~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amazingly my last post was a month ago. This month of July has FLOWN by. I apologize for the absence.
I will take partial responsibility, haha. For one, I have been completely swamped with the Prestonwood choir and VBS the past two weeks respectively and then my grandmother passed away on July 22nd, so I have been unable to get on here much. Additionally when I have had time to post I haven't been able to because I don't get internet from my apartment and my laptop decided it will not recognize the church's wifi anymore. So I have been without internet for the last 3 weeks or so. But I'm not complaining.
In order to keep this post as short as possible I will hit the highlights of the last 3 weeks.
The Prestonwood high school choir was here from July 19-23 and the youth group from the North Campus helped out around the church repainting our massive columns and various other projects like remedying our "flood" problem. (I have cleaned up and waded through 3 downstairs floods this summer)
My good friend from Prestonwood student ministry (and really since we were about yea high) Nathan Reynolds and his dad were both in town while the choir was here and they bunked with me in my apartment. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them.
While the choir was here we also had a youth group of about 35 from a Nepalese church from New Hampshire stay at the church the same week as the choir. For various and sundry reasons which I will not mention here for the sake of time I will just say that I had to babysit them and it was Hell. If anyone is interested as to why, I can write another post on that.
The week after the choir was here we had VBS and I was in charge of the 3 year olds. I lead the Bible story time with them and told them several famous Bible stories and also the word "plethora". They seemed to like me and my Bible stories. It was a lot of fun. Very tiring, but a lot of fun.
VBS lasted from Monday through Friday and my grandmother passed away on that Tuesday and my mom made arrangements for me to fly down for the funeral on Friday and Saturday. So I missed VBS on Friday. I typed out a post after coming back but was unable to post because of my internet woes. I will post that as soon as I can. I then flew back to Boston on Sunday.
This past week Jillie, my best friend and girlfriend of almost 2 years, was able to fly up to Boston for 3 short days. It was great getting to see her and spend those days with her. Now that everything is over for a couple weeks I was allowed to take those days to spend with her and show her around the city. The first day I took her to see the Freedom Trail. The next day we ate breakfast together and headed out for Boston College but before we got there I surprised her by saying we were going to go see pastor Jan Vezikov, a church planter in the area. He was painting his new apartment and we hung out for a little while. After that we had planned to go visit the New England aquarium but didn't make it back in time because we had to be back at church to help feed the homeless that evening. We did have time to see a 3D IMAX movie narrated by Jim Carey at the aquarium which was fun.
At Streetlight (the homeless outreach) Jillie and I talked to a man named Billy. He had some mental health issues but she and I had a good conversation with him and Jillie got to see what it's like to just hang out and talk to homeless people. She said it was a great experience. The last day we went out to Salem, MA which is famous for the Salem Witch Trials. We have both always wanted to go there because it's supposed to be a spooky haunted town. Turns out it was just a big tourist trap and so we went back to Boston and walked around the Common and I got Jillie a Dustin Pedroia t-shirt (he's the #1 google search result when you type "Dustin"). I got her a RedSox hat as well because she liked mine so much :)
We went back and got her stuff and watched a little "Shaun of the Dead" before we went to the airport. It was sad but I will see her soon!
So now as I sit here it is my last full day here at the church. We just had our monthly meal in the church for the homeless. It was great and I got to talk to a man named Christopher.
So tomorrow I will go to church here for the last time (for a while) and then hop on a plane to Texas, much to my mother's relief :)
It's been a great summer and I have learned a lot and grown a lot as well. I'll write a post to further explain those things as well.
Thanks for reading,
Zach
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Psalm 127:1-2
.......................
Psalm 127:1-2
"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep."
I think this "house" can be understood as "salvation", "sanctification" or any other kingdom/temporal work done on earth. With regards to sanctification, this text has recently begun to hold weighty importance for me.
Upon reading this text several nights ago I interpreted this "house" as a house of sanctification. In the process of progressive sanctification we are, by God's grace, building onto and strengthening this house that has been built, which is our faith. But in our sanctification we often seek to do the sanctifying ourselves, or earn our sanctification by rules, morality, and religiosity. That's what I do, and it manifests itself in my life constantly. And when we fail at keeping our rules, we despair because we are unable to keep those rules for becoming a "better Christian". So we either try harder and dig ourselves deeper, or we give up altogether. And I would assert that we go back and forth between these two realities.
Unless the LORD builds the house of our sanctification, we who would seek to try and do it on our own power actually build and labor in vain. We are left with a shoddy, run-down house of our own making. But if we acknowledge that the process of sanctification in our lives begins and is operated by God, the One who gave us salvation in the first place, we will be free of laboring in vain and "rising up early and eating the bread of anxious toil."
Because when I seek to build my own house I "rise up early and go late to rest" spending each and everyday trying to climb a mountain at 90 degrees. I utterly spend myself trying to hide my sins from my friends and from myself. But, as Derek Webb says, "the best thing that could ever happen to me is that my sins would be broadcast on the 5 o'clock news for everyone to see. So that I couldn't and wouldn't be able to hide them anymore." And this is what I do. And that is what we all do. Somewhere along the line I, and we, have lost our way and turned American Christianity into how well we can hide our sin. But the Christian life is not about hiding.
But I am so exhausted of hiding my sins. I am so exhausted of hiding the fact that I try and build my own house. We get so proficient at beautifying the exterior of our houses, but if you were to you enter, you would find the paint is cracking, the ceiling is caving in, and there is ruin everywhere. And you can eventually tell from the exterior.
But we rarely ever invite anyone inside. We all just put on faces and drive by each others houses and say, "Thank God I have a nicer house than he does." or "I'll never have a house as pretty as hers."
And so we eat the bitter bread of anxious toil. And we would rather pay for what we get for free, as Derek Webb would say. That is, we would rather try and earn a free gift that we have been given, rather than accepting it and being humble that it was actually given to such a wretch like me. Though I strive to earn it, Christ has already payed for it. And that's the most encouraging thing I can think of.
We forget that Christ, the creator, ruler, and sustainer of all things is the One who gives his beloved rest.
That's what this Psalm is about. It's all about freedom and rest. Jesus really did mean it when He said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30) I get this mental image from this text as if Jesus is taking off the heavy yoke of "do" and replacing it with His yoke of "done". Think really hard about the fact that we're missing the whole point if we aren't thinking, "It's not 'I must do, but Jesus did'. Jesus exclaimed, "Tetelestai! It is finished!" Think about that. I've been thinking about that a lot this week and it makes me glad and thankful that I will never be able to say "It is finished." But Jesus did so that I don't have to try and finish it myself. In our sanctification we are free from laboring in vain when we labor in faith.
So our labor actually becomes rest when we labor in faith.
When we try and white-knuckle our Christian lives, when I try and white-knuckle my sanctification by earning and building by myself, what I'm really doing is digging my own grave. And every day I get up and dig it again.
But this Psalm has breathed new breath into my lungs. When the LORD builds, and we labor in faith and rest in what He has done, we become sanctified.
I encourage you to meditate on Psalm 127:1-2 and see for yourself.
I love you all.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Week 3
.........
Today marks my third week in Boston.
This week has been filled with some pretty long hours preparing for the church's "Block Party Bonanza!" that was put on this past Saturday. The other intern and I worked all week on decorating, going to Costco buying $1,300 worth of food for the BP, and creating name tags and anything else imaginable. I also helped another guy hang a "Block Party" banner between the two columns on the front steps of the church. Pretty risky stunt, but I pulled it off.
This week on Tuesday we did our regular ministry called "Starlight" where we cooked and prepared the food for the Wednesday night ministry that feeds the homeless at Harvard square. I made pb&j sandwiches like I am oft to do. Maybe I should consider branching out. I think I might.
On Wednesday we went and handed out food to the homeless. I met a lady named Gayle. We can pray for her. She's in her 50-60's and her family has abandoned her and she has nowhere to go and feels completely alone, and in a temporal sense, she is. She didn't take any food but allowed us to pray for her. She said she is hoping Christ will help her. She said she was a Christian and prays that Jesus will help her reunite with her family. We can pray for that. She was very glad that we stopped by and talked and prayed for her. She was very thankful. I offered to give her a New Testament and she took it very gladly. Hopefully I will see her this week.
When I got to Harvard square I met up with Bill and we spent the remainder of the time talking. He's a very good guy to talk to. We ended up talking about the homosexual issue in regards to the church and salvation. He has a few friends who are gay and one that is transgendered. If you are unfamiliar with that term, don't google it. Bill told me he attended an Episcopalian church this last Sunday with a friend of his that was gay and after the service Bill's friend introduced him to his partner. Bill's friend's partner was the Pastor. Bill was very disappointed. And I'm glad he was. We ended up discussing the issue of transgendered people with regards to the church and salvation. It was a topic I had never faced head on before. I was a little taken aback when we started getting into it. It was an interesting conversation. The transgender (or TS "trans sexual" for short) issue is a big one up here. You don't hear of too many TS people in Dallas or come across them in your newspaper. (Like I did my first week here. Interesting story, for another time perhaps.) Bill was basically asking what would I do as a pastor if I had a TS person tell me they wanted to become a Christian and follow Christ. That's a pretty loaded question. And he was asking because he has a friend who is saying that. Nevertheless, I digress.
After all of us got back to the church and prayed, one of the members was going to go to a lounge with some of the graduates/singles from the Wednesday night group to celebrate her birthday. They invited both of us interns and we were like, "Uh...ok."
So we went. And it was a Bollywood lounge. If you're unfamiliar with Bollywood visit this link. A Bollywood lounge is a place where they sell drinks and play Bollywood movies or Bollywood music videos. Like this quality music video. It was the "cleanest" one I could find and I only watched a few seconds of it and I recommend you not waste the 3 minutes of your life either. You'll never get them back.
So that "style" of Hindi music video was playing the whole time right next to soccer. Everybody else was having a drink while the other intern and I sat there and smiled awkwardly. Not because "People are drinking! Dear God! Run away!" but because of the whole situation. And a little because where each of us come from, drinking alcohol is kinda looked down upon by our churches. Which is fine. But up here it's just natural. And a lot of people don't drink to get wasted like the stereotype goes. It's just normal and social and...normal. Anyways, that was an experience, at least for me anyway because the bass was thumping and Indian people were running around on the TV's with not a lot of clothing, etc.
On Thursday I was looking forward to sitting in on the Bible study entitled, "Gospel In Life" by Tim Keller. It's a great study but I had to be downstairs for childcare. Which was exactly that. One child. Oh well.
On Friday we worked really hard preparing for the Block Party. All of Friday was busy and I did a ton of things that I won't type.
Saturday was the Block Party. We grilled a ton of hamburgers and hot dogs, a couple inflatables for kids, face painting, arts and crafts, and a lot of other things. We had a lot of people but nobody knows an exact count of how many people were there. It was a good number of people. I met a few people and talked to a church planter who will be planting in the Medford area soon. (That link may or may not work. It's a northern suburb of Boston). All in all the Block Party was a fun deal and it was very hot outside.
After the block party a bunch of us from the church went to the lead coordinator's house for a Block Party "after party". That's where I met Jude and had that incredible conversation with him over a dang good mushroom burger. And when I say mushroom burger I mean one huge portobello mushroom overshadowing the burger patty. Pretty good.
On Sunday we continued the 3rd part of a 4 week series on the gospel. Basically 4 questions to ask ourselves:
1. Who are we accountable to?
2.What is our greatest problem?
3. What is our solution?
4. What are we to do in light of all of this?
and the answers:
1. God
2. Sin
3. Christ
4. Respond/believe
It's been a great sermon series so far. I recommend a listen on podcast.
Today I had the day off to myself and I chose to spend it at Boston Commons. It was such a great day! I walked around and saw the Massachusetts State House (the protesters and gay flag were not present). The Mass State House is where they legalized gay marriage in Boston.
It was a great day and I had lunch outside in front of the MSH. I walked a few blocks and saw the "Cheers" bar and a few famous Revolutionary War hero's houses. I then spent a while reading my biography on Hudson Taylor. It's a great biography of a great man of God who was a pioneer missionary in China and a great man of faith. He was one of the first missionaries to employ the idea of contextualization whereby a missionary infiltrates a culture to reach that culture. (without being a part of the culture's sin). Anyways, I had a great time being in the culture of Boston and praying intermittently throughout my time at the Commons. My heart was broken again for the gay community, specifically in Boston, and my heart was renewed for this great city.
I believe it is God's plan for that my life's goal be to bring the City of God to the city of Boston. Let's pray that current church planters and pastors will continue to be used for this very purpose. And they are. But we need so many more.
Well, I must retire for the night. I've got Adrian Brody, er I mean Władysław Szpilman, waiting in my DVD player.
I love you all and I greatly appreciate your prayers.
God's mission continues tomorrow!
Today marks my third week in Boston.
This week has been filled with some pretty long hours preparing for the church's "Block Party Bonanza!" that was put on this past Saturday. The other intern and I worked all week on decorating, going to Costco buying $1,300 worth of food for the BP, and creating name tags and anything else imaginable. I also helped another guy hang a "Block Party" banner between the two columns on the front steps of the church. Pretty risky stunt, but I pulled it off.
This week on Tuesday we did our regular ministry called "Starlight" where we cooked and prepared the food for the Wednesday night ministry that feeds the homeless at Harvard square. I made pb&j sandwiches like I am oft to do. Maybe I should consider branching out. I think I might.
On Wednesday we went and handed out food to the homeless. I met a lady named Gayle. We can pray for her. She's in her 50-60's and her family has abandoned her and she has nowhere to go and feels completely alone, and in a temporal sense, she is. She didn't take any food but allowed us to pray for her. She said she is hoping Christ will help her. She said she was a Christian and prays that Jesus will help her reunite with her family. We can pray for that. She was very glad that we stopped by and talked and prayed for her. She was very thankful. I offered to give her a New Testament and she took it very gladly. Hopefully I will see her this week.
When I got to Harvard square I met up with Bill and we spent the remainder of the time talking. He's a very good guy to talk to. We ended up talking about the homosexual issue in regards to the church and salvation. He has a few friends who are gay and one that is transgendered. If you are unfamiliar with that term, don't google it. Bill told me he attended an Episcopalian church this last Sunday with a friend of his that was gay and after the service Bill's friend introduced him to his partner. Bill's friend's partner was the Pastor. Bill was very disappointed. And I'm glad he was. We ended up discussing the issue of transgendered people with regards to the church and salvation. It was a topic I had never faced head on before. I was a little taken aback when we started getting into it. It was an interesting conversation. The transgender (or TS "trans sexual" for short) issue is a big one up here. You don't hear of too many TS people in Dallas or come across them in your newspaper. (Like I did my first week here. Interesting story, for another time perhaps.) Bill was basically asking what would I do as a pastor if I had a TS person tell me they wanted to become a Christian and follow Christ. That's a pretty loaded question. And he was asking because he has a friend who is saying that. Nevertheless, I digress.
After all of us got back to the church and prayed, one of the members was going to go to a lounge with some of the graduates/singles from the Wednesday night group to celebrate her birthday. They invited both of us interns and we were like, "Uh...ok."
So we went. And it was a Bollywood lounge. If you're unfamiliar with Bollywood visit this link. A Bollywood lounge is a place where they sell drinks and play Bollywood movies or Bollywood music videos. Like this quality music video. It was the "cleanest" one I could find and I only watched a few seconds of it and I recommend you not waste the 3 minutes of your life either. You'll never get them back.
So that "style" of Hindi music video was playing the whole time right next to soccer. Everybody else was having a drink while the other intern and I sat there and smiled awkwardly. Not because "People are drinking! Dear God! Run away!" but because of the whole situation. And a little because where each of us come from, drinking alcohol is kinda looked down upon by our churches. Which is fine. But up here it's just natural. And a lot of people don't drink to get wasted like the stereotype goes. It's just normal and social and...normal. Anyways, that was an experience, at least for me anyway because the bass was thumping and Indian people were running around on the TV's with not a lot of clothing, etc.
On Thursday I was looking forward to sitting in on the Bible study entitled, "Gospel In Life" by Tim Keller. It's a great study but I had to be downstairs for childcare. Which was exactly that. One child. Oh well.
On Friday we worked really hard preparing for the Block Party. All of Friday was busy and I did a ton of things that I won't type.
Saturday was the Block Party. We grilled a ton of hamburgers and hot dogs, a couple inflatables for kids, face painting, arts and crafts, and a lot of other things. We had a lot of people but nobody knows an exact count of how many people were there. It was a good number of people. I met a few people and talked to a church planter who will be planting in the Medford area soon. (That link may or may not work. It's a northern suburb of Boston). All in all the Block Party was a fun deal and it was very hot outside.
After the block party a bunch of us from the church went to the lead coordinator's house for a Block Party "after party". That's where I met Jude and had that incredible conversation with him over a dang good mushroom burger. And when I say mushroom burger I mean one huge portobello mushroom overshadowing the burger patty. Pretty good.
On Sunday we continued the 3rd part of a 4 week series on the gospel. Basically 4 questions to ask ourselves:
1. Who are we accountable to?
2.What is our greatest problem?
3. What is our solution?
4. What are we to do in light of all of this?
and the answers:
1. God
2. Sin
3. Christ
4. Respond/believe
It's been a great sermon series so far. I recommend a listen on podcast.
Today I had the day off to myself and I chose to spend it at Boston Commons. It was such a great day! I walked around and saw the Massachusetts State House (the protesters and gay flag were not present). The Mass State House is where they legalized gay marriage in Boston.
It was a great day and I had lunch outside in front of the MSH. I walked a few blocks and saw the "Cheers" bar and a few famous Revolutionary War hero's houses. I then spent a while reading my biography on Hudson Taylor. It's a great biography of a great man of God who was a pioneer missionary in China and a great man of faith. He was one of the first missionaries to employ the idea of contextualization whereby a missionary infiltrates a culture to reach that culture. (without being a part of the culture's sin). Anyways, I had a great time being in the culture of Boston and praying intermittently throughout my time at the Commons. My heart was broken again for the gay community, specifically in Boston, and my heart was renewed for this great city.
I believe it is God's plan for that my life's goal be to bring the City of God to the city of Boston. Let's pray that current church planters and pastors will continue to be used for this very purpose. And they are. But we need so many more.
Well, I must retire for the night. I've got Adrian Brody, er I mean Władysław Szpilman, waiting in my DVD player.
I love you all and I greatly appreciate your prayers.
God's mission continues tomorrow!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Pray for Jude
.........
Tonight I met a man by the name of Jude. We should start praying for him. Jude is a refugee from Uganda and has been interning at Harvard for the last 2 years.
Jude is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. He was born in the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda and lost his father at age 15 to what the Ugandan government called an "accident". His father was involved in the government and left for a convention or meeting of some sort and came home horribly sick. He died shortly afterward. Jude and his family believe he was poisoned. Jude is now 29. His mother raised him and his 5 younger siblings, also adopting 2 children from her sister who also died from an "accident". His mother and siblings still live in Uganda and his mother is a Supreme Judge (as he called it).
He has many connections with the ministers of Uganda (the equivalent of U.S. senators apparently) and their children, many of whom were in his school when he was growing up. Today, Jude is interning at Harvard and studying some variation of foreign and political policy because he is going to go back to Uganda one day and run for the presidency. That's right. He's going to run for the presidency of Uganda.
Jude has been witness and known witnesses to many of the atrocities in Uganda and the Sudan and Darfur. Regarding the atrocities in Uganda, he has first-hand experience with the children and depictions in the film, Invisible Children, which if you are unfamiliar is a docmentary about the Ugandan government killing families and kidnapping young children and brainwashing them to become child soldiers.
But this is not just a movie about a hotel in Rwanda or a documentary showing how awful it is for Ugandan children. Jude has been there. He has seen it. And he wants to return to Uganda some day and run for President. And I believe he has the grace, faith, and courage to do it.
But the situation is immeasurably complex. As I said before, Jude knows many of these ministers who are working for a corrupt government and the minister's children because he grew up with them. And his mother has, by his own admission, a lot of power as a judge. If he were to return to Uganda and run for president (proposing drastic change and opposing the established corrupt government), he would be endangering his life and the lives of his entire family, and would be making enemies out of his friends whose parents are corrupt politicians. But he says he will return. He says by God's grace he will return to Uganda and run for president. And he knows that he is running the risk of being assassinated.
Who of us reading this blog is running the risk of being assassinated?
And Jude is telling me all of this over a burger and a beer. (His was the beer, mine was lemonade). He is a man of quiet resolve. He is incomprehensibly courageous and brave in my eyes. He says that he doesn't want to die young, that he wants to return to his country and get rid of the regime that is responsible for mass genocide in Africa. But he also says that he will and must return to his country.
He talks of the evil corrupt government committing mass genocide and he shakes his fist in the air and then becomes very quiet for a moment and you can just see in his eyes that he is a man with the weight of his nation on his shoulders. He's truly a man with the weight of the world squarely on his shoulders.
I can't even begin to describe our lengthy conversation with you. He told me of the LRA and Joseph Kony and the government and the corrupt president that changed the constitution to make him a dictator. He told me that he has to stay low in Boston and not make any moves in the media (which he plans to do in the future) because it could result in the murder of his family back in Uganda. Our conversation was so detailed and complex that I can't remember everything he said. He is a witness to the inhuman atrocities in Africa like the dismemberment, terror, and murder of friends and countrymen. And he was standing across from me eating a burger on a balcony in Boston, MA.
Afterward I thanked Jude for telling me his story in length which began with the simple statement, "I'm a refugee from Uganda." I asked him how he came to be in Boston and the result was a lengthy explanation of his past, what he is doing now to prepare for running for office, and what he knows he must face in the near future. I wish we could have talked all night.
At one point after we were no longer talking about Uganda I had to walk out and just weep. He's been through so much, and he's willing to risk assassination to free his people and his country. I just remember thinking, "This guy is a man of God, called to do something completely extraordinary and is faced with the fact that he may not live to see 50 years and I'm worried about air conditioning and God knows what else."
This man is going to return to his country and try and overthrow the corrupt government by becoming elected president. We are not called as Christians to be well within our comfort zone. We think if we give God a little bit of our lives here or there He will be happy and leave us alone. But God is not some little kid that needs concessions from us. He wants us to be weak, so that He can show Himself strong. God wants to send us out so that He can flex His muscles. And yet we settle for the "American dream" of having a nice house, and having well behaved kids, and not saying the F word or murdering anybody. If we are comfortable we probably aren't following Christ.
And the opposite of love for God is not hatred of Him. It's apathy.
I believe Jude is going to become the president of Uganda. And you know what he says?
"Pray! Pray hahd!" (in his Ugandan accent)
I thanked Jude for telling me his story and for being so honest and open with a mere stranger. But I feel so bonded to this guy. I'm going to be praying for him for a long time.
Jude told me what I can pray for, and I hope you will join me in praying for Jude.
First, he says pray for him that he would have the courage to do what he knows he must do. He says he thinks he is not brave. (HE thinks HE'S not brave!)
Second, he says pray for Uganda. Pray hard for Uganda. Pray for Uganda. Pray for Uganda.
Also, pray for the the young generation of soon to be leaders who are falling into the same trap as their corrupt fathers have. Jude sees many young men compromising and following in their fathers' evil footsteps.
Pray that God will raise him up, protect him, and make him the president of Uganda so that the mass genocide will end.
Tonight atrocities like that in Hotel Rwanda and Invisible Children became more than just movies. They were standing right across from me in flesh and blood. Darfur is more than just a green bracelet. People are dying and the government really is killing them. You might say that Africans are doing this to themselves and that they are responsible for their own civil wars. I say, if you really feel like that you should get on your face before God.
Pray for Jude. Pray for Uganda. Pray hard.
I love you all. Continue to pray for me as well.
Tonight I met a man by the name of Jude. We should start praying for him. Jude is a refugee from Uganda and has been interning at Harvard for the last 2 years.
Jude is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. He was born in the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda and lost his father at age 15 to what the Ugandan government called an "accident". His father was involved in the government and left for a convention or meeting of some sort and came home horribly sick. He died shortly afterward. Jude and his family believe he was poisoned. Jude is now 29. His mother raised him and his 5 younger siblings, also adopting 2 children from her sister who also died from an "accident". His mother and siblings still live in Uganda and his mother is a Supreme Judge (as he called it).
He has many connections with the ministers of Uganda (the equivalent of U.S. senators apparently) and their children, many of whom were in his school when he was growing up. Today, Jude is interning at Harvard and studying some variation of foreign and political policy because he is going to go back to Uganda one day and run for the presidency. That's right. He's going to run for the presidency of Uganda.
Jude has been witness and known witnesses to many of the atrocities in Uganda and the Sudan and Darfur. Regarding the atrocities in Uganda, he has first-hand experience with the children and depictions in the film, Invisible Children, which if you are unfamiliar is a docmentary about the Ugandan government killing families and kidnapping young children and brainwashing them to become child soldiers.
But this is not just a movie about a hotel in Rwanda or a documentary showing how awful it is for Ugandan children. Jude has been there. He has seen it. And he wants to return to Uganda some day and run for President. And I believe he has the grace, faith, and courage to do it.
But the situation is immeasurably complex. As I said before, Jude knows many of these ministers who are working for a corrupt government and the minister's children because he grew up with them. And his mother has, by his own admission, a lot of power as a judge. If he were to return to Uganda and run for president (proposing drastic change and opposing the established corrupt government), he would be endangering his life and the lives of his entire family, and would be making enemies out of his friends whose parents are corrupt politicians. But he says he will return. He says by God's grace he will return to Uganda and run for president. And he knows that he is running the risk of being assassinated.
Who of us reading this blog is running the risk of being assassinated?
And Jude is telling me all of this over a burger and a beer. (His was the beer, mine was lemonade). He is a man of quiet resolve. He is incomprehensibly courageous and brave in my eyes. He says that he doesn't want to die young, that he wants to return to his country and get rid of the regime that is responsible for mass genocide in Africa. But he also says that he will and must return to his country.
He talks of the evil corrupt government committing mass genocide and he shakes his fist in the air and then becomes very quiet for a moment and you can just see in his eyes that he is a man with the weight of his nation on his shoulders. He's truly a man with the weight of the world squarely on his shoulders.
I can't even begin to describe our lengthy conversation with you. He told me of the LRA and Joseph Kony and the government and the corrupt president that changed the constitution to make him a dictator. He told me that he has to stay low in Boston and not make any moves in the media (which he plans to do in the future) because it could result in the murder of his family back in Uganda. Our conversation was so detailed and complex that I can't remember everything he said. He is a witness to the inhuman atrocities in Africa like the dismemberment, terror, and murder of friends and countrymen. And he was standing across from me eating a burger on a balcony in Boston, MA.
Afterward I thanked Jude for telling me his story in length which began with the simple statement, "I'm a refugee from Uganda." I asked him how he came to be in Boston and the result was a lengthy explanation of his past, what he is doing now to prepare for running for office, and what he knows he must face in the near future. I wish we could have talked all night.
At one point after we were no longer talking about Uganda I had to walk out and just weep. He's been through so much, and he's willing to risk assassination to free his people and his country. I just remember thinking, "This guy is a man of God, called to do something completely extraordinary and is faced with the fact that he may not live to see 50 years and I'm worried about air conditioning and God knows what else."
This man is going to return to his country and try and overthrow the corrupt government by becoming elected president. We are not called as Christians to be well within our comfort zone. We think if we give God a little bit of our lives here or there He will be happy and leave us alone. But God is not some little kid that needs concessions from us. He wants us to be weak, so that He can show Himself strong. God wants to send us out so that He can flex His muscles. And yet we settle for the "American dream" of having a nice house, and having well behaved kids, and not saying the F word or murdering anybody. If we are comfortable we probably aren't following Christ.
And the opposite of love for God is not hatred of Him. It's apathy.
I believe Jude is going to become the president of Uganda. And you know what he says?
"Pray! Pray hahd!" (in his Ugandan accent)
I thanked Jude for telling me his story and for being so honest and open with a mere stranger. But I feel so bonded to this guy. I'm going to be praying for him for a long time.
Jude told me what I can pray for, and I hope you will join me in praying for Jude.
First, he says pray for him that he would have the courage to do what he knows he must do. He says he thinks he is not brave. (HE thinks HE'S not brave!)
Second, he says pray for Uganda. Pray hard for Uganda. Pray for Uganda. Pray for Uganda.
Also, pray for the the young generation of soon to be leaders who are falling into the same trap as their corrupt fathers have. Jude sees many young men compromising and following in their fathers' evil footsteps.
Pray that God will raise him up, protect him, and make him the president of Uganda so that the mass genocide will end.
Tonight atrocities like that in Hotel Rwanda and Invisible Children became more than just movies. They were standing right across from me in flesh and blood. Darfur is more than just a green bracelet. People are dying and the government really is killing them. You might say that Africans are doing this to themselves and that they are responsible for their own civil wars. I say, if you really feel like that you should get on your face before God.
Pray for Jude. Pray for Uganda. Pray hard.
I love you all. Continue to pray for me as well.
Friday, June 18, 2010
R.I.P. The Big Three
With the Boston Celtics' loss in game 7 of the NBA finals, the end of an era is soon to come. Probably after this season we will never see Paul Peirce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnet play together in Boston. They were great together and had success in the finals in 2008 against the hated L.A. Lakers
Monday, June 14, 2010
Week 2
Sorry for the delay, Ace.
As you can imagine I've been pretty busy for the last week and a half. There was a college age ministry team from different areas of Mississippi helping here from Tuesday (my first day) until this past Saturday, and I did virtually everything with them while they were here.
We did everything from handing out granola bars (a lot of them) to doing contract labor on a house. While doing the contract work I got to see my old friend the Sawzall and meet some new friends like the table saw, nail gun, and others. It was a lot of fun and I wish I would have posted an entry for that day to tell you more but I just couldn't.
We all became fast friends over the 2 week span because we were doing almost everything together all the time. They were a cool group to work with. One Saturday we took a free day and went and saw Bunker Hill and the monument there. It's 294 steps to the top and we climbed every one of them. It provided a great view of downtown Boston and the harbor. Pretty cool Revolutionary war stuff.
We also went and saw a Red Sox game this past Friday. The Sox killed Philadelphia 12-2. It was an amazing game to choose to go to (Sorry Jon!). I like high scoring sports and that's a pretty high score for baseball. I've always wanted to see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park (or, The Green Monstah, as they call it up here). So that was a great time for a sports buff like me.
Now that they are gone the other intern arrived from Oklahoma.
I just got a copy of the schedule for the rest of June and July. July is gonna be pretty packed. More on that later.
I miss my best friends Jillie and Spencer and I wish they were here.
I've been able to get to know and work with Acts29 pastors Jan (yahn) Vezikov and Bland Mason of Grace Church Boston and City on A Hill, respectively.
Pastor Jan and I hit it off right away and he's a great guy who is pastoring 3 different congregations at the same time. He's the pastor and planter of Grace Church Boston and Russian Church Boston. He speaks Russian fluently and is able to reach a HUGE demographic of Russians in his area that no other church is able to do. He sees a person walking down the street, profiles them as being of Russian decent, and strikes up a conversation in complete Russian and invites them to his church and tells them about Jesus. Not one conversation is without the mention of Jesus and grace. That's why he says his church is called Grace church. Because as he says, "It's all about grace." For instance, he and I and the ministry team were grilling hot dogs out front of his church the other day and giving them away to passersby. When people would ask why he would reply, "Because grace is free and so are hot dogs!" I really love this guy. He's like 27 or something. He's only been here about a year and has about 50 members which, in Boston terms, is like Matt Chandler numbers in Dallas. He's also the pastor for Mosaic Church in Boston. Briefly, it was a fairly new church plant a couple years ago and their lead planter gave up and left the congregation without a pastor and Jan took over as their interim pastor. Great man of God.
Bland Mason, the pastor of City on A Hill also happens to be the chaplain for this baseball team you may have heard of called the Boston Red Sox. Wow is right. A couple of them attend his new church plant which is about a year old as well. He told me the story of how it happened and basically he got a call within the first week of moving to Boston while boxes were still sitting in his living room. Pretty cool how God does that stuff. Needless to say, a bunch of the pastors/planters are jealous of him, including Jan. But they're all good friends, which is so cool too.
Bland and I had some good dialogue as well and I hope to be able to hang with each of those guys more. They have each talked about getting lunch with me sometime soon so I consider myself very undeserving and blessed and I'm going to pick their brains about everything.
The spiritual state in Boston is almost non-existent. But as Jared C. Wilson (pastor in Vermont) says, "The spiritual state in New England is dark. But there are spies in the land, and their report is good."
It's a blessing to be one of those spies. Jared wrote this blog not long ago and it describes how I feel. The area is so very dark. So why wouldn't I want to be here? Robert Louis Stevenson paints a great picture for this when, "As a boy, his family lived on a hillside overlooking a small town. Robert was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighters who went about with a ladder and a torch, lighting the street lights for the night. One evening, as Robert stood watching with fascination, his parents asked him 'Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?' With great excitement he exclaimed: 'Look at that man! He's punching holes in the darkness!'"
I love that imagery, and that's what each new gospel-centered church plant does in Boston. We need more lamps to punch holes in this darkness. We need a lamp on each corner, because one street lamp isn't enough for a whole neighborhood in this area of the country.
Anyways, enough for tonight.
I love you all. Please continue to pray for me that Satan would not prevail against me and that my speech and conduct among the people of Boston would be seasoned with the love of the gospel. And also that God's grace would keep me dependent on Jesus and in the Word.
Also, mom. Check out this website and the book advertised there. I think it might be of some use/comfort to ya! Love you!
God's mission continues tomorrow. Grace and peace.
Zach
As you can imagine I've been pretty busy for the last week and a half. There was a college age ministry team from different areas of Mississippi helping here from Tuesday (my first day) until this past Saturday, and I did virtually everything with them while they were here.
We did everything from handing out granola bars (a lot of them) to doing contract labor on a house. While doing the contract work I got to see my old friend the Sawzall and meet some new friends like the table saw, nail gun, and others. It was a lot of fun and I wish I would have posted an entry for that day to tell you more but I just couldn't.
We all became fast friends over the 2 week span because we were doing almost everything together all the time. They were a cool group to work with. One Saturday we took a free day and went and saw Bunker Hill and the monument there. It's 294 steps to the top and we climbed every one of them. It provided a great view of downtown Boston and the harbor. Pretty cool Revolutionary war stuff.
We also went and saw a Red Sox game this past Friday. The Sox killed Philadelphia 12-2. It was an amazing game to choose to go to (Sorry Jon!). I like high scoring sports and that's a pretty high score for baseball. I've always wanted to see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park (or, The Green Monstah, as they call it up here). So that was a great time for a sports buff like me.
Now that they are gone the other intern arrived from Oklahoma.
I just got a copy of the schedule for the rest of June and July. July is gonna be pretty packed. More on that later.
I miss my best friends Jillie and Spencer and I wish they were here.
I've been able to get to know and work with Acts29 pastors Jan (yahn) Vezikov and Bland Mason of Grace Church Boston and City on A Hill, respectively.
Pastor Jan and I hit it off right away and he's a great guy who is pastoring 3 different congregations at the same time. He's the pastor and planter of Grace Church Boston and Russian Church Boston. He speaks Russian fluently and is able to reach a HUGE demographic of Russians in his area that no other church is able to do. He sees a person walking down the street, profiles them as being of Russian decent, and strikes up a conversation in complete Russian and invites them to his church and tells them about Jesus. Not one conversation is without the mention of Jesus and grace. That's why he says his church is called Grace church. Because as he says, "It's all about grace." For instance, he and I and the ministry team were grilling hot dogs out front of his church the other day and giving them away to passersby. When people would ask why he would reply, "Because grace is free and so are hot dogs!" I really love this guy. He's like 27 or something. He's only been here about a year and has about 50 members which, in Boston terms, is like Matt Chandler numbers in Dallas. He's also the pastor for Mosaic Church in Boston. Briefly, it was a fairly new church plant a couple years ago and their lead planter gave up and left the congregation without a pastor and Jan took over as their interim pastor. Great man of God.
Bland Mason, the pastor of City on A Hill also happens to be the chaplain for this baseball team you may have heard of called the Boston Red Sox. Wow is right. A couple of them attend his new church plant which is about a year old as well. He told me the story of how it happened and basically he got a call within the first week of moving to Boston while boxes were still sitting in his living room. Pretty cool how God does that stuff. Needless to say, a bunch of the pastors/planters are jealous of him, including Jan. But they're all good friends, which is so cool too.
Bland and I had some good dialogue as well and I hope to be able to hang with each of those guys more. They have each talked about getting lunch with me sometime soon so I consider myself very undeserving and blessed and I'm going to pick their brains about everything.
The spiritual state in Boston is almost non-existent. But as Jared C. Wilson (pastor in Vermont) says, "The spiritual state in New England is dark. But there are spies in the land, and their report is good."
It's a blessing to be one of those spies. Jared wrote this blog not long ago and it describes how I feel. The area is so very dark. So why wouldn't I want to be here? Robert Louis Stevenson paints a great picture for this when, "As a boy, his family lived on a hillside overlooking a small town. Robert was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighters who went about with a ladder and a torch, lighting the street lights for the night. One evening, as Robert stood watching with fascination, his parents asked him 'Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?' With great excitement he exclaimed: 'Look at that man! He's punching holes in the darkness!'"
I love that imagery, and that's what each new gospel-centered church plant does in Boston. We need more lamps to punch holes in this darkness. We need a lamp on each corner, because one street lamp isn't enough for a whole neighborhood in this area of the country.
Anyways, enough for tonight.
I love you all. Please continue to pray for me that Satan would not prevail against me and that my speech and conduct among the people of Boston would be seasoned with the love of the gospel. And also that God's grace would keep me dependent on Jesus and in the Word.
Also, mom. Check out this website and the book advertised there. I think it might be of some use/comfort to ya! Love you!
God's mission continues tomorrow. Grace and peace.
Zach
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Day 2
Today I woke up and read the first bit of Psalm 119. I've only read it in its entirety once. If you haven't read Psalm 119 you should. I'll be reading it all month long. It's all about loving and obeying God and His Word.
After reading I got dressed and went outside to the bus stop. I've never ridden a city bus in a foreign place all by myself so this was a first for me, in addition to having vague directions. I got on the bus, rode it for about 10 minutes, got off, went into the subway terminal, found the right track thanks to God, got on and rode into Porter square which is where the church is. This I did without any human help and I was thankful to God for getting me to the church on my first day without getting lost or ending up in Vermont. I was also proud of myself for not asking for help, apart from Divine, and making my way there on time. The whole getting-on-a-bus-and-connecting-to-the-right-subway-station-and-getting-on-the-right-train thing is something I've never had to do before and I was thankful and proud in a small way.
That said, when I got to the church we were briefed on our duties of being sent out in pairs with satchels of granola bars and "God loves you/Hope Fellowship information" cards and handed them out all over the city. We did this for most of the day and were able to have some good conversations. Every one else was able to give away their whole bag except for me and my partner. But, I was able to have a few conversations. They were brief and most were unfruitful, but it was a good experience.
The man I spoke to was slow to understand that I was with a church and just giving out granola bars for free. Once he realized that I was from a church he was quick to explain to me his disposition towards the church. He didn't like the Catholics or the Mormons, but more than them he hated the evangelical "born-agains" as he called it. He called us f***ing Nazis and said he hated when people preached at him and asked why we're always trying to convert everybody to "our idea of God". "Why not leave people alone, they're happier with their lives the way they are", he protested. "Their idea of God's love is probably better than your idea of God's love." He wasn't much for preachers but he sure had a lot to preach. He was waiting for a bus and it eventually picked him up and he said "good luck with your granola bars".
The second time I was out I was in downtown Boston and I handed one to a man passing by. He took it and went on his way. About 30 seconds later he came back and said, "You know, the Catholics used to give people a bowl of soup if they came to church. We called them 'soupers'." I could tell where he was headed with that so I said he could keep the granola bar and I would keep the card and I told him Jesus loved him but he just said, "Keep your stuff, keep your bar" as he walked away huffing and puffing. That's the kind of area I'm in. Some people here will call you an effing Nazi and walk all the way back just to give you back a free granola bar because it says "God loves you". Pretty crazy.
Later in the evening we met with a few other Hope members and took the food we prepared last night out to the poor and homeless on the streets in Harvard square. I got to walk a good ways and got to see the area a little better. I handed out sandwiches, bowls of chicken and rice, and socks and other things to several homeless people. Some asked for extra helpings or extra socks, some huffed and said they didn't want anything just money. At first I kind of took offense to that thinking, "Who are you to turn down free food?" But the Holy Spirit immediately convicted me over that. God offers me his best and I often say, in effect, "No, I'd rather have money for booze." It was a powerful word picture to me of how I so often settle for mud pies when I'm offered a vacation by the sea.
About an hour later I talked to a homeless man named Will. You can pray for him. I believe he is a Christian and some of the other servant team members believe so too. I'd say he's about 50 or 60 years old. We small talked a little and after he found out I was from Texas and was studying to be a pastor some day he asked me if I could answer a question for him that nobody else seemed to give an honest answer on. I was expecting some deep theological stumper or a tricky philosophical question but he simply asked, "Why can't and why aren't churches working together?"
And I thought, "Shoot, why aren't we?" Long story short I told him that it would never be solved because humans are sinful, even Christians doing ministry in the church. I told him that I in fact wanted to come back to Boston and eventually build a network of churches that worked together for the good of the people, but that there were several "close-handed" issues that needed to be agreed on for a church to really be a "church". He agreed. And this is because many churches in the area have long since become inclusive and have ceased to be Bible-believing churches. I didn't go too deep, but he wasn't getting lost either. It was encouraging to see a man wanting to see more churches help each other, rather than continue the "turf-wars" as it were. He said he really enjoyed talking to me and appreciated my answer and said he'd be looking forward to seeing me again. Please pray that he would join a good church like Hope Fellowship and get plugged in and be nourished spiritually as well as physically.
I enjoyed tonight very much when I was feeding the homeless. There's nothing quite like serving them on their turf. I've fed them in shelters before, but I've never sought them out on the streets where they live. Pretty Shane Claiborn kind of stuff.
Anyway, thanks for the prayers, I can feel them being answered. Satan isn't going to give up and by God's grace neither will I.
in keeping your statutes!
Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
(Psalm 119)
Zach
After reading I got dressed and went outside to the bus stop. I've never ridden a city bus in a foreign place all by myself so this was a first for me, in addition to having vague directions. I got on the bus, rode it for about 10 minutes, got off, went into the subway terminal, found the right track thanks to God, got on and rode into Porter square which is where the church is. This I did without any human help and I was thankful to God for getting me to the church on my first day without getting lost or ending up in Vermont. I was also proud of myself for not asking for help, apart from Divine, and making my way there on time. The whole getting-on-a-bus-and-connecting-to-the-right-subway-station-and-getting-on-the-right-train thing is something I've never had to do before and I was thankful and proud in a small way.
That said, when I got to the church we were briefed on our duties of being sent out in pairs with satchels of granola bars and "God loves you/Hope Fellowship information" cards and handed them out all over the city. We did this for most of the day and were able to have some good conversations. Every one else was able to give away their whole bag except for me and my partner. But, I was able to have a few conversations. They were brief and most were unfruitful, but it was a good experience.
The man I spoke to was slow to understand that I was with a church and just giving out granola bars for free. Once he realized that I was from a church he was quick to explain to me his disposition towards the church. He didn't like the Catholics or the Mormons, but more than them he hated the evangelical "born-agains" as he called it. He called us f***ing Nazis and said he hated when people preached at him and asked why we're always trying to convert everybody to "our idea of God". "Why not leave people alone, they're happier with their lives the way they are", he protested. "Their idea of God's love is probably better than your idea of God's love." He wasn't much for preachers but he sure had a lot to preach. He was waiting for a bus and it eventually picked him up and he said "good luck with your granola bars".
The second time I was out I was in downtown Boston and I handed one to a man passing by. He took it and went on his way. About 30 seconds later he came back and said, "You know, the Catholics used to give people a bowl of soup if they came to church. We called them 'soupers'." I could tell where he was headed with that so I said he could keep the granola bar and I would keep the card and I told him Jesus loved him but he just said, "Keep your stuff, keep your bar" as he walked away huffing and puffing. That's the kind of area I'm in. Some people here will call you an effing Nazi and walk all the way back just to give you back a free granola bar because it says "God loves you". Pretty crazy.
Later in the evening we met with a few other Hope members and took the food we prepared last night out to the poor and homeless on the streets in Harvard square. I got to walk a good ways and got to see the area a little better. I handed out sandwiches, bowls of chicken and rice, and socks and other things to several homeless people. Some asked for extra helpings or extra socks, some huffed and said they didn't want anything just money. At first I kind of took offense to that thinking, "Who are you to turn down free food?" But the Holy Spirit immediately convicted me over that. God offers me his best and I often say, in effect, "No, I'd rather have money for booze." It was a powerful word picture to me of how I so often settle for mud pies when I'm offered a vacation by the sea.
About an hour later I talked to a homeless man named Will. You can pray for him. I believe he is a Christian and some of the other servant team members believe so too. I'd say he's about 50 or 60 years old. We small talked a little and after he found out I was from Texas and was studying to be a pastor some day he asked me if I could answer a question for him that nobody else seemed to give an honest answer on. I was expecting some deep theological stumper or a tricky philosophical question but he simply asked, "Why can't and why aren't churches working together?"
And I thought, "Shoot, why aren't we?" Long story short I told him that it would never be solved because humans are sinful, even Christians doing ministry in the church. I told him that I in fact wanted to come back to Boston and eventually build a network of churches that worked together for the good of the people, but that there were several "close-handed" issues that needed to be agreed on for a church to really be a "church". He agreed. And this is because many churches in the area have long since become inclusive and have ceased to be Bible-believing churches. I didn't go too deep, but he wasn't getting lost either. It was encouraging to see a man wanting to see more churches help each other, rather than continue the "turf-wars" as it were. He said he really enjoyed talking to me and appreciated my answer and said he'd be looking forward to seeing me again. Please pray that he would join a good church like Hope Fellowship and get plugged in and be nourished spiritually as well as physically.
I enjoyed tonight very much when I was feeding the homeless. There's nothing quite like serving them on their turf. I've fed them in shelters before, but I've never sought them out on the streets where they live. Pretty Shane Claiborn kind of stuff.
Anyway, thanks for the prayers, I can feel them being answered. Satan isn't going to give up and by God's grace neither will I.
*****
Oh that my ways may be steadfastin keeping your statutes!
Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
(Psalm 119)
*****
God's mission continues tomorrow in Boston, Dallas, and wherever you are reading this. Thanks for your prayers and keep them coming.Zach
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Day 1
Today I woke up at 3:30 am, boarded a plane for Boston at 5:30 am, flew to Baltimore and finally Boston, met the team of pastors/church planters I will be working with all summer, fell asleep on the pews while the pastors were finishing a staff meeting, was bombarded by Satan for about 2 hours, stopped the church from flooding, saw a HUGE city rat in the basement, went with Curtis and got glue pads to kill said rat, got Dunkin' Donuts coffee, got hooked on DD coffee, saw a homeless man at the front steps of the church yelling and cussing at an invisible person, and made about 50 pb&j sandwiches for the homeless outreach tomorrow.
I was praying the whole way here, except for my flight from Dallas to Baltimore, which I slept through. When I got off the plane in Boston and walked to baggage claim I couldn't help from smiling like an idiot and thanking God for getting me to the city I want to live in someday. I spoke to my best friend Jillie on the phone and she encouraged me.
But, when I got to the church, and after meeting the pastors was asked to hang out in the sanctuary for a moment while they finished their staff meeting, I was immediately bombarded by lies from the evil one. It was almost like clock-work and I didn't even see it coming because of the excitement and gratitude I was feeling just moments earlier. He accused me, deceived me, and some of it worked for a while. I guess I didn't understand how effectively he could accuse and discourage me. Regarding Boston and my calling he has been in my ear constantly, but today lying on the pews he pulled out the big guns. I've never felt more shaken and discouraged than in that hour.
"Do you really want to give your life to this city?"
"This is more than you bargained for. You don't want to be a pastor and raise a family here."
On and on he went for a really long time. I was accused of not having enough faith to carry out such a task. I believed I didn't have enough faith to be a pastor in Boston. I was beginning to believe that it was for better men. I was losing faith by the minute. And then my mind recalled what I had read from Hudson Taylor's biography just this morning. In it he quotes 2 Timothy 2:13 saying, "if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful". The context of that verse says,
"If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful" (ESV)
That's a good word. God is faithful even when I lose faith. The truth of this berthed new faith within me, and gave me the strength to get up off of the pews. My good friend Spencer told me just yesterday that there would likely be days that I didn't want to get up in the morning. I didn't think it would be 15 minutes into sitting in the church.
So here I am, sitting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Just as with Hudson Taylor's "China, whose need and darkness had often called him from afar" I find myself in the city that has often called me from afar. So here I am. I am certainly in over my head, but I desire to be one of those "upon whom the Lord could count -poor and weak perhaps, unknown and unimportant, but ready, by grace, to go to all lengths in carrying out His purposes."
God's mission continues tomorrow. Pray with/for me?
I was praying the whole way here, except for my flight from Dallas to Baltimore, which I slept through. When I got off the plane in Boston and walked to baggage claim I couldn't help from smiling like an idiot and thanking God for getting me to the city I want to live in someday. I spoke to my best friend Jillie on the phone and she encouraged me.
But, when I got to the church, and after meeting the pastors was asked to hang out in the sanctuary for a moment while they finished their staff meeting, I was immediately bombarded by lies from the evil one. It was almost like clock-work and I didn't even see it coming because of the excitement and gratitude I was feeling just moments earlier. He accused me, deceived me, and some of it worked for a while. I guess I didn't understand how effectively he could accuse and discourage me. Regarding Boston and my calling he has been in my ear constantly, but today lying on the pews he pulled out the big guns. I've never felt more shaken and discouraged than in that hour.
"Do you really want to give your life to this city?"
"This is more than you bargained for. You don't want to be a pastor and raise a family here."
On and on he went for a really long time. I was accused of not having enough faith to carry out such a task. I believed I didn't have enough faith to be a pastor in Boston. I was beginning to believe that it was for better men. I was losing faith by the minute. And then my mind recalled what I had read from Hudson Taylor's biography just this morning. In it he quotes 2 Timothy 2:13 saying, "if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful". The context of that verse says,
"If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful" (ESV)
That's a good word. God is faithful even when I lose faith. The truth of this berthed new faith within me, and gave me the strength to get up off of the pews. My good friend Spencer told me just yesterday that there would likely be days that I didn't want to get up in the morning. I didn't think it would be 15 minutes into sitting in the church.
So here I am, sitting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Just as with Hudson Taylor's "China, whose need and darkness had often called him from afar" I find myself in the city that has often called me from afar. So here I am. I am certainly in over my head, but I desire to be one of those "upon whom the Lord could count -poor and weak perhaps, unknown and unimportant, but ready, by grace, to go to all lengths in carrying out His purposes."
God's mission continues tomorrow. Pray with/for me?
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Beginning
Tomorrow I get on a plane at 5:45 am and fly to Boston, Massachusetts.
I've been there only once before in 2004 with my youth group of about 250 kids. And it was only for just a week's time. Now, 6 years later, I will be going all by myself and staying for 2 months as an intern at Hope Fellowship church in Cambridge.
And that's what this blog is going to be about. I plan on writing a weekly entry to update, recount, and reflect on my experiences this summer in Boston. To make a long story short, I feel like God is calling me to give my life to Him and proclaim the gospel to the people of Boston. I also am terrified, as I explain in a two part entry entitled, Boston and Boston Part 2, on another blog I write with my friend. In the first part I expressed my fear of trying to reach people who so vehemently resist the things of God. In the second part I kind of found enough faith to be able to truly say that "God is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think".
And now I'm actually going to be leaving tomorrow morning for Boston. I realize now that I'm not "prayed-up" as much as I would have liked to be. That's just another example of my lack of faith. I'm reading A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God for about the fourth time now and in it he says, "Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed."
So I recommit my time, efforts, and comfort to God this summer in Boston. I'm nervous. I'm a little fearful of the first time I speak to someone on the street and get shut-down and cussed-out for sharing the gospel. I'm a little apprehensive about being 2,000 miles from home in a modern day Mars Hill with a huge Corinthian influence.
But nothing is safe which is not handed over to God. So I'm placing my life on the altar and I'm praying that Jesus doesn't let me crawl off.
Pray with me?
I've been there only once before in 2004 with my youth group of about 250 kids. And it was only for just a week's time. Now, 6 years later, I will be going all by myself and staying for 2 months as an intern at Hope Fellowship church in Cambridge.
And that's what this blog is going to be about. I plan on writing a weekly entry to update, recount, and reflect on my experiences this summer in Boston. To make a long story short, I feel like God is calling me to give my life to Him and proclaim the gospel to the people of Boston. I also am terrified, as I explain in a two part entry entitled, Boston and Boston Part 2, on another blog I write with my friend. In the first part I expressed my fear of trying to reach people who so vehemently resist the things of God. In the second part I kind of found enough faith to be able to truly say that "God is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think".
And now I'm actually going to be leaving tomorrow morning for Boston. I realize now that I'm not "prayed-up" as much as I would have liked to be. That's just another example of my lack of faith. I'm reading A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God for about the fourth time now and in it he says, "Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed."
So I recommit my time, efforts, and comfort to God this summer in Boston. I'm nervous. I'm a little fearful of the first time I speak to someone on the street and get shut-down and cussed-out for sharing the gospel. I'm a little apprehensive about being 2,000 miles from home in a modern day Mars Hill with a huge Corinthian influence.
But nothing is safe which is not handed over to God. So I'm placing my life on the altar and I'm praying that Jesus doesn't let me crawl off.
Pray with me?
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