Reasons to Ride… Again!
The LiveStrong Challenge is one based out of the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s goal to raise global awareness about the fight against cancer. In addition to awareness, every cycling event raises millions of dollars for much needed cancer research.
I’m riding again on July 11, 2010. I hope you can donate to the cause and help me out!
{read more about this adventure here}
Well, I’m back from Mexico. Actually I’ve been back since late on Friday. It’s just taken me awhile to recover and sit down to type up a report. These were so many good, funny, spiritual, clumsy, creative moments that I can’t list them all. But I hope to bullet point quite a few amazing moments of the trip. For deeper details, come to the Mexico share night at HSM on April 21st.
Alright, here goes (in random order and significance… bold some favs with good stories):
This weekend I leave for the great country of Mexico with the High School Ministry (HSM) of Big Valley Grace. We pull out early Friday, all 140 of us. I get to serve as the “camp pastor” for the trip — and hopefully an official fish taco connoisseur.
It’s been exciting getting to know students & leaders alike. Thankfully, I have had the great privilege of learning names, faces, and prayer requests before the trip. This knowledge has sped up my ability to connect with people, see the work of God in students, and have a heartbeat for what to preach/teach.
Please pray for me as I am preparing messages to deliver each night. I am really wanting the Holy Spirit to guide each night, even in spite of what I have prepared. I feel that God is going to do great things through those special moments of worship and teaching each evening; during the trip and in the months and days after.
I’d also ask for prayer for safety. We will be traveling in a 15 van caravan for some 14 hours one way. That’s a lot of driving and we need protection! In addition, pray for safety at the work sites… and the water. The picture below is of a few guys that caught a massive Oarfish in the ocean near where we are going! Really!? “Stay out of the water kids.”
Thanks for your prayers– to God be the glory. Reports in a week.
What a whirlwind world week and month(s). We will finally reach the end of a two-week athletic competition that rivals nothing else internationally (ok, maybe the World Cup). And I, for one, have been drawn right in. Not that I don’t usually tune into the Olympics, but my interest would wane quickly. However, this go around I have had staying power.
Maybe it was the moguls, men’s speed skating, curling (want to try that!), or the US Hockey teams, but I’m hooked. I’ve DVRd tons of it and speed through to the events. It’s been wild to see people from different parts of the globe and how I’ve come to love their stories, their cultures, their tragedies, and their triumphs. It’s been adventurous. It’s been competitive. But overall, it seems so uniting. The world is a big place.
… and not only big, but shaking a bit. The recent earthquake frenzy of Eureka, Haiti, and now Chile has been slightly disturbing. How do you fight and earthquake? How do you start over? How do you overcome tremendous loss so fast? This isn’t real life JENGA! We can’t just rebuild the blocks and play again. Lives, economies, cultures are at stake even. I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by the wars, famines, catastrophes, and depravity of the world too. I don’t want to sound hopeless (or Left Behind-ish). It’s just that I need the God of hope to bring peace to my heart– and more so to the hearts of countless Chileans & Haitians. Maybe my cry should be “I have hope, but help my unhope”.
And all these feelings rise and fall in the midst of our church’s focus on Global outreach. That might not be an accident. We can achieve medals in the name of competition and national pride. We can bring aid to those in desperate life altering contexts. But greater still, we can we make disciples.
An achievement and medal will be gained, lost, and often forgotten. Tragedy will strike (even again) and nations will be broken. But a disciple of the Most High God is forever. And while there is pretty much no chance of me winning the gold nor a chance of being able to prevent natural disasters. There is the strong possibility that I can give, invest, and surrender to the cause of disciple-making; locally and globally (Matthew 28:16-20).
And so I will.
Haiti was rocked again by a 6.1 earthquake aftershock. Not to mention the 5.8 that hit the Cayman Islands and the recent Southern California 3.4 quake. The whole plate is moving it seems.
I was surprised the other day to hear these statements from Christian broadcasting personality Pat Robertson. Well, actually I wasn’t. This is a sure trend from him. Don’t believe me? Well, then watch here, here, here, and here! (and take a tums first).
John Stewart’s reaction is the reaction of many in the media. Now, I don’t agree with everything said. But as a believer, there has to be a better way to address disaster with hope, the gospel, and good news! Here is one way!
And besides, Colossians 4:4-6 instructs us to “be wise” in how we deal with outsiders. Conversations like this just don’t seem all that wise to me. There are Christians in Haiti gutting it out. Shouldn’t we speak a word of love and hope to them too? Christ was full of TRUTH and GRACE. Maybe we need a better balance…
I, for one, want to be an example of that balance.
I have been so silent in the blog lately world because the real world has been spinning so crazy! And the reason why: “Well, I’m heading to Africa… again!”
Last year I had such a great time helping lead a pastors conference with by boss and friend Bobby Fisher. And this year I will be traveling with friends again; nine of them actually! This mission will truly be a wonderful adventure!
I hope to be able to include some great updates at sacredthread.org. Make sure you surf by during the next few weeks to get some news from the Southern Hemisphere.
Later… and please pray!