The Maw Chaw Church and Payap Church want to give their kids a “Youth Group Experience.” They’ve been searching for someone to step in to that role, sort of like a summer intern at a church back in the states. They’ve asked me to do the job.

This is really exciting news to me, because I loved my youth group. I thoroughly enjoyed our service projects, fun outings, and the friendships I made there. Some of my fondest memories are of times spent with my youth group, and now I have the opportunity to pass that blessing on.

I was also blessed to have some of the best youth ministers imaginable. Chris and Tonya Fikes and Jon and Amy Buchanan were absolutely incredible. They mixed fun-loving attitudes with real concern for our spiritual well-being, wrapped up in an authentic friendship. After witnessing what they did for me, I’m eager to try to be that for these kids.

Please be praying about this new task, as it’s going to take time, patience, and lots of work. But even so, I’m super excited!

“The true prophetic message always calls us to a spiritual defiance of the world as it is now.”

In the Radical Prayer, we bring before God the injustices of the world. We beg, barter, and plead for a world that needs to see the power of God. We brings requests the are filled with passion and fervor. We audaciously petition God to give those around us another chance, to postpone their judgement, giving them another opportunity to come to Him.

Walter Wink once said, “Biblical prayer is impertinent, persistent, shameless, and indecorous. It is more like haggling in an outdoor bazaar than the polite monologues of the churches.” Think about that point. Compare some of the prayers uttered by the Faith Heroes of the Bible to what you hear on Sundays.

In Genesis 18, Abraham is literally haggling with God. “What if there were five less good people? Would you really destroy the whole city if there were only 45 good people instead of fifty?” That is bold. Bold to the point of making me nervous and a little uncomfortable. God’s the Creator, and we’re the created. Are we really allowed to question His will like that? Can we ask Him if He’s sure about doing something?

God knows what Abraham’s doing. Yet He doesn’t smite him where he stands for his impudence. In fact, He concedes to Abraham multiple times, going as far as to promise not to destroy the city if ten righteous people are in it.

In the very next chapter, Lot is fleeing the city, because it’s going to be destroyed, and the angels tell him to run to the mountains, or else he will die. But Lot, even as he’s running for his life, says he can’t, and wants to flee to a nearby little village. He convinces them to postpone the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and to spare the little village.

Moses also bargained for the salvation of others. After the golden calf incident, he went to a very angry God on their behalf. “So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

Moses basically said if you aren’t going to give them another chance, you might as well damn me, too. That is not something we hear very often in our churches today. Imagine how many heads would shoot up from their bowing position if next Sunday you heard, “And God, please judge the the atheists, serial killers, and terrorists yet. Give them another chance to turn from their ways. If you don’t, you may as well not give any of us another chance, since all sin is the same in your eyes.” I bet at least one person would get whiplash from looking up so fast.

The thing is, if we’re fervently praying for God to change the world, for Him to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, and love those who have never known His love, we soon will see that He wants desperately to do these things. Through us.

Oops.

Imagine you see a homeless person as you drive under a bridge, and you can tell he’s freezing cold. Can you honestly pray with all your heart that God will keep him warm, then drive away in your heated car, with a jacket in the back seat? Maybe I’m over-simplifying, but it seems like if we really prayed radical prayers while meaning every word, we would naturally want to do everything we could to solve the problems we brought before God.

I remember as a child praying for things. They were almost always items I wanted, or skills I desired, or help in my problems. Now I feel like I’ve moved further away from that model, and I see that prayer oftentimes is God showing me where I should be spending my time and effort. If I’m praying really hard for the kids in HYPE, because so few have a strong, Christian male as a role model, it seems like God is whispering in my ear, “I’d love for you to help Me with that…” When I pray for my co-counselors to do a better job at keeping a balance between being a cool friend-type and authority figure, I find that I’m convicted to set an example of how it should be done. And here in Thailand, when I pray for more opportunities to be a light, I remember the times when I’ve missed what could have been a chance to show Christ.

If we presume to tell God that this world is not as it should be, we’d better be ready to do whatever He says to correct the situation.

After a day where we had to replay one eleven track CD for the kids to listen and dance to, I was asked to use my vast repetoire of music to create an energetic, upbeat playlist for us to jam. One of my additions, and a personal favorite, is Haddaway’s only hit, What is Love? It blasted over our speakers, but the question it posed did not go unanswered.

Love is a hungry child being fed seconds before the servers get their food. Love is the soreness you feel the morning after spending all day with kids climbing from your arms to your back to your shoulders. Love is teaching kids how to better speak another language, so that they can maybe sell more postcards, and help their families eat tonight. Love is being drenched in sweat due to a scorching sun, but not complaining. Love is a lice comb that has run through the hair of dozens of little girls, all who were assured that they were sa adt, suay, or as Americans would say, beautiful. Love is a tear in the eye of Christian who can’t bear the pain of leaving these children behind.

What is love? It is a humble servant, earnestly trying to do the Father’s will.

Before reading this post, let me make a suggestion. This isn’t a “Hey, check out all the fun I’m having!” post. This isn’t a warm and fuzzy, feel-good post. These are my thoughts as I looked into a world I had never seen. These are the motions I felt as I looked into a begging child’s eyes. Read this when you have some time to think, not just in the spare moments between checking emails on a busy day. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond, even if you disagree.

I could spend adjective after adjective and paragraph after paragraph describing the time elapsed between leaving the Bangkok church at 5:30 A.M. and arriving in Siem Riap at 9:00 P.M. I could go into explicit detail about the bus break-downs, the difficulties of trying to cross the border into Cambodia, or the bumps, turns and motorcyclists who randomly cut in front of several tons of metal in forward motion. But instead of wasting energy on trivial matters, I’ll cut right to the core of what’s going on.

Street children. Beggars. Babies. Sex slave trade. Eight year olds trying to support their families by selling postcards to foreigners. Amputees.

Poverty. Abject poverty.

And here I am, toting my laptop computer in my backpack full of nice clothes. With an iPod in one pocket and a wallet with plenty of money in the other. Son of well-off, Godly parents. Raised in a loving and supporting community. Given the opportunity to go not only to school, but to complete high school. Able to attend college.

Wealth. Blessings beyond counting.

The world is not a fair place. This is not how life was meant to be lived. The few were not meant to horde money, power and influence. The unfortunate were not meant to be mired in poverty they have no chance to escape from.

Why have we not done anything about this? Why are there people all over the world barely surviving on pennies a day when the affluent drop $20 on a steak dinner without even blinking? How can we justify needing water filters, bottled water, and purified ice because our tap water “doesn’t taste good” when thousands die because of a lack of clean water? How have we convinced ourselves that the wars that are going on today aren’t worth notice? Do we not realize that every casualty of war: every soldier killed, every village annihilated in tribal wars, every victim of the genocides of our time, each one of them who doesn’t know Jesus faces the Judge without Defense?

Why have we as a church not stepped up to put an end to this injustice? Micah 6:8b “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with you God.”

We have failed to act justly in regards to Cambodia. Either we have ignored the call to seek out the needy and remain ignorant of those God has called us to bestow mercy upon, or we have chosen to turn a blind eye to the pain, suffering, and poverty here. Neither is a flattering statement about our faith.

Of course, there are some who have been called to other ministries, and are giving their heart and soul to bringing about the justice and mercy God spoke of through Micah. But I wonder how many people truly fall into that category. I fear I am not a Mercy Lover, but an Ignorer. I’m afraid that when people look at the way I act, the way I spend money, the way I spend my free time, they will see someone ignorant of the world around him, instead of one working for justice.

There are no easy answers in this post. That’s because selling everything you have and giving it to the poor isn’t an easy answer. Dedicating your life to righting wrongs perpetrated against the impoverished, the widows, and the orphans isn’t what we want to hear. I bet there are some church-goers who would consider it too much to ask of them to request that they spend five minutes a day in prayer for Cambodia.

What does all this mean? I don’t know. I can’t fix this on my own. But I do know that a life spent seeking justice, loving mercy, and humbly walking with God would be a life worth living. Guess I’d better get started.

Bangkok is a dirty, smelly city. It’s riddled all kinds of sin, from thievery to prostitution to gangs. It is a city that is famous for some of the evils that are perpetrated within her.

Yet there is a ray of hope nestled in the middle of this bustling metropolis. Somprasong Church is a foothold for God and His word in Bangkok.

I spent two days in the capitol of Thailand, and was amazed by the community of believers that worships there. One hundred and fifty men, women, and children of faith worship together there. But don’t let the number fool you; they are a tightly knit group, yet know how to make others welcome.

We spent most of Saturday exploring the city. And by “exploring the city,” I mean traipsing through malls… Bleaugh! It wasn’t too bad, since we broke it up with a good movie, 10,000 B.C. But the real fun came the next day.

We woke up and attended church, which was all in Thai. I’m able to pick up a few words here and there now, which is quite heartening. Afterwards Julie, Kaz, and I got some lunch, then hung out around the church. One of my new friends, P’Berm, invited me to come play volleyball with them. He didn’t need to tell me twice.

If any of my readers are veterans of my blogging, you may remember many posts on my old website concerning the joys of V-Ball. It’s by far my best sport, and it’s also my favorite. Last night was the first time in a long time I’d played volleyball, and the first time in years I’d played really competitively.

The Thais I played with and against were amazing. They jumped really high, had pinpoint placement, and devastating spikes. The setting was exceptional, and they played unselfishly and as a team. It was a sight to behold.

I was not the best player on the court by a long shot, but I held my own. On the first play, the other team apparently decided to test out the farang. They set it to one of their best hitters, who was right across from me. He and I leapt into the air, him spiking with all his might, me with my arms outstretched.

I felt a stinging sensation throughout my arms as my bare feet found their way back to the cement. The volleyball dropped to the ground, and bounced a few times before coming to a rest. Both sides let out a collective, drawn-out, “Ohhhhhh…” as they looked at me and the hitter. The ball had fallen on the other side.

Whenever I first join a game, I always like to make a great play, as opposed to getting owned. Even though their were many errors in my playing throughout the night, I performed well and proved that I belonged on that court. That first play is now ingrained in my memory. I hope to return there someday, and challenge them again.

The cool thing about Sunday was that church was an all-day affair. Not a lot of Americans I know would count that as a good thing, but it was a real blessing. After church we hung around each other, eating, fellowshipping, and playing games. It felt like everyone genuinely wanted nothing more than to spend time with their church family.

Our mission trip to Cambodia to work with street children is fast approaching. We leave in about three hours for a twelve hour train ride to Bangkok. We’ll head out of there Monday early morning, then spend the week in Cambodia. We’ll get back sometime Tuesday around 6 A.M. I probably won’t be able to post much, if anything, on the trip, but I’ll do my best to write down my thoughts, experiences, and stories. I’m also hoping to read more of the Prayer book during the long rides, so I might have a couple of posts on that ready to go. We’ll see what’s up in a little more than a week. Until then, blessings!

Sorry for the low quality, but something was messing up in my iMovie application, and I wanted to get this done while I still had the time. The first song is by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the second is by Sister Hazel. Hope you enjoy!

Today I started reading a book that I tried to read back in the day, but it was too much for me. Now that I’ve got a little more maturity and discipline, and faithful readers to share with, I’m going to try it again.

The book is just called “Prayer.” It was penned by Richard Foster, author of several great books on Christianity, most notably “Celebration of Discipline.” If you want to follow along, it’s well worth the price to buy it, and I feel like the knowledge within its pages can help believers in any stage of life. My hope in sharing my thoughts and feelings from the book is not only to let you see what’s going on with me, but also to give y’all a chance to learn and grow with me. Comments are always welcome, but especially so as I delve into a subject that is way over my head.

I won’t be reading it front to back, instead I’ll be reading whichever chapter I feel God leading me towards. Today, that chapter was Intercessory Prayer.

The chapter starts out with the following words: “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others.” Foster goes on to outline how as priests in the faith of God, we are not only given the chance to intercede between God and others, but it’s our duty, our job.

It’s really a call to pray unselfishly. Intercessory Prayer is all about spending your time and energy investing in someone else, knowing that by praying for them you can make a difference. When you start to do this, putting others above yourself in your prayer life, it seems like it becomes easier to put others ahead of yourself in the physical realm. Once your heart and spirit are in the habit of serving others needs, your body follows suit.

Foster gives an illustration from the Bible. In the Old Testament, two battles were fought simultaneously. The physical battle was waged by Joshua and an army of Israelites. The spiritual battle was fought by Moses, Aaron, and Hur on a hill overlooking the fight. While Moses lifted his arms in prayer for his people, they were winning, but when his arms tired and fell, their side began to lose ground. Aaron and Hur eventually had to help hold Moses’ arms up until evening, when both battles concluded victoriously.

This is a great example of Intercessory Prayer (henceforth I.P.) at work, because it shows all four participants in the cycle. Joshua and the army are the prayed for. They’re out on the front lines, in danger, needing help from above. Moses is the Intercessor, who puts his heart and body into praying for those he is called to lift up. Aaron and Hur are right next to Moses, ready to encourage and help him in any way they can. They stick by his side until the task is completed. And God is the most important player. He gives the victory to Joshua, he puts the will to pray in Moses, and encourages through Aaron and Hur.

As far as I.P. goes, I don’t think we need to worry about God holding up his end of things. He’s more than able, so I’m more worried about the human aspects of these prayers.

First off is the Joshuas, who are out in the middle of the fray. Sometimes those we need to pray for don’t recognize that they’re in the middle of a spiritual war. They don’t see that they’re fighting for their lives. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference. In times like those, I think a good place to start is to pray that God opens their eyes to their surroundings.

Next are the Moseses, who are greatly invested in the outcome of the battle they are watching. Maybe it’s a family member who hasn’t put their trust in Christ or a brother or sister who is fighting against a stubborn sin in their life, but I feel like we all know someone in the middle of a spiritual onslaught. When we care enough about them, and we realize we can’t do anything to help on our own, we are drawn to petition God on their behalf. It’s natural to ask for help for them, letting our concern give birth to prayers and supplication.

Last are the Aarons, the men and women who encourage the Moseses as they lift up others. As a Moses pours himself out, he needs an Aaron, maybe several, to encourage him and fill him back up. Giving one’s all in prayer for another is an arduous and tiring task, and is something very difficult to succeed in on your own. You need people around you to lift you up in the moments when you would give up and lose heart.

Foster then writes about the Interceder, the one who spends day and night going between us and God. Jesus is indeed our greatest Interceder, and without Him we would not be able to entreat God on our own or anyone else’s behalf.

He then get a little side-tracked, but in a good way, about praying in the name of Jesus. He argues that praying in the name of Jesus is a lot more than tacking on a tag line at the end of every prayer we say. It’s about praying by the authority given to us through Jesus Christ. He and He alone has granted us the chance to pray directly to God, and we can do so by praying in His name. But this also means that when we pray in the name of Jesus, we should pray in the mindset of Jesus. We shouldn’t be praying selfishly, asking only for that which would benefit ourselves, or even our loved ones. Jesus commanded us to pray for those who persecute us, then acted it out on the cross when He asked for forgiveness for the very ones who nailed Him there. Praying in Jesus’ name means praying with both the authority granted by Christ and from the mindset Christ instills in us.

As Foster goes into how long I.P. might take, he gives the definition of supplication. It means to ask in earnestness, with intensity, and with persistence. Supplication declares to God that this isn’t some passing fancy we’re praying for today, but will have forgotten by tomorrow. In supplication, we entreat God over and over, letting the overflow of our heart drench the altar of prayer. In doing this, we not only show God how much this means to us, but we see for ourselves just how important our prayer is to ourselves.

But I.P. isn’t just an individual activity, or one for just a few people. Whole congregations can come together to petition the Father. Biblically, the body came together to pray for Peter while he was in prison, and were so into their supplication that they ignored him knocking at the door. When an entire group of believers comes together to Intercede for others, powerful things can happen. Foster records a few Intercessory success stories in this chapter, before moving on.

As he closes, he hits a few more notes about prayer for others, one that really struck a chord with me. He urges us not to feel bad if you don’t pray for everyone in the world who needs prayers. This seems like an obvious thing, but there have been many times when I’ve felt guilty about not praying for needs that I know of in the world, but just don’t stick with me much. For example, I’ve heard Australia is a very atheistic country. I could pray that Australia is lit on fire for God, but that’s not where my heart is. My heart lingers on the inner cities and on Thailand, on Aggie HYPE and Camp of the Hills, the ministries of Central and A&M Church.

Foster encourages us to realize that we are human. We cannot possibly pray for every person who needs to be lifted up, or even every ministry we know of. He suggests that we pray hard about what God puts on our hearts, look to His example through Jesus, and just do our best. His grace will cover the rest.

Looking back over this post, I realize that these aren’t going to be very frequent posts. As you might have noticed, it’s a lot of deep stuff, and requires time to sort out, then even more time to write coherently. That being said, I feel like this is going to add a much deeper dimension to my blog. Instead of a constant stream of stories, pictures, and videos, this will possibly fuel thought and discussion.

I started this post over 24 hours ago, so I’m quite happy to be clicking the Publish button. Until I click it again, blessings!

Wow, what a week it’s been! I’ve climbed a waterfall, taught tons of English, kicked butt in Thai class, sang with The Birthday Suits, played soccer, and memorized scripture. I guess I’d better start typing!

We visited an absolutely gorgeous waterfall last week. There was some mineral in the water that caused anything that it touched for long to harden, so everything from the ground it was flowing over to roots and leaves caught it its path ended up rock-like. This meant beautiful, scenic falls, and lots of photos. The lush jungle backdrop was amazing, too. Green trees, exotic flowers, and huge creeping vines surrounded us.

Speaking of vines, John and I found some that went crazy high, but were bunched together. I said to him, “You thinking what I’m thinking?” And with that, we both began to climb. When I reached the highest point I could reach without seriously endangering myself, I was a good twenty-five feet in the air. It was an amazing experience, and I hope to share it with you through pictures in a slide-show later today.

English teaching has been going quite well. Not only have we been teaching at the Christian Zone, but we’ve been presented with opportunities to go elsewhere as well. For example, Saturday we got to go visit the judges in Lampan. They’re the ones who took us out for a day to learn to use English in conversation a little better. We spent the morning and early afternoon giving them several very practical lessons.

One was on how vowels sounded when coupled. like the difference between the a in cat versus the ai in train. Another lesson focused on teaching the linguistics of saying th instead of t, and distinguishing the r sound from the l. While they seem like easy things, they’re very tough for Thais, but I feel like we were able to help them out a lot. We also worked on conjugating verbs into the correct tenses, past, present, and future.

We ate lunch as a group, and I sat with three Thais. I did my best to use the words I knew in Thai, and they were quite impressed. They taught me a little more, and I think it really helped our relationship that they saw me trying to communicate in their way as they were trying to communicate in mine. Learning Thai is certainly a useful ministry tool.

My job was to facilitate some games in between the lessons, to make the day more fun, and less like going to school on a Saturday. The simple game of telephone became very complicated when playing with mainly Thais, but that made it all the more fun, and several other English oriented games helped break up the monotony of learning ridiculous English rules.

When compared to other languages, I feel sort of sheepish explaining to people the rules of English. I find myself often uttering the sentence, “I know it doesn’t make any sense, just go with it.” It must be frustrating for non-English speakers to try to learn this language that is so full of inconsistencies, and then come to America where it seems like people look down on you if you speak slightly broken English. This experience makes me want to go out of my way to encourage people who are having a hard time with the language, and hopefully you’ll do the same. Let’s face it, English makes little to no sense sometimes.

Thai class is going much better nowadays. I spend about an hour before each class scarfing two plates of Pad Thai and looking over homework and vocabulary, and it really seems to be paying off. I’m enjoying it much more than when I studied Spanish, and I think that’s because Thai is all around me, and each word I learn is another chance to connect with the people I’m here for.

Last night John and I got another chance to sing with The Birthday Suits. They’re getting really good, and their repertoire of songs is growing. Unfortunately, w didn’t know the songs too well, so we had to sorta learn as we went, but we rocked out on the one we knew well. My personal favorite of ours is a alternative rock version of Rihanna’s Umbrella. It was a big hit among our campers at CotH last summer, and each time I sing the chorus, it reminds me of certain kids.

Yesterday was also our big game against another squad in football. I played goalie for the entire game, 75 minutes. In that time, our team made a lot of great plays, including some great defensive stands against an aggressive onslaught and a couple of beautiful plays on the other side of the field, netting us three goals. Our stifling defense didn’t allow much to get to me, but I saved just about everything that got to me. Only one goal was scored on us, and this was on the big field. Regulation size, this field was roughly the size of an American football field. We had about eleven on each team, and our team had three or four subs, so our guys who were running a lot got some rest every once and a while. The guys all were happy with my performance, even Bon, who’s probably the most competitive guy on our team. I was happy to have done my team proud.

Lastly, yesterday after church, John, Julie, and I got the opportunity to recite the verses we’d been memorizing. We We had learned the first eighteen verses of John, which we all feel really good about. We got a video of it, and once I know which blog it will be posted on, I’ll let you know.

Today I’m going to be relaxing, eating some good grub, and possibly working out. I love off days. Hopefully my new waterfall slide-show and the verses video will be up early this week. Until then, blessings!