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reNEWed



The transition from Malaysia to the Philippines has been one of the hardest for me on the race. It was difficult to leave because of the relationships that our team had built with our contacts and the families we lived with in the jungle.  I left Malaysia pretty certain I will return sometime in the future...at least in some capacity...even if it's just to visit. 

But the race continues to move forward and we now find ourselves in the Philippines working together as an entire squad. This month we are living and working at a children's home in Malaybalay that is run by Kids International Ministries (KIM). This is a relatively new location that KIM has moved into and there are a lot of things that we get to help out with while we're here. One of our major resposiblities is taking care of the babies that they have on site. Currently they are short staffed and the people that normally take care of the kids do not get any days off and have very little time to relax. While we're here we are doing 24/7 care for the babies so that the workers get a chance to breathe again and even take a vacation. There are also toddlers and younger children we help out with and look after during the day. 

I'd like you to meet Andrew....
 

He came to the children's home a few months ago with his two sisters. Their mother has been diagnosed insane and their father doesn't want them. Before we got here, the workers told us that Andrew was unresponsive and wouldn't interact with anyone. After being here a couple days we started to see some changes in his behavior. He now loves to hang out with us, smile, laugh, and play with the other kids that he lives with. It has been so amazing to see life come back into him. Last Sunday, Andrew and I hung out during the morning church service and became buds. He liked turning the pages in my Bible and "accidently" dropped into the dirt quite a few times. Andrew's life is just one of many that have been profoundly impacted by the ministry that KIM does in the Philippines.

Our other major project is finishing up the construction of the buildings they have started building on the property. We've sifted sand, made concrete, painted, spackled, sanded, built fences, landscaped...just to name a few. Our main push is to get one building completed before another team of volunteers come in and to finish the kids complex before about 500 kids come for a weeklong camp. 

Of course there are other things going on here where we live and also in the surrounding community...hopefully I can share some of those stories later. Till next time....

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Is This For You?



I don't have a lot of time to go in depth with this, but it is extremely important to me so please read on...
 
I'd like to revisit something that happened a few months back in Malawi.  While we were there God put a burden on our hearts as a squad to help out with a need that was very present everywhere we turned.  We spent most of our time in Malawi speaking, teaching, and discipling church leaders and pastors. As we spoke it was evident that people were hungry to learn and know more about God. However, we quickly learned that there was a severe shortage of Bibles in the church and some of the pastors didn't even have a copy of scripture. Whenever we got done speaking somewhere, the leaders would ask us to pray that God would provide more Bibles. They loved having people come and share with them the stories in the gospels, but they wanted to continue their growth and discipling of each other even after we were gone. They wanted to read, study, and challenge one another. See, the church in Malawi just doesn't have the financial means to provide hardly anyone with a copy of scripture....and that's where you and I come in.
 
During our time on the World Race we are allowed to pick up a couple projects or causes to raise support for. We prayed a lot about this and felt like this was something God wanted us to fight for and to bring to others for help. So what we've done is set up an account where we can all give money to this specific cause and everything that is raised will go directly to purchasing Bibles for the believers in Malawi. Each copy of scripture costs about $11 USD and will go to the organization we worked with, Harvesters International Ministries, who will distribute the Bibles all over the country of Malawi.  Please prayerfully consider helping us and our body of Christ in Malawi. Thanks for reading!
 
 
If you would like to donate, please follow these instructions:
 
PLEASE DO NOT PUT MONEY IN MY SUPPORT ACCOUNT, SINCE IT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TRANSFERRED TO THE CORRECT ACCOUNT.
 
First, you need to go to the world race homepage: www.theworldrace.org

Then please click the tab "Donate" on the top right side of the page.  

Click on the link "Click Here To Give!"  This will take you to the donation page.

In the box that appears, you will see:

ONLINE DONATION INFORMATION

Please select "Support a World Race Project" under Choose Program.

Please enter "2010Mar I Squad" in the Project field provided in order to be sure your funds will go into the account designated for this ministry.


These gifts are tax-deductible. 

If you wish to send a donation by mail, please make your check payable to Adventures In Missions and mail it to:
Adventures In Missions

P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470

Please indicate "World Race Project Fund – 2010Mar I Squad" in the memo section of the check.
 
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Intimacy With The Father



 

"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"  --Matthew 7:21-23
 
 

For most of my life I've known a lot about God. I've read all about His character, His life on earth, His death and resurrection. I believe that I'm even about my Father's business...making disciples, serving others, caring for widows and orphans. But even though I understand these things and try to live them out, I can't get over the fact that I know I still have a very limited relationship with my Father...I struggle to know His voice, to spend time at His feet, to truly comprehend His heart. 

Living here in the heart of the jungle and seeing hundreds of people that don't have access to any copy of the Bible makes me think a lot about how God reveals Himself. I think many of us believe the only way to know God is to read about Him in scripture. I believe that the Bible is the primary way He speaks to us and teaches us, but it is not the only way. The Pharisees were people that had the best knowledge of the scriptures and yet they had no idea who God was. They had made it more about religion than a relationship. Sometimes we forget there is a God who is bigger than even the scripture He gave us and that all the words in the universe are not enough to speak of His goodness, His holiness, His love. Some of us have made His word our god. That's a scary place, where the gift becomes more important than the giver. When was the last time we stopped our Christian music, stopped listening to a sermon, put down even our Bible, and just listened to God? Are we able sit in His presence, longing to spend time with our Father and hear directly from Him?

I know there are a lot of Pharisees still in the church today. Some will probably stand before God and have the scenario in Matthew 7 play out. I know I have Pharisaical tendencies that I have to fight all the time. I don't want to deceive myself and think I am doing all these great acts in Jesus' name and miss the person and relationship with the God in scripture. I want the Holy Spirit to truly open my eyes to who God is in scripture and outside of it. I'm trying to seek God with all I am...and I know that He is faithful to reveal more of Himself to those who earnestly seek Him.

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A Foundation to Build On



In a lot of the countries when we show up people are intrigued about foreigners coming to visit and stay for a month. The more remote the location, the more interest people seem to have probably because they don't have many visitors. They also usually want to hear what you have to say and if they believe in God they want you to run church services. Here it has been a similar experience. We've been able to lead a couple Bible studies and the Sunday church services since we arrived. 

Whenever we get to a new country it always takes time to learn about the culture and find out about the local church though. We've seen a wide range of people's maturity in the faith and it helps to get a feel for where people are at when we try to minister and lead services. Sometimes people barely believe in Jesus at all and sometimes people are crazy about Him and just want to soak up more of Christ in whatever way they can. 

Here in our village, we've been told that people were introduced to Christianity and became Christians twenty years ago. However, as we started to talk with people and explore what it means to be a follower of Christ and who Jesus is, we quickly learned that they are still in an infancy stage in their beliefs. It makes sense because although someone may have came and preached the Gospel twenty years ago, there hasn't been anyone to stay and disciple people. As far as we know, pastor Hem is the only one in the village who has a Bible, and one of the few people who can read. The Asli people have their own language and no Bible has been translated into it and very few people even speak the official language of the country, let alone can read it.

So as we started to probe and ask questions about who Jesus is, what His life was like, why he had to die, we started to see it on people's faces that they didn't know who He was. Many had never heard about Jesus' life on earth and they had no idea why He came and died. I was reminded of The Great Commission and how the last thing that Jesus tells us is to go make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything He had taught. Sure we could show up and be another foreigner to preach the Gospel and have people once again say they wanted to be Christians and pray the sinner's prayer.   But after we left they would be right back at square one, not understanding who God is and the truths that are presented in His word. 

I know God is bigger than even the Bible. I know that He can reveal himself through whatever means He chooses and isn't limited to words on a page. I know He gives us dreams, visions, and speaks to our hearts. I believe He can also use other people in our lives to speak to us. I believe God has brought us here to share what we know about Him. To not boast about convert numbers and actually spend time discipling people who need to know more about Him.

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Off The Beaten Path



We've been in Malaysia for two weeks and it has been an awesome experience so far. Our team is on their own this month, living in the jungle with the Asli people. We sleep in the local church and live, work, and eat with pastor Hem who is one of the leaders in the village.
 
Part of the village.
Our main project while we're here is to help in the start of an "eco-village" where people from outside can come, stay, and buy local goods the Asli people grow and produce. We have cleared some land, built a bridge, and are now working on building the first of many chalets. All the materials used for the construction are from the jungle around us...the entire structure is built from wood, bamboo, and vines. It's really interesting to see the different building techniques and how the Asli people have been building things here for generations.
 
 
I like how work here is a family event.  We usually walk over to the jobsite in the mornings and as we go, many of the children follow us and play in the river and hang out while we are working. When we get there, the village women are already weaving together palm branches for what will eventually become the roof. Eventually some of them also start to make lunch for everyone. They begin by wrapping rice in leaves and then packing them into bamboo that is filled with water and then put over a fire. When meal time comes we all sit at a long table constructed of bamboo and then unwrap the rice and eat everything with our hands. One of my favorite things is being able to partake in local traditions and live the same way the locals do. 
 
 
Usually some of the girls will head back with the kids after lunch and teach them English. The kids love learning English, but it has proved to be a challenge to teach them because most have never gone to school before. Most will never go to school because there isn't a school nearby, so they typically grow up not knowing how to read or write. 

When we first got here the kids wouldn't even come close to us and some of the young ones would even cry when we got near them. Over time though, most of them have warmed up to us and we are able to interact and play with them. We love to hang out with the kids and go swimming in the river, play frisbee, play guitar, or just chase them around the village for awhile. Another game the older guys play is something called Sepak Takraw. This game is crazy. It's hard to describe, but you basically play on a volleyball court...except you use a harder, smaller ball...and you can only use your feet. They are even able to spike the ball, but you have to jump in the air and almost do a flip to spike it over the net. I'm not very flexible, so I tend not to be in the spiker's position...they usually put me as the server or the setter since I cause the least amount of damage in those spots. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

 
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The 411



I'm writing this blog from a far off time and place since my last post. So much has happened and I haven't been able to keep anyone posted so I want to fill you in on where I'm at. We finished up our time in Malawi by rejoining with the entire squad in the capital and sharing what God had done during the month in the different teams. It was a great chance to reflect on our time there and hear about other people's ministries. The month after Malawi was scheduled to be a month where we decided what ministry we wanted to do and where we felt God was leading us to go. We felt God calling us to Mozambique, to a place called Mama Rita's. We also decided to switch up teams each week while we were there and have a new team leader each day. The night before we left for Mozambique we found out that two people had malaria and would have to stay back until they got better. The rest of the squad proceeded to Mama Rita's in hopes that the others would rejoin us quickly.

After a long couple of bus rides we made it here...
 
Twenty of us stayed here....no running water...one outhouse...tons of mosquitoes....lots of rats...but the people at Mama Rita's were amazing. While we were there another one of our squad mates got malaria and many people battled small sicknesses. It was a hard couple weeks but we have so many great memories from our time there and our squad really pulled together and started to function more as a one body. Personally it was the hardest couple of weeks I've had on the race and God stretched me in a lot of ways and brought me to the breaking point. I want to go into more detail about everything but I don't have the time to even begin to tackle it in words.
 
 
 
 

From Moz we headed back to South Africa for a debrief period. We ended up meeting the people that had malaria in Malawi at debrief because there was no way they were going to get rest at Mama Rita's so they headed to South Africa early to finish recovering.  So many times debrief is anything but restful, but our squad ended up arriving a couple days early and we were able to take it easy and not have to rush into all our meetings immediately. The short story of debrief is that through a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided that things really needed to change. So many people had gone home, some teams were thriving, some teams were stagnant, and the lines between leadership and others still seemed to be a problem. So what happened was everyone was put in one room and we sought God as to who he wanted to place on new teams. Everyone was on an equal playing field and we all had a voice in what was decided. It could have been one messy process, but it went extremely well and everyone showed how mature we could be in making decisions of this caliber.  After the teams were finalized, each team decided their leader, finance person and how their team would function.

 
 
It was hard to say goodbye to my old team, but I know God is has bigger things in store for all of us and I don't want our comfort to get in the way of that. I'm excited about what these changes will call out of people and how it will force a lot of us to grow in new areas. 
 
After our debrief time we jumped on two different planes, each flight being about seven or eight hours long. When we landed we were on a new continent, had passed through six time zones, and where starting the last leg of our world race year....and the beginning of the end starts in Malaysia!
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Where Did God Go?



Now that we've completed a decent chunk of our race, I've got a few countries under my belt and quite a few experiences to draw from. We get to visit a lot of churches during our travels and they're all so different and unique. They have different cultural norms, traditions and ways of worshiping God. Growing up in the American church I've gotten used to a specific structure for church, how it runs, what not to say, when to stand, when to zone out, and when to head for the door. But for a lot of the church outside America, the structure looks different. They do things in a different order, leave things completely out, or have very little structure. But I think the biggest contrast I've noticed between churches in America and churches we encounter on the race are the physical ones. The building (if you can call it that), the mud mounds for benches, the lack of electricity, and the missing instruments. 

In all of the churches we've been to here in Malawi, they have mud floors, sometimes wooden benches, maybe one drum, and a lot of people wanting to fellowship and praise God. We usually sing songs without words on a screen or instruments to drown out or voices, there's no powerpoint presentation to follow along to, and no other media to keep us constantly entertained. What we do is clap our hands, dance a lot, and listen to the word that God is speaking to or through us that day.
 
 
 

My question is this...how many people would leave your church if you stripped away all the glitz and glamour? Would you still be attending? Do we experience more of God when we are fully engaged in media and have things fed to us? Or do we lose God amongst all the noise and commotion that is going on? 

See, I feel like I've felt God's presence more strongly than ever before in some of the churches here in Malawi. I'm not saying God is absent from the American church...no not at all. What I don't want this blog to be is a bash on America and the culture. It's easy for me to get judgmental when I'm overseas and looking back at a land of excess. What I'm wrestling with is the thought that many attendees of American churches are coming with the intentions to be entertained....really?? Yes. Entertained! Do we come to the cross of Christ in hopes that he'll entertain us for a couple hours? That's a scary thought.

I'm speaking from experience here, so don't think I'm trying to exempt myself from anything...We raise our hands during worship and get emotional and feel like God is so close...We hear a message and it pulls at our hearts and we know that our lives need to change...We see our brothers and sisters hurting and realize we need to have compassion and do something for them...but then nothing happens...no action takes place.

If we were encountering God I think there would be more people on their faces before God, more people changing how they live their lives, more people loving their neighbor as themselves. But instead nothing happens and we go back to our busy godless lives. 

So why the disconnect? Maybe it's because we never came to church to be changed, we never came to experience the creator of the universe, we never wanted to have someone tell us that we are wretched and in need of a savior. We came to be entertained and get on with our lives. Next time you're in church look past all the things being presented to you and see where God is truly at work. When you seek Him out you will find Him. And then be ready to go for a ride...a ride that will change your life...that will call you into things that are bigger and better than yourself. I love adventure! And that's exactly what following Jesus is...the greatest adventure I've ever been a part of.

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My Body Hurts…



Oh the adventures of traveling on the World Race. It makes life interesting, sometimes frustrating, and reminds me of the conveniences I've become accustomed to back home. After riding in an old, beat-up greyhound style bus for 12 hours with every inch of seats and isle space packed with people or cargo, we made it to the rest of our squad. We spent a day relaxing with them and then the 27 of us headed out on this guy...
 
We spent the next 36 hours like this...
 

Not the most comfortable situation, but the memories are priceless. At the border we loaded all our packs and every person on two taxi vans took a few hours to get to our lodging where we found out they didn't have our reservations so we just pitched tents and made things work. Waking up the next morning the squad split up with one team going to the northern part of Malawi, two teams staying at the campsite in the central region, and my team heading on a 5 hour minibus ride to the southern part. Long story short...we made it and have plenty of stories to reminisce about together.

This month all our teams are working with the same organization even though we are spread out across Malawi. We are partnering with Harvester International Ministries (HIM). HIM does a lot of church planting and disciplining of leaders in many different denominations. Most of our time here looks like it will be spent traveling around and encouraging churches, pastors, and anyone we come in contact with. We'll be doing a ton of preaching, teaching, and sharing testimonies. Our contact here is Medson, the director of the southern region for HIM, and we are living with him and his family. 

Yesterday we were able to attend his home church and preach and share our testimonies. It was such a blessing to be there and be welcomed by everyone. In my mind I had this idea of what church would be like in Africa...lots of smiling people, passionate preachers, dancing, and songs that stir the soul. Well, that's exactly what I found on this day. People were alive and praising God...and it was contagious. Before any of us got up to speak, the Malawians spoke to us by how they worshiped, with how they loved God and each other. Many of us were at the point of tears and just soaked in the presence of God as they worshiped with songs. As I sat and listened I couldn't help but smile. It was evident looking at them; they know we serve a risen savior not a man in a grave. So many times find myself without any zeal, with no passion for what Christ has done for me. I lose sight of the fact that on the cross Jesus took everything upon himself and redeemed me, allowing me to have communion with him and his father...how can I not be ecstatic about that! 
 
The Church members starting to assemble.
The youth choir.
 

This is going to be a great month...more stories to come...!

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What Did You Say?



One of my favorite things this month has been going to a nursing home that is about a mile from where we live. Our first trip there we hung mosquito nets for people who didn't have any. As we went into different rooms and met the people living there my heart began to break. The rooms there are very small, basic (some people have beds and some sleep on the concrete floor), some have bugs all over, and some smell of urine and other things that make it hard to breathe. Don has said that compared to a year ago the nursing home looks amazing and is a lot more sanitary than it was.

 The residents there are extremely friendly and I love when we show up each day and they get a huge smile on their face. No one there really speaks English so we don't have the convenience of talking much but we just sit, hang out and communicate with our hands and gestures as much as we can. When we first walk into the complex we always see two men...Eduardo and Agostinho. Yesterday, Marissa, Kelly, and I sat with them for a few minutes talking about the weather and how they were doing. After a little bit, Marissa and Kelly headed to the back of that dorm and started visiting and painting nails with the older ladies there. After they left I stayed with Eduardo and Agostinho. Neither of them gets around well and they spend most of their time sitting right outside their doors overlooking a dirt yard. There are a handful of mango trees in the yard and as I sat there and looked out with them, I realized there was no way that they could even get out there and pick a couple. I motioned to them, trying to ask if they wanted some mangos. They looked excited so I decided to climb up the tree and grab a few. 

As I started to shake one of the largest trees I had climbed, I realized that I hadn't asked either of the two workers there if I could pick the fruit and give it to the guys. I looked over and Eduardo and Agostinho were laughing at what I was doing. Even though it is the entrance to the nursing home, the workers can't see anything that goes on there because they do most of their work in between the dorm buildings where Marissa and Kelly were hanging out. Thinking I was pretty safe and also for the fact that I didn't care too much about getting in trouble for this activity, I continued to shake the tree as two large mangos fell to the ground. I jumped out of the tree and as I walked over to the fallen mangos, one of the workers was walking towards me. I picked them up and said good afternoon with probably the worst foreigner accent she had ever heard. She started to say something to me, but I just shrugged my shoulders and said I didn't understand. She kept walking and I waited until she was out of sight before I distributed the mangos. As I gave them each a mango, I put my finger over my lips and said, Shhhh. They laughed again and immediately started to eat. Most of the time the language barrier is a frustrating obstacle, but sometimes it can be a blessing (or maybe just an excuse) that allows me take a few more liberties than I might normally do. 

 
 
 Agostinho and I hanging out on the porch.

 In a few days we are going to be heading out from Masaka and traveling about 12 hours north to meet up with the rest of our squad.  From there we have a three day bus ride to Malawi...possibly more depending on where we go within the country.  So expect a lul in the blogging, but I'll write again when we have arrived at our new home.
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Here's Some Info...



Once again we are nearing the end of a month of ministry in a country and as usual I haven't told anything about what's been happening here. Let me give you a few of the highlights over the past two and a half weeks...
 
A little background:    We are working with an organization called Iris Ministries that does work all over Mozambique. We live in a place called Masaka and are working with Don Foster who heads up the Benjamin Project. The Benjamin Project is a place where guys come to live and use as a transition time between life in an orphanage and life out on the streets. It allows them to start living in a place where everything is not provided, where they have to work for a living, but also have more freedom to make their own decisions. Currently there aren't many boys living here and so we have been trying to help make the property more livable. We have been helping dig holes and plant numerous trees (there are going to be 2,000 trees planted before it's all said and done...but that will be completed after we leave), putting up shelves, painting rooms, and cooking for those who live here.
 
Along with the things we do on the base, we have also been able to visit people in the surrounding area and do different ministries in the local community. We visited a larger Iris base in Zimpato and were able to see how it functioned and how they feed hundreds of kids. While we were they we played for a couple hours in the baby house...
 
                 Kids playing under the little shade there was.                                                One of my friends in the baby house.
After we finished there, we planned to go to another Iris base but the following happened...
 
This doesn't help you get from point A to B.

 I've become used to flat tires, but losing an axle doesn't happen every day. Instead of going to the base, we hitched a ride into town and got a few groceries before heading back home.

Don hasn't had the luxury of a vehicle here for quite a few months, so going into town or doing errands proves to be a bit more difficult than you might think. Since arriving, we've been eager to show the "Jesus Film" but have been waiting to see if we could use Don's van to transport everything. After getting word that that option wasn't going to be available during our time here, we decided to just pick up the equipment needed in hand, hike out to where we wanted to show it, and set up shop...
 
                            Halfway through our hike.                                                                                       Some kids flying kites.
 
            Getting everything setup for the film showing.                      One of the kids who was holding two dead rats...for dinner.

The day after showing the film we headed back out into the same region and passed out vouchers that people could redeem bug nets for. In this area there are a lot of people who contract malaria. Typically the malaria carrying mosquitoes come out at dusk and by sleeping with a mosquito net you can drastically reduce the risk getting bit. So, we walked around the area and talked with people, sprayed their existing nets if they had them, and gave people who needed nets the vouchers. The vouchers allow us not to have to carry large amounts of nets with us, but they also give us a way to invite them to church the next day so they can redeem their ticket after the service. It went well...we handed out about 70 tickets and had over 50 tickets redeemed after people heard the gospel message.

I have one more thing here that I love to do, but I'll save it till my next post since this one is getting lengthy and I was always told to keep my blogs short....whoops.

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