Re-Imagining

It's fun sometimes to dream of different things.  To get creative about different ways of imagining the world.  In our natural minds, we can only imagine the world in the ways that it has been modeled for us.  We feed off the examples in our past to determine how we look at the world.  It's very difficult to step outside of them!  You can see exactly where my spiritual life comes from by examining about a half dozen examples in my past.  You can understand my professional life by the same process.  The way I handle my money.  The purchases I make.  We, as social humans, get a lot of how we operate from seeing how others operate.  If it works for them, it must work for me too.  This is all well and good until one of two things happen: what if our examples aren't accurate, or what if all our examples agree?

Teresa of Avila

What if they aren't accurate?  Examples of commonly-accepted though well-rebutted groupthink are too numerous to mention here.  Recently I posted here about re-reading the Bible and suddenly having my eyes opened to different realities.  For the past couple of months I've really been asking a lot of questions about my life, because in some ways I wonder if the examples that have been set for me of spiritual life are accurate.  I see the same things examining the lives of remarkable spiritual leaders throughout history.  Some people just seemed to see the world completely differently, and live their lives in a totally different way.  What if I struggle to pray because I haven't seen an example of someone who gets it right, the way the Bible describes it?  It's not just spiritual things - maybe I organize my time because my society has shown me that productivity is the key to value.  What if that's just plain wrong - if my life would be more fulfilling and more significant to others if I sat at my desk less, neglected more "important" duties, and spent more time building community?

Pakistani Savings Group

Or what if all our examples agree with each other?  Wouldn't that cause us to stagnate, to get stuck?  Nearly every restaurant, when asked for vegetables, provides either a salad (of 1-2 types of greens) or a couple basic veggies in a bowl.  They, and the canning industry, have led us to believe that God's good earth only has about a dozen types of vegetables.  Or, if everybody I know says the way to be sustainable in retirement is to save 10% of your income every year in a well-diversified portfolio, wouldn't I assume that's the only way?  What if there were another way, one based on a community of generosity where people and family members owe so many financial debts to each other that they stop keeping track of them and just take care of each other?  In America, it's assumed that every adult needs their own car and if a place isn't on a road it's not accessible.  Why?  What if cities spent as much money on public transportation as they do on roads, and drastically decreased the number of highways?  Why can't that be a possibility?  I'm convinced that by expanding our horizons of examples and influences, we can unlock other potential scenarios.  We could see through the fallacy that there is one clear path through life, and discover great things.

Just give me this sunset
and I'm at peace.

This past summer, Katie and I spent twelve weeks in South America.  Sometimes I still struggle to know why exactly we did that, if I'm honest.  It was valuable for a variety of reasons, to be sure.  We felt God clearly leading us to do it, so we did.  One of the benefits was that we were presented with different realities and imagined life in different ways.  In one it was the rainforest, where muddy paths, daily rains, unreliable electricity, and no running water were the norm.  In another it was the desert, where you did a lot of walking, riding buses, and drying clothes on the roof and where the food was amazingly simple yet satisfying.  You avoided throwing anything in the trash because you had seen the city dump where it would end up.  We struggled in South America, but I think that subconsciously once returning we realized that we had felt a surprising sense of living when we were there.  The community was very refreshing.  It was amazing how clean our bodies felt eating simple foods.  Living with our few possessions was easy.

Sometimes culture tends to tell us a certain thing, and it's surprisingly hard to imagine things a different way.  I'm convinced, however, that there are beautiful worlds out there waiting for us to discover them if we can just stop to re-imagine, from the ground up, a different way of approaching life.  Don't just accept as true what people tell you, be grateful that it works for them and consider for yourself whether it's the only way.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's Christmastime again, and it's a magical season.  The air is a bit brisker to welcome the lights that now adorn homes, trees, and businesses.  It's as if just before the land sleeps under winter's cold spell, everything erupts in one last bright, merry celebration.  No matter the frustrating things of the season and all the reasons that we have to be bitter.  For a short time, no matter how much we try to be dour, Christmas trees with a thousand lights and memories draw us back to an easy chair in front of a fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate.  We all know what a merry Christmas looks like, and none of us has completely buried it out of reach.

It's not the most joyous time of year for everyone.  This is the time of year that those who lost family in the last twelve months grieve the most.  Countless people will toil at work straight through the holiday, whether they work for a scrooge or provide an indispensable service to the world.  Shopping will certainly frustrate us, and family just has that wonderful way of making the best of us into a grinch.  But what's so magical about Christmas is that it's possible, even if for only a fleeting moment, to reach through the mess and discover that the world in fact has a bit of good in it, no matter how miserable it seems.

For this is the time of year that God saw the mess of His own creation and compassion finally moved Him to action.  Unable to wait any longer, he sent His own Son as a little baby into that world.  If the world hadn't a speck of good in it, He would be that good.  And just as a fearful child enters a dark room knowing what dangers could lurk behind every shadowy obstacle, Jesus knew that all the world was only waiting to be lit could he just make it to the other side to tear open the curtains and let the light pour in.  For God knew that the good had not been entirely driven out of His creation, and that no man was beyond hope.  At Christmastime, we remember that we are not without hope, and that even the darkest hour comes only right before dawn.

At Christmas, I'm convinced that if there is anything bad in this world, it is because those most able to make it good have withheld themselves from fixing it.  If there is meanness, it is because we have lost the spirit of Christmas.  If there is sadness, it is because we have forgotten the gift of this season.  At Christmas, it's just a bit easier to believe - to believe in good.  If this time of year we are kinder and merrier than any other, we can make this magical season last beyond the New Year.  In the next year we can show kindness and compassion, we can choose to believe in the good, and we can choose to dive into the dirt and mud with both feet and cultivate it.

Adeste fidelis, and a very merry Christmas to you.

Phrases We Should Stop Using, Pt. VII: Good and Great?

It's been a while since I've added to my series on "Phrases We Should Stop Using."  Check out the previous posts below.  This time, I'm thinking about how we sometimes say that "Good is the enemy of great."  Like many of the posts in this series, the phrase definitely has some truth to it.  There's no doubt that settling for something good can rob you of the opportunity to enjoy something great.  However, I'm wondering today first whether it's worth it, and second whether it's a bad thing.

Saying "Good is the enemy of great" is usually an encouragement to leaders struggling in decision making.  The recipient of the advice may be facing a few "good" options and wondering whether there's an even better one out there.  Is it worth it, however, to delay until a best option is found?  Maybe something better is out there, but what if the situation is one in which doing nothing at all is the worst option?  In that case, by waiting on good options until the best is found, the advice-giver is actually encouraging the person to de facto take the worst option.  I'm concerned that, in many situations, the delay in decision-making may not be worth the potential upside from an improved slate of options.  Thus, before we take this advice, a wise leader will realize the full array of pros and cons facing him or her, weighing the degree to which the unknown "best" option could be better versus the pain from avoiding a decision.  The leader will decide how long they are willing to wait before the pain outweighs the gain.

Another angle I'm wondering about is whether or not it's even a good thing to avoid "good" options in search of a "great" option.  Is there always a great option even out there?  Are we proven fools if we avoid a "good" option, only to eventually have to come back to it after spending a great deal of time looking for a better plan?  The wise leader needs to also weigh the probability that there even is a "best" option out there before taking this advice.  Leaders must be highly comfortable with making decisions without all the available facts if they want to remain nimble and quickly effective.  Otherwise they will move slowly and miss many opportunities.  I'm further convinced that it's a testament to wisdom when someone makes a decision without looking back and frequently questioning themselves.  The outcome will generally be best by applying fully to one option, rather than continuing to waffle after stepping out.

Isn't life filled with opportunities to make the best out of the options we have?  Isn't character developed by committing to one thing and sticking with it?  If we aren't careful with the advice of "good is the enemy of great," we'll apply it to the wrong situations.  Marriage isn't about finding the perfect option, it's about choosing to love an imperfect person just like yourself and turning a blind eye to other potential "options" once you've made the choice.  Looking for the perfect job either leaves you with an empty resume or one where you've clearly hopped from job to job on a whim.  We need to be more comfortable with recognizing, "You know, all these options are good ones and I am capable of realizing good things in any of them."  Instead of a perfectionist preoccupation with the perfect, wisdom is the ability to make the best out of what we have, flexibly and quickly making decisions and moving forward.


Previous posts in the series:

1. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
2. You can do anything you set your mind to
3. Live like you were dying
4. The least of these
5. Don't judge a book by its cover
6. Time is money

Reading the Bible Again

I've read the whole Bible twice before, and I've studied various parts of it to varying degrees of depth.  I've heard countless sermons and read a hundred Christian books.  There's nothing, however, quite like returning to the Word and reading it again for the big picture.  There's a lot of truth to the idea that you can never see both the forest and the trees.  As I write this I'm wrapping up an intro New Testament course where, in 3 months, we took an overview of Romans through Revelation.  We've read the whole thing, along with a basic intro supplement, a book on Paul's theology, and a book on interpreting Revelation.  It's been awesome to see the forest in a short period of time, and three big ideas have jumped out at me more strongly than I'd ever seen before.

The teachings of Jesus and the apostles were amazingly counter-cultural.

We know this, instinctively, but the degree to which it's true amazes me.  When the apostles realized the extent of the "mystery" of the faith that God has welcomed the Gentiles into his covenant, their teaching went against a couple thousand years of understanding by the Jews.  The degree of controversy might be on the same level as if we suddenly realized the sun wasn't actually the center of our galaxy.  When Jesus and the apostles redefined the family roles for Christians and flattened the social order, they were going against the entire cultural arrangement of the Roman empire.  Today's equivalent would be if some group started arguing that capitalism wasn't the ideal economic system.  That Christianity was multicultural was about as confusing to Romans as could be.  The teaching of Christianity was turning the entire known world upside down because it was so counter to what culture taught.

The Bible is far more focused on good works than we often speak of.

Martin Luther endowed us Protestants with a strong conviction of "sola fide," or faith alone.  Indeed, the Bible teaches clearly that we are saved by faith alone.  However, this was never to the downplaying of good works - usually talking about the marginalized.  Paul, who said in Ephesians 2 that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works, immediately in the very next sentence says that we are created by God to do good works.  All of the New Testament agrees: faith that doesn't produce good works is not saving faith.  Jesus and Paul, not just James, taught the importance of good works.  We don't emphasize this nearly enough.  We talk a lot about having a relationship with God, and His forgiveness, but we don't talk much about what kind of life we need to live if we are to claim to follow Him.

Christianity in the New Testament was uncompromising and radical.

While Paul famously talked about being all things to all people, and Jesus' prayer in the Garden is the basis for people saying "in the world but not of it," the wholesale message of the New Testament is one of extreme refusal to compromise with the world.  The New Testament authors envisage or assume Christians who look radically different than the world.  I'm not sure what they would make of Christians who look just like atheists and agnostics all week long.  As I study Revelation, in fact, I'm coming to realize how radical it is - John only allows for two options - either you are one who "overcomes" (really his language is that of sacrificial death - martyrdom) or you are cast out.  Jesus does the same type of separation.  This book that we follow and believe is unbelievably radical in its propositions, and we soften their blows at our own peril.

Our Reputations

It's depressing to me when I think of the way that some groups, who include me, have lost their good reputations.  One of the most apparent to me is the way that Texans are viewed.  It seems that it wasn't even that long ago that Texas was "Everything's bigger in Texas" and "Don't mess with Texas."  It was the independent, fun-loving, extra-friendly capital of country music, good manners, and great food.  Now it seems like Texas' independence given way to rebelliousness, fun-loving has given way to a sense of being better than everyone else, and whatever happened to extra-friendly?  Texas is no longer highly respected, it's derided and made fun of.

It's happened to other groups that represent me too.  America was once highly respected in the world and considered a model for good governance and economic strength.  The reasons for why America is now intensely disliked and even ignored as a sideshow are well-known and too many to try to get into.  It's happened to my University of Texas, where an article I was reading the other day talked about their fickle sports fans who show up late and leave early because of the sorry state of their athletics programs.  The university's leadership and donor base is fractured by infighting and the school is suffering as a result.  It's happened to Lutherans too - we trace our roots back to the father of the Reformation and have a great history of good doctrines and standing up for the truth.  Today, however, I'm generally ashamed to call myself a Lutheran among other Christians.

Perhaps no loss of reputation hurts as badly as the damage that has been done to the reputation of Christians, however.  It was reported in the early days of the new faith that Christians were turning the world upside down with their compassion, mercy, and love.  They of course had their unjust charges leveled against them, but Jesus was pleased to say that the world would know we are his disciples by our love for one another.  Today, however, Christians have been pushed to the margins as mean-spirited, divisive, argumentative or, at best, irrelevant.  Christians are not known for their acts of charity, but for a thousand years of fighting Muslims, for being anti-everything, for their money scandals, and for being self-absorbed.  I'm thankful for cultural artifacts like Duck Dynasty that do seem to help bring up the reputation of Christians, but they are few and far between.

Christ calls us His ambassadors.  We quite literally carry His name in ours.  The Bible is full of statements where God is acting for the sake of His name, but we're not doing a very good job of serving His reputation through our own.  Life is not all about paying attention to what others think of you.  But sometimes we would be wise to watch what we do to our own reputations.

Supervisor Conflict

I've noticed something lately in my interactions with friends.  I've noticed that I have very few friends my age who have a good relationship with their supervisors at work.  Most are unhappy with their jobs, their hours, their responsibilities, their boss' character, the organizational system, and so forth.  Even my ministry friends live this, both in churches and in nonprofits.  It's like there's a general culture of discontent and conflict at work among my generation.  Why is this?  I'd like to hear your comments, but I have a few ideas to start the conversation.

I have sometimes noticed a failure of both supervisors and the supervised to recognize their own limitations.  Perhaps both think they know better, or perhaps one holds age and experience over the other.  Without each person recognizing how they are contributing to the problem, and recognizing that the other person may have some valid reasons for their behavior, conflicts will never be solved.

Other times I've seen unhealthy expectations of perfection.  Millennials, in valuing authenticity and transparency, can often make the quick jump to hyper-critical when they sense that transparency is lacking.  In this type of attitude, every mistake is a deal-breaker and once we judge somebody or lose respect for them, it's very hard to regain it.  I'd ask, however, why we have to expect such things out of our bosses.  Why is that necessary for us to do our jobs, and to do them well?

Further, people may expect their own jobs to be perfect.  Nobody loves 100% of what they do.  Every job has sizable elements of things that we put up with doing as well as things that we downright dislike.  If we sense ourselves being asked to do things we don't want to do, we need to avoid the impulse to get angry or rebellious.  By persevering and putting our noses to the grindstone even when we don't love what we do, we develop character, integrity, and we may just learn something in the process.

Are you unhappy at work?  Why do you think it is, and what do you think is the way out?  Or, are you a boss who knows the young people who report to you are unhappy?  What do you think is the solution to the conflict?

Countering the Myth of the Millennial

This morning's New York Times had an article encouraging companies to incorporate the "millennial's mind-set" into their culture.  It's often touted that if companies will just give their new, young team members the freedom to fail and the resources they need, they will change the world.  There's a lot of excitement over my generation.  Now, the thought-leaders who are encouraging managers to give people the freedom to fail are certainly correct, and there's nothing wrong with their logic.  It's also true that there are very few leaders out there actually following this guidance, despite what the experts say.  The problem is, would it work?

I'm speaking up, as a member of the millennial generation, to say that I'm not so sure my generation should be trusted so much.  This NY Times article touches on the issue of what makes millennials excited and motivates them to work.  It talks about transparency, and authenticity, and so forth, but what if it's actually deeper than that?  What if my generation has taken to heart all the encouragement that we heard growing up, and we've gotten our heads a bit too big?  I believe that, indeed, companies and the world ought to give millennials more credit, give us more opportunities, and listen to us more.  I also believe, however, that we millennials have got to shrink our egos, take a long view on our lives, and build our foundation.

My fear for my generation is not that we won't change the world.  It's that we will try to do it too early, and one of two things will happen.  Either we will change it in a way that we regret later, or we will make great icons and celebrities out of ourselves without the character to sustain it.  I've written about this before.  The challenge with companies recruiting millennials is not that we want more freedom, it's that we have this idea that by the age of 30 we should be respected leaders well on our way to changing the world.  It's time for us to embrace the challenge of playing the opening moves of the chess match.  What we do now will set the foundation for the rest of the game....and yes, there is a rest of the game.  We don't win by the time we're 30, we win when we are at the end of our lives - with a long string of small victories, the wisdom that comes from a life well-lived, and the enduring legacy of a lifelong leader.

How Is Your Spiritual Walk?

Have you ever noticed that we modern Christians have invented all sorts of language for describing spiritual things?  We talk about things like "accepting Jesus into your heart" and ask each other "How is your spiritual walk?"  I wonder sometimes about the meaning of these phrases.  When you ask someone about their spiritual walk, you're probably expecting to hear "It's going fine, but I am a week behind on My Utmost for His Highest and missed my quiet time the last two mornings."  What?  What does that have to do with anything?

I'd rather people asked me "How are you following Christ lately?"  That is a lot more directed.  I believe that God is more interested in how our daily lives look than whether or not we're current on our devotional schedule.  I'd like to ask someone how they are following Christ and hear "I'm having a hard time.  Things are good, but my wife and I spent $450 last month at restaurants and I know that's not how Christ wants me to live."  I'd like to hear, "Christ is leading me overall, but last week my boss asked me to do something I feel uneasy about, and I'm not sure what to do."  Then they'd ask me, and I'd say "I'm struggling with following Jesus' lead in my apartment complex, where I stop short of developing real relationships with people I talk to more than weekly."

Let's broaden our conception of "the spiritual walk."  Sure, things like our devotional lives and going to church are important.  But I am convinced that our relationships with our neighbors, how we handle our finances, and our behavior in our workplaces is just as much a part of our spiritual lives as prayer is.  Our sermons like to dwell on doctrine, beliefs, and Scripture.  Those things are good.  But we hesitate to really get into behaviors and attitudes.  I was wondering this week in my readings through Paul whether our attempt to side with Paul on faith vs. works has led us to avoid works too strongly.  Are we misreading him?  Paul's letters are right alongside James' letter that says, "Faith without works is dead," and I don't think the two would disagree in a conversation.

How are are you following Christ lately?

So You're Unhappy....

I was inspired by a conversation with my wife last night to write a response to the popular current post, "Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy."  If you haven't read that original post, go read it now and then come back.

There's a lot in this author's writing that is really true, and that's why it's got over 750K social networking hits right now.  It really hits a chord with a lot of my generation, us millennials as I like to call us.  There's no doubt that we've been told that "You can do anything you set your mind to," which has some nugget of truth in it.  There's no doubt that we've been told that "You're special," which also has a nugget of truth in it.  The truth is, we have been handed every imaginable opportunity, including wealth, education, the Internet, English, lots of free time, and more.  We want to change the world, and there's little doubt that we could if we wanted to.

Where I shrink back from this inspiring article, however, is right at the outset.  I have a hard time defining happiness as reality minus expectations.  The author accepts this as true and bases the rest of his article on it.  We have a problem as a generation if this is how we will define happiness.  How often will reality actually meet up with our expectations?  You might say that I lived this article my first couple years out of college.  Maybe it was doing what appeared to be menial tasks at work, or maybe it was only clearing $1000 per month on a full-time job with college degree, but somewhere in there I heard the message that I wasn't good enough, or qualified enough, for valuable work.  I fell into a year and a half of depression that I needed professional counseling to recover from.  My reality was definitely nowhere near my expectations, and it did hurt.  I was unhappy.

But I learned a few things.  One, that my happiness should have a lot less to do with expectations like this author is suggesting.  I now believe that my happiness should have a lot more to do with enjoying and making the most of each moment that comes my way, and that I should be making a lot fewer expectations.  Life will rarely live up to our expectations if we allow our expectations to run out of control.  Once Lucy books the plane tickets for a vacation, she will spend the next two months dreaming about how wonderful it will be.  No vacation can live up to two months' worth of dreaming.  The author is right that many people base their happiness on this equation, reality minus expectations, but offers no way out of this trap.  That's not an equation that will ever result in real happiness, only temporary excitement whenever we are surprised.

Two, I learned to take a long-term perspective on my life.  I wanted to change the world now, but I realized I couldn't.  Now I still want to change the world, but I have no misconceptions about doing that before I'm in my fifties.  I'm 28 years old, which in the career world is very young.  I'm just starting out.  It's a rare person who changes the world in their 20s or 30s, and it seems like most of them end up like shooting stars who don't last long.  Our generation's danger is that we will achieve greatness in our 20s or 30s, but lack the character to hold on to it and use it for the right things.  Jim Collins famously wrote about the enduring greatness of a Level Five leader in his book Good to Great.  Few reach it, but his hard-to-notice caveat is on the next page: to truly achieve it, you must have mastered each of the four levels below it.  Nobody reads the book and shortly becomes a Level Five leader - it takes a career to get there.

In short, there is a great deal that I agree with in Wait But Why's post about unhappiness.  Yet I think by the end of his post, his three recommendations are a bit shallow.  He fails to resolve one of the major challenges facing Lucy - she can't decide what to do.  I have plenty of friends in dead-end jobs, or no jobs, partly because they just can't decide what their "truest calling" of their heart is, to use Wait But Why's lingo.  His three suggestions are definitely valuable, but more helpful would have been these:

1. Stop basing your happiness on reality vs. expectations.  Happiness is a choice, an emotion that you can decide each morning to put on.  Don't worry so much about the future, or the past, but focus on the present.  How can you make the most of your right now?  And stop forming so many expectations about others, yourself, and the future.  It's a sure ticket to a letdown.
2. Take a long-term perspective.  Not to contradict the last point, but think about how you can use your right now to build your future.  Think about your résumé, and about how your experiences and education can set you up for enduring greatness and a legacy later in life.  Plan to change the world...when you have the foundation of twenty years' worth of career, continuing education, and life's wisdom under you.  And be sure not to miss the wealth of many mentors along the way.
3. Don't be afraid to make a choice.  There are a world of opportunities out there, but for most of the situations that you will face, doing something is better than doing nothing.  You will frequently find choices that seem challenging, but underneath are really choices between multiple good options.  You can find value in any circumstance, so stick your neck out there and make a decision, then make the best of it.  Don't look back, hesitate, or wish you had made a different choice.

Humility Before God and Man

One of the things I began processing through in the last couple weeks of our summer adventure in Peru is the idea of humility before God and man.  It's no secret that Katie and I were surprised by the summer and what it ended up looking like.  We had very different ideas going in, and different hopes, and we ended up doing a lot of things that weren't much fun to say the least.  However, one of our goals going in had been to serve Inca Link's long-range goals in whatever way was best for them, and so as we got going that goal had to take precedence over the others.  We had been asked to work hard toward the physical completion of the children's home.  If that was how we were going to serve Inca Link, that's what we needed to do.

It goes beyond our goals of serving, however.  Regardless of our thoughts or preferences toward our job descriptions, we felt like serving to the full extent of our capacity was our sacred duty.  The Bible speaks about authority, and gives examples: even Jesus submitted to His parents (Luke 2:51).  After speaking with a centurion about authority, Jesus commends his great faith at recognizing Jesus' authority (Matthew 8).  The Bible also talks about humility, namely that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34 and 1 Peter 5:5).  Finally, Colossians 3:23 and Galatians 1:10 ties it all together for us to make it clear that we do our work for the Lord, not for men.  To do our daily manual labor on the children's home was service not just to our director, but to our Lord.

This past summer was challenging in many ways.  We had some conflicts and differences of values with the organization.  However, we came to learn that conflicts and disagreements don't necessarily reflect that anyone is wrong, merely that they are different.  Therefore, it was our duty before God to work as hard as we could, as well as we could, for our directors at Inca Link as if it were for the Lord directly.  It's a good life lesson for all of us.  Our labor is not for men, or for ourselves - it's for God, and He demands it all.  When you're working for the Lord, there's no room for laziness, low-quality work, or not finishing well.  I hope that Katie's and my work ethic over the summer - whether it was painting, ministering to the teams, ministering to the interns, or just sweeping the floor and doing dishes - was a reflection of how we felt about serving the Lord directly.  Let's all pray today that our labor looks to others as if we believe we are serving the living God Himself!

Final Week

We wanted to write one more time as we come into our final week here in South America.  Amazing that time is passing so quickly - in no time we'll be on that plane back home!  We're writing this from the border of Peru and Ecuador, a town called Huaquillas.  We passed through here a couple times before on the long bus trip.  We were sad to say goodbye to so many new friends yesterday in Trujillo as we left for the bus.  Most of the other interns left the night before, as they wanted a few more adventures in Ecuador, but Katie and I were leading one final mission team so we are now making the trek on our own.  This border exchange has been eventful, including a taxi driver who seemed to lie to us twice and wandered into a situation where he (meaning we) had to pay a bribe, but we found a bus for tonight and a cheap hotel for the afternoon to sleep and shower.

Leading the team last week, from a Chinese Alliance church in Winnipeg, Canada, was really awesome for me (John).  I'd been looking forward to the opportunity to lead a team all summer, though I'd been contributing some leadership to all the teams all summer.  I felt in my element as much as ever all summer, and formed some great bonds with the team.  They were really blessed by their experiences, and certainly blessed us interns and the albergue.  We've left the albergue a lot closer to being done than it was when we arrived, especially with all the painting.  It's exciting to see all the work that was done, but we still know there is plenty left to do to reach the point when it can open to children.  As of when we left, there's still another team coming before the season of mission teams ends, then it's just up to the various missionaries and hired workers.

Before we left, we got to say our final goodbyes to people and do an exit interview with our director.  It was good to reflect over the summer.  It's certainly been challenging, but we do feel like we rose to the situation and overcame successfully.  While our time didn't look like what we had hoped, I think we found fulfillment in serving God through serving our earthly bosses.  We both feel strongly about Colossians 3:23, which speaks about serving the Lord rather than men, and we both threw ourselves fully into the tasks that were asked of us.  With constancy and dedication, we did what we were called to do and accomplished a lot.  The mission field is often a changing world, with different demands and little steady job descriptions.  Whether this is due to God's design or man's shortcomings is irrelevant, but it is an opportunity to practice obedience and submission to authority.  One of our goals this summer was to serve the long-term interests of Inca Link, and we hope that we have done that through the tasks we accomplished!

Update from Peru

It's hard to believe that we're rapidly coming to the end of our summer here in South America with Inca Link.  Time is beginning to really fly.  Our thoughts are turning now toward finishing well with our internship.  With any project, it's easy to start strongly, and even to work consistently.  It's rare, however, to find someone who always finishes well.  It can be as true with a summer internship as with life.  As we prepare to finish our time in Trujillo in less than two weeks, it's important to us to make sure that we're pressing forward with our work projects and goals.  We've just finished the interior paint in the large multi-purpose building, and before we leave we hope to have the exterior paint done on the three main buildings.  I (John) just finished up the majority of my creative project, and Katie's is finished as well.  We'll post pictures soon!

We've just had another group finish up their time here in Trujillo.  We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with them.  It was our second adult team, with two married couples and a younger lady.  The two husbands were a supervisor at a nuclear facility and a personal injury lawyer, and the three ladies were all teachers.  They had all sorts of different testimonies and great stories.   They worked hard too, and with some real quality, and we got a lot done.  Next Saturday, the next team comes.  This will be the team that Marion and I are leading, and Katie along with me.  It's actually two teams overlapping - the first this Saturday, then the second a few days after that.  Unfortunately, I think we will be leaving Trujillo for our intern debrief before either departs.  I'm really looking forward to taking some direct leadership with this team.

Katie and I have enjoyed taking a lot of leadership and initiative around the albergue too.  Our director, Ignacio, has been under a lot of stress lately, and at the moment has been very preoccupied with his wife's visa application in Lima.  In his absence, Katie and I have been able to step into the gap a bit.  In addition to continuing to step up our leadership with the interns, something that Ignacio has really recognized and expressed appreciation for, we've started giving some direction to specifically the painting part of the construction.  Katie is picking out most of the colors for the entire albergue, and we're putting together a master document with color guidance for each room and the psychology behind each color.   We figured out a trick to paint a perfect line between two colors, but now we're having trouble getting the paint to stick to the primer and not come back up with the tape.

Thanks for your continued prayers!  They are blessing us and it's wonderful to know that we have so much support back home.  Our thoughts are with you all frequently and we can't wait to see you in just under three weeks to share more stories and settle back into life, somehow changed by our experiences!

Limitations

Katie and I have been thinking about the subject of limitations recently.  We've both found ourselves very limited in our work at various points during this summer.  First it was washing out of the Amazing Race because we couldn't keep up.  Then I (John) sprained both of my ankles in the span of a couple of weeks.  I came down with a brief cold, then I found myself incapable of concrete work because of my nerve damage in my neck and shoulders.  Then Katie came down with the flu, and then I was totally drained by some major diahhrea.  We're both well from our illnesses now, but the staff here says it's an epidemic all over Trujillo because of the climate change (it's winter, we go nearly a week between seeing the sun, which means it stays pretty cold).  We've passed seven weeks, past the half-way mark through our summer adventure, and clearly God is trying to say something to us.

Having so many limitations is very challenging when we're volunteering with an organization that really puts a lot of focus on manual labor and physical exertion.  We've both struggled through feelings of inadequacy and feeling like we don't fit in here.  Other than when we're in bed sick, we're pretty much finding good ways to pitch in and be part of the team as much as possible, but I think God is saying something to us.  Whether we're here or back home in our jobs, every team needs a variety of skills and strengths.  If we were all a team of manual laborers, we'd probably get a lot of work done, but we might really fail at ministering to teams that pass through.  Back home in our workplaces, we need a variety of gifts to accomplish the missions of each of our organizations.  It's way too easy for us as humans to get focused on our own gifts and compare others to ourselves, getting frustrated at them when they don't measure up.

It's a good message especially for me.  Anyone who knows me back home knows that I'm a high-capacity, full-speed worker.  I work hard all day, then go home and work hard all evening whether it's managing the home, doing school, or volunteering for some organization.  I go 100%, and then some, constantly.  Sometimes I'm arrogant with others about that, and put a lot of pressure on others to work up to the measure that God has granted me.  Translated into this context, I'd be a construction foreman pushing everyone to go, go, go, and not let up.  I'd have little compassion on those with different gifts, or those limited in some way in their labor.  Learning this lesson here in Trujillo doesn't necessarily mean that I need to go home and drop a lot of my activities (although there may be a message about sabbath in there for me too), but it does mean that I need to have more compassion and encourage others in their own giftedness, not try to conform them to my own.

Creativity and Adaptation

This summer, Katie and I are getting to utilize a bit of creativity and adaptation as we settle into our short-term roles here with Inca Link in Peru.  We came in with what we thought were very few expectations, but quickly realized that we had more expectations than we thought.  We both have a bit of missions experience, and a lot of ministry experience, and that led us to start making some plans and ideas before we got here.  However, we're adapting into our new adventure.  All the construction has been an interesting change for us.  It took us a while to change gears into it, but manual labor is not new territory for me (John) and as I've switched my mindset from one of doing ministry all summer into one of doing manual labor all summer with ministry on the side, I'm enjoying seeing the work progress.  Katie is of course adapting into new experiences of living in a developing country, and she's enjoying seeing life lived in a different style than in Texas.

We also are developing what we call our creative projects for the summer.  Creativity is one of Inca Link's core values, so all the interns come up with some initiative that they can do in the handful of weeks we are here to further the ministry from behind the scenes.  Making meals and serving the other interns has become part of mine.  I'm meeting with one of the other interns once to twice a week for discipleship and that's great too.  I've also begun an experiment in composting.  I call it an experiment because this is an unusual attempt, in the midst of a children's home, in the desert, in a colder climate.  Humidity isn't a challenge, but heat is in the winter, and it's dug underground which limits air, and often people throw grass clippings in and there's no grass here.  Regardless, if we can generate some compost, it would help to start some gardening here for the kids.  The final part of my creative project is to do some home improvement on our living quarters, which will become the room for the children's caretaker in this building.  Shelves, towel bar, toilet paper holder, paint, etc.

Katie has been finding ways to serve using her gifts creatively.  In addition to leading worship for our team of interns, she's been leading worship for the mission groups that come through.  She has been investing a lot of time in improving her skills on acoustic guitar, learning songs, and writing out song lyrics on large posterboard for people who need the words.  She hopes to create a whole book of songs, chords, and lyrics for long-term use here at the children's home.  In addition, she is helping Marion with the sewing and baking ministry to the women in the community around here.  They're developing recipes to leave behind and hoping to develop a new leader to take over after September when Marion leaves.  When mission teams are coming through, they're also making baked goods (banana bread recently) to sell to the North Americans, the profits of which will go toward shelves and equipment for the women's ministry.

A large team of 33 Canadians, mostly high schoolers, mostly girls, just left this morning.  The Superintendent of the C&MA Canada was here with them, and one of the former Inca Link directors, Jeff, is here leading them.  It's kind of a groundbreaking moment for Inca Link here in a variety of ways, one of which was a young adult gathering Saturday night where Inca Link was the focus of the evening.  Inca Link hasn't been widely featured at this large church before, and the leaders here are hoping that the church will become a strong supporter of the ministry and outreach.  Jeff, who grew up in Bolivia, is preached at all 5 church services there on Sunday and we believe that we'll see a lot of fruit from that.

Blessings to you all, and we hope you are feeling strong in the Lord and encouraged by each new day in His service and leadership!  May you be spurred today to think creatively about how you can use your gifts to serve Him this week, and strengthened to adapt yourself to new and stretching situations regularly!

Update from Peru

Howdy all.  John and Katie here, still doing well here in Trujillo, Peru.  Since we last wrote we have hosted our first mission team, from a Florida church, for about a week.  This mission team was great.  There were 8 adults, many of them from their church's Celebrate Recovery ministry.  One morning we spent a good hour hearing each of their testimonies, and they each had powerful stories of redemption and restoration.  Many were new to mission work but excited to learn about God, the culture, and us.  They worked hard, laughed a lot, and brought a lot of encouragement to us all.  Katie was one of the assigned leaders of the team, so she helped lead devotions, work projects, and debriefs.  She did a great job!

With the team, we got to experience a lot more ministries.  We got to see ELIM, the ministry outside the garbage dump, for the first time.  It's an exciting time with the kids and mothers.  We also got a peek inside the garbage dump itself, walking through the piled-up trash and giving out fruit and peanuts to the workers there.  They are pawing through the garbage, looking for "recyclables" - things they or their bosses can sell.  It's a tough life for them there.  I missed a couple events because I (John) sprained my ankle pretty badly one day, but the team also went out to a nearby neighborhood to put on a VBS and hiked into the sand hills to sandboard.

Katie and I are feeling well-settled in here in Trujillo.  We're more comfortable getting out just the two of us and getting places in town.  We're used to life here at the albergue, and have a special fondness for the three dogs here - an aging momma and her two 4-month old pups.  We try to take care of them, though mom has been pretty sick as of late.  We are still enjoying serving the team of interns - many of them look to us as the older ones and call us mom and dad.  We enjoy serving them in various ways, so we're quite okay with that!  Big changes and updates from our workplaces back home distract us somewhat, so we do ask for prayers that God would guide both of our workplaces and guide us as we stay updated from afar.  We need prayers on how, if at all, to serve our workplaces from here.

Cooking our own meals when the teams aren't here is a wonderful break for us right now.  Peruvians seem to have a thing about enormous meals - the plates of food are colossal sometimes.  Even I usually struggle to finish them.  The food is mostly pretty good (there was one meal that featured canned tuna...yuk), but it's just the portions that are massive!  This week, I tried a new one - chicken tortilla soup.  I used Katie's mom's recipe, more or less, and added beans.  It was fantastic!  Tonight I am doing migas with chorizo.  Hope they come out well!  A large team of Canadian high schoolers come in tomorrow morning, so that should keep us busy.  Thanks for your prayers and thoughts, we love and miss you all!

Making Comparisons

At Inca Link, we speak to short-term teams about five stages of reverse culture shock - the process of returning from a mission trip to your home culture.  The stages are:

1. Fun - the honeymoon of enjoying all the things you missed about home
2. Flee - you enjoyed the mission culture so much you miss it and feel like you don't fit in at home
3. Fight - you get angry at your home for not being more like the mission field
4. Fit In - it becomes impossible to keep standing and fighting, so you give up and return to "normal"
5. Fruit - as you learn and process, you begin to bear fruit based on your experiences

Each of the first four stages are almost guaranteed, and they all have a common theme.  They are based on the process of making comparisons.  Comparisons aren't unusual or necessarily bad.  They are how we make sense of the world and what is happening around us.  We compare one thing to another thing that we know, and it allows us to understand it.  During reverse culture shock, we're making tons of comparisons.  We are comparing things at home to things in the foreign country, those around us to those we knew in the mission field, and even ourselves in one place to ourselves in another place.  That's natural, but it leads us directly into making value judgments and deciding which is better than the other.

When we elevate one to the status of "better," we are in trouble.  In the field, there were certain things that were better about home, and that leads to the "Fun" stage.  When you get home, things were better back in the field, and that leads to "Flee" and "Fight."  In "Fit In," you tire of the comparisons and give up, regretfully remembering how good things were "over there."  I believe that these comparisons end up causing us to divorce the two worlds, separated by a long plane flight, and that immediately allows our minds to divorce what we learned and how we grew from who we are at home.  Game over, you never reach stage 5.

Short-term trips unfortunately lend themselves to all sorts of these comparisons, because you haven't been in the foreign country long enough to settle into a new "normal" where the comparisons cease.  I believe it's important, however, to try to avoid them from the start.  When you first transition from one culture to another, everything seems strange.  It's important to try to avoid the "strange" categorization and the comparisons and simply see the things in their own context.  For me, it helps to remember that there is one constant throughout - I am the same person moving around on the earth.  I'm continually growing and changing through my experiences, but it's still me.  I try not to be overwhelmingly different in one place versus another, to help avoid making comparisons.  It's all one big earth, and there are a variety of different contexts.  Each exists simultaneously, and none is better or worse than another.  They're just different contexts.

This viewpoint helps to avoid culture value judgments too, by the way.  It helps us to serve cross-culturally with sensitivity.  It also helps to avoid the huge shocks of highs and lows - it's common to get upset at the wealth back home, or to get upset at the poverty in the foreign country.  People back home often say, "You know there's poor people here at home, too!", to which missionaries often talk about how much worse the poverty is in the foreign country.  They have a good point, though - poverty exists everywhere, and it's best to avoid comparison judgments.  The context is different, but the Biblical commands the same.  If you serve the poor in a foreign country, but don't much think about the poor at home, it can't be said of you that you have compassion on the poor.

The things we learn on the mission field can serve us back at home.  They are different contexts, but that's okay.  We can keep that in mind and not make unhealthy separations between places, people, and things.  Avoiding too many comparisons, and especially value judgments, will help to avoid culture shock on both ends of a mission trip.

Construction

One more quick update from us because we have a day off...perhaps our last "true" day off for the next week and a half.  We're taking a vacation today because it's my (John) birthday!  Thursday is our day off already, and since it's my birthday we left the albergue (orphanage) to head out on the town!  It's about a 40 minute public trans ride to Real Plaza, the largest mall in town, where we've been relaxing at Starbucks, Bembos (hamburgers), and TGI Fridays.  Wonderful for a day of relaxing and getting some stuff done online, and enjoying some fantastic food that feels like home.  Tonight we'll go to a nice restaurant in town (it's called Chelsea), and then to a hotel in Huanchaco (the next town over, on the beach).  We had a nice dinner with all the interns last night, and cake from scratch!

The last few days have been nice.  Lots of construction - painting and assembly of bunk beds.  The work isn't bad.  Making lots of progress and getting stuff done.  It's not glamorous, but it's good work.  One positive note since our last post - the leadership has decided to lift the previous restriction on creative projects so Katie and I are back on the market for a ministry-related project.  Katie is leading worship now for our 6:30am morning team devotions, and also helping with another year-long intern's sewing and baking ministry with local ladies.  I am still interested in being involved in something in the community, perhaps helping with an income-generating business idea or something like that.

We are sure enjoying building relationships with the other interns and looking for ways to serve them and invest in ministry here.  Cooking for everyone has been lots of fun, but for the next 10 days we won't even be cooking breakfast.  A team comes in tomorrow morning and while they are here, we hire a cook for breakfast and lunch and go to a local church for dinner.  We'll be doing manual labor around the albergue in the mornings and visiting all the ministries in the afternoons.  We're looking forward to it!  Thanks for your prayers, and we'll be updating again once the team has left!  We've got lots of pictures up on Facebook on my page - check those out!

Settling In To Trujillo

Hey everyone, it's time for another update.  It's Sunday here in Trujillo, and we're excited to be finally going to church for the first time in South America.  The first two weeks we've been here, we didn't have room in our training schedule for church.  Although Katie helped lead worship for the team twice, we're really looking forward to evening service tonight at America Sur Alliance church here in Trujillo.  We'll be worshiping there all summer, and possibly even joining a cell group.

We're settled in here to Pasitos de Fe, the orphanage-in-construction that Inca Link is working on.  There's five of us interns here, plus an intern with the extreme sports ministry named Maddie, and our construction intern who had helped lead us in training.  Another year-long intern is here with us, Marion, and  she's involved in various ministries around town, including sewing and baking, the garbage dump, and more.  We're living in what will become the kids' rooms, and we're kind of co-op-ing our meals.  I (John) have taken the lead on cooking team dinners, so we're pooling resources to eat together in the evenings.  I'm really enjoying cooking for everyone and figuring out what meals will work with the things here in the supermarket.

One piece of very discouraging news - Inca Link has put all their ministries here in Trujillo on hold in favor of construction this summer.  This orphanage has been under construction, I've learned, for some 4 years, and numerous delays and setbacks have prevented it from being completed.  Even now, it looks like it needs a lot of work to me - it will be technically functional this summer, but it needs more furnishing to be more appealing, and in safer for kids.  Their goal is to have it open for kids by the end of this summer, and if it isn't, the leaders fear that it will be shut down completely.  Therefore, all of us interns have been instructed not to do any other major work this summer other than construction and manual labor to get this place ready.  Even our "creative project" that we were supposed to do will be focused on construction projects that need doing.  The 10-day teams that are coming will be spending a half day every day working on the orphanage as well.

We're disappointed by this news.  We had known construction was some of what Inca Link did coming in, but we hadn't known that we would be doing a lot as well.  We don't feel like this is what we're gifted for, or what we came down for.  We were really looking forward to investing in some cross-cultural ministries, learning a lot about culture, mission, and ministry, and finding ways to apply our strengths.  As of right now, we aren't going to be doing much of that, which we realize is also very different from what we told our donors.  For that, to each of you, we do apologize.  The leaders here believe that this will be the most significant use of our time this summer to help the ministry here, so you can take some comfort in that.  Regardless, Katie and I are looking for the best in the situation and looking for what God is trying to do in us through this disappointment.  We're trying to find ways to minister to our fellow interns, and looking forward to having some investment in the teams that come through.

Overall, we are beginning to get the lay of the land and how things will best operate this summer.  We're starting to settle into routines and systems that will work for us this summer, and we're looking forward to learning more.  One thing is for sure - we've both lost a significant amount of weight, and with all this manual labor this summer, we probably will keep it off!  At least it's forever spring here - the temperature moves between about 61 and 69 every day, with sun during the day and fog at night.  There's hardly a green thing in sight in this desert, but we're seeing the beauty in the sandy, dusty landscape...and in the mountains on the horizon. Our days off this summer will be Thursday and Sunday, so we hope during those times to see some of the beautiful areas, like the beaches of Huanchaco and downtown Trujillo.

Thanks for your prayers - we miss you all terribly, and hope the best for each one of you!

Headed to Trujillo

Katie and I have finished the initial part of the training for this summer internship.  It was just over two weeks of intense travel and experiences.  We spent time in Bogota, Lima, Trujillo, Quito, and Huaticocha.  Inbetween we had about 50 hours on busses from place to place.  For Katie and I, it's hard to say whether the training or the travel is more draining.  Right now, I'm (John) writing from Tumbes, a town near the border of Ecuador and Peru.  We are waiting between busses - it's 3 busses to get from Quito to Trujillo, another 24 hours plus layover, so we'll end up near 75 hours total on busses in 3 weeks.  It's been very challenging on me because I have a hard time fitting in the seats, and I get up with pinched nerves and tight muscles.

We spent our last few days in Quito for training.  While the team finished up their Race, Katie and I had a day off to explore Quito - we shopped for the team at a mall and had a relaxing lunch and cappuccino, then went downtown to see the sights and stopped for a slice of chocolate cake at a small cafe.  Then we, and the team, spent 3 days at a Christian camp in Calacali (45 min drive), Ecuador, doing more teambuilding and summer-specific training.  We did everything from high ropes challenges to team-building games.  We also spent the afternoons in seminar-type training talking about Strengthsfinder 2.0 and the specifics of how the summer will work.  In the meantime, I sprained my ankle pretty well - it's very swollen but I only had one day of limping.

The biggest culture shock for Katie and I has been the shock from our experiences of mission work and Inca Link's model.  It really makes me think about mental models.  We all carry these models around in our minds, based on experiences and training, and we often don't communicate them.  When one person's models clash with another's, frustration results that could be cleared up with better communication.  One example is with packing.  Katie and I have somewhat nicer clothes, based on my experience with spending time in the community and wearing what they wear.  Inca Link's teams spend a great deal of time doing construction and manual labor (as well as schlepping suitcases along sidewalks from one bus terminal to another) and so they need different clothes.  Katie and I can adapt, but my experiences and training with mission work have been very different than our experiences this summer so far.

We are looking forward to settling into Trujillo and starting to figure out what the bulk of the summer will look like.  Training has been challenging on Katie and I, in a variety of ways.  It's more physical than we're used to, and more unstable (constant travel, planned surprises), plus being the only married couple and the aforementioned different mental models.  We are here to learn and to serve the community, so we're trying to maintain an attitude of humility.  We are trying to figure out how our skills, gifts, and training fit in here, and are useful here.  No answers yet, but hopefully they are coming soon.  Our desire is that, having left two ministries to come here and serve, that what we learn here will empower our ministries back home.  Please pray for that!

Blessings to you all, and once we figure out the internet situation in Trujillo we will be in touch again!

In the jungle, the mighty jungle

We just returned this afternoon from our trip to Huaticocha, a small village in the Ecuador rainforest. The trip to Huaticocha was long - we accidentally caught the wrong bus and what should have been a 5 hour trip turned into a 10+ hour trip....we didn't make the same mistake returning though!  If you want to check it out on a map, we were headed from Quito to a place near Sumaco National Park, but we ended up going to Nueva Loja, then down to Coca, then back!

Huaticocha is absolutely beautiful, and while the trip there was long it was also breathtakingly beautiful. Every leaf, every hill, every waterfall...our God is so creative and such an artist. Taking in the beauty, and being reminded that this is just a small glimpse of God's creation was incredible. The accommodations there were much nicer than I thought they would be. This past year they finished the construction of a guest house there. The rooms remind me of the inside of a simple log cabin, and there were mosquito nets above the beds and a small table. John and I got to share a room which was much needed...only the second time so far that's happened on the trip.  No running water, however, so we only took one bucket bath in the creek during our time there.

The food there was pretty good as well. I've never had fruit juices as amazing as the ones we have here daily. The fruit is so fresh and sweet...starting off every day with fresh fruit juice has become a highlight! We definitely felt like we were in the jungle.  The missionaries said that we were less than 100km from the place where the Waodani people live, the subjects of the Jim Elliot story.

The Amazing Race the first day there was intense. We went hiking down the side of a large hill in the middle of the jungle...slipping and sliding down the mud. It's the Amazon rainforest so it rains every day...so we wore large rubber boots and made our way to a beautiful waterfall. The majesty of that hidden gem was incredible, and we got to take some time to cool off there and swim. John and I can now officially say we've swum through a waterfall in the Amazon! The hike back from the waterfall though was absolutely grueling....after lots of frustration and tears we made it back to where we were staying....but for me (Katie) that was the end of the Amazing Race. John and I talked to two of the leaders afterwards about how physically intense everything was and they gave us the option to "opt out" of the race...we would still participate in most everything the group does, but we would no longer be competing. For me the decision was a no-brainer...I was so exhausted! John finished off that day of the Amazing Race and then opted out as well to be with me.

The Amazing Race training has been a nice way to learn the ways of the cities and see beautiful places, but it's been challenging as well.  John commented in the jungle that he felt like he had brought such an American value system to these places - while going through majestic once-in-a-lifetime places, our #1 priority was to get there and get back as quickly as possible.  While the challenges in themselves aren't necessarily physically out of our reach, the pace is.  We don't feel quite as young, or as in-shape, as these younger interns.  Consequence of our desk jobs, and quite a few more years, and more injuries, I suppose.

Yesterday was the second day of the Amazing Race in Huaticocha and the first day John and I didn't participate in the race for a whole day....and it was absolutely beautiful. We finally felt like we were able to slow down and enjoy the beauty around us, and had the opportunity to engage in a lot more conversations with incredible people, especially Mark and Cheryl Schafer. Mark and Cheryl have an incredible story of how God led them to Huaticocha, leaving behind a construction business in the United States that they owned and following God's call to share the gospel with the people of the rainforest. They are in the process of building a school there where they will be training up missionaries...its a beautiful vision. They are planning on opening the school in the coming year, and I have no doubt they and the leadership staff around them will be raising up some incredible disciples.

Yesterday we climbed up a really large hill, at the top of which is a school. It was a tough climb, but being able to climb it with John at our own pace made it so enjoyable. When we got close to the top the kids started coming down. Mark asked them if they'd like to help us up, and their faces lit up! Immediately they ran down and helped us carry up our bags and things. At the top of the hill we went into their school building...one medium sized room where all the kids learn together with one teacher. There were kids age 5 to 14...and that's their school. It was hard to realize what a disadvantage they have...most of them won't go beyond a 6th grade level in school. However, there was also something beautiful about these children. They had so many smiles on their faces and were so eager to learn. They were so excited to share who their siblings and cousins were...they all acted like a family. While they don't have much, love for one another is rich there.

By far the highlight for me yesterday was in the evening....we gathered around a fire and debriefed the day, and then had a beautiful time of worship. The time of worship was so incredible. I've really been missing singing...living in close quarters with so many people 24/7 hasn't really allowed time for singing...but last night we sang to the Lord. Cheryl leaned over during worship and asked if I'd lead everyone in singing 10,000 Reasons...it wasn't til that moment that I realized how much I missed singing, and what an absolute privilege it is to sing to the King. Last night was a time of lifting up praise to God, seeing Him at work and feeling so honored that He's called us to serve Him. We still don't know exactly what this summer will look like in Trujillo, but it's an honor to be called to serve the King. I'm excited for the journey!

Thank you all for your prayers. God is so good!

Persistent Questions

One of the frequent questions that Katie and I (John writing here!) get regarding this summer is, "Why?"  Why leave careers, home, pet, family, friends, to do an internship alongside college students?  It's a very good question really!  Why are we here?  There's a variety of good answers to the question.

First, Katie and I have been married a year and a half and rarely have much opportunity to do ministry together.  She tagged along with me in Kenya right before we got married, but we always felt like it would be best to find a mission field that would be equally new for each of us.  We both have an interest in international mission work, but haven't necessarily felt God pulling us to live overseas long-term.  This is a great chance to learn more and discover it together.

Second, I have some questions I'm looking for answers to, and I hope to be exploring some of them through blog posts this summer.  One is regarding the role of short-term missions in the world today, particularly those coming from the West.  I've been involved in STM for many years (this is my 13th short-term international mission trip!), and I credit them for a lot of my spiritual development.  But I also see the criticisms from sources like When Helping Hurts and others.  I'm particularly wondering right now if the supposed link from STM to long-term missions is a bit of a bait-and-switch, where career missionaries do work entirely unlike short-term missionaries.

Another of my questions has to do with models for church planting and community development overseas.  This is the one that plugs into my own career, right now with LINC NT, where we are seeking both simultaneously.  I'm interested in the interplay between the two and how they can be practiced together.  I'm looking forward to learning from the national leadership in these countries and incorporating their wisdom and experience into my own, wherever God uses me.

Third, Katie and I are blessed with both the opportunities and the resources to serve, and we feel the burden to put these to use beyond our individual local contexts.  We feel the burden of the world outside our Dallas bubble and feel called by God to serve humbly overseas, using our skills and training.  That includes worship leadership, camp leadership, and discipleship for Katie, and business, missional leadership, and team leadership for me.  And more, as God reveals them.

That's just a few of our thoughts...stay tuned for more throughout the summer!

Amazing Race

Today is Sunday morning, the 26th, and I (John) am writing this from a bus in Peru somewhere near the Ecuador border.  We tend to write our blog posts while offline, then wait for a chance to post them, FYI.

We have passed thru several days of the Amazing Race, the team training for our interns.  There's 11 interns plus the Executive for Inca Link.  Other than Katie and I, there are no two interns from the same state in the US.  We are enjoying getting to know everyone.  A few have been on Inca Link trips before.  Most of the interns are college kids, except for one who is closer to our age and is a lumberjack from the northeast.  There's one from Toccoa Falls too!  Half the interns will be remaining in Ecuador after the Amazing Race, and the rest come with us back to Peru.  Our Peru team includes Matt, who is a second-year intern architecture major at UK interested in construction.  We also have Bekah, a college student studying youth ministry at CIU.  Gideon will also be with us, the aforementioned logger.  Our team is rounded out by Brittany, a bilingual Puerto Rican studying at Nyack.

The Amazing Race training is really interesting.  It's much more intense than we expected.  The goals are to learn how to be self-sufficient on our own, grow in team strength, and be stretched.  We break into new teams each day and pass through a series of clues - challenges that we have to figure out with help only from nationals we don't know.  Typical challenges include things like walking great distances with only the name of a destination, figuring out how to take public transportation across an unknown city, hiking up or down mountains, finding people we only have a name for, and team challenges like army-crawling through mud pits.  It's exceedingly physically-demanding...we probably walk 3-5 miles per day, much of it on an incline, in addition to other physical challenges.

We enjoyed our time in Bogota.  We got to climb Monserrate, a famous mountain, Saint Cecilia, a ministry in a slum on top of a hill, and an Alliance church in San Cristobal.  We also got to explore the city a bit, seeing some famous places in the city center including a museum of glamorous gold artwork.  We spent just an evening in Lima, spending most of our time in the Plaza de Aguas, a park that features a lot of creative water fountains.  Then we bussed to Trujillo overnight, and spent two nights there at Pasitos de Fe, a new orphanage past Porvenir.  We also spent some time in the city center and at a small children's ministry just outside the large garbage dump.  We've just finished bussing overnight (about 12 hours) to the Ecuador border, where we'll change busses and go another 12 hours to Quito.  Still to come is Quito, urban ministry, Portoviejo, the rural ministry, and Huaticocha, the primitive ministry (aka, the middle of nowhere).

Looking forward to continuing to keep everyone updated as we continue our adventure!  Katie and I are tired and sore but healthy, and looking forward to slowing down the pace to settle into ministry.  We still are not sure what ministry will look like for the summer.  We're enjoying our teammates and having fun with everyone.  My Spanish is growing rapidly, and although my comprehension is still sub-par, I find that I can communicate about anything I need to.  Katie is learning more words and phrases and doing great.  Navigating public transportation is pretty easy, and we're feeling confident!  We're all a lot more comfortable asking strangers on the street for help with just about anything!

Thanks for your prayers, we love and miss you all and think of you often!  Blessings to you!

Life in Colombia

We're sitting in the Colombia airport about to make trek to our second destination - Lima, Peru! Yesterday was the first day of the Amazing Race. We literally explored almost all of Northern Bogota. It was crazy! From trying to ask for directions in Spanish to climbing down a mountain to climbing up another huge hill to memorizing Spanish tongue twisters and so many more activities it was a packed day. I cant remember the last time I was so exhausted...on so many levels.It does make me nervous as we have two more weeks of Amazing Race training, but today is lighter with us flying to Lima so we only have Amazing Race in Lima for a couple hours this evening. Then we take an overnight bus to Trujillo, Peru - which will be our home base this summer. We'll be able to drop a bag there and then continue the trek to Ecuador and then back to Peru.
Colombia itself it a beautiful country. We've met some wonderful people who are do amazing ministry transforming lives. We heard testimonies from peoples whose lives have been transformed for Christ through the ministry. Amazing! One missionary here Lucy has such a beautiful servants heart and is truly an example of giving all for the sake of the gospel. Seeing their selfless service has truly been a blessing.
Catching the flight now. Please continue to pray for us. I'm a little under the weather with chills and a mild headache for a couple days (probably due to the altitude). Last night I got a better nights sleep which was much needed. :)
Thank you for your prayers - we can definitely feel them.
Katie

We're on our way!

Wrote this update yesterday and just getting to post:

We just landed in San Salvador where we have a 2 hour layover before heading on to Bogota, Colombia. So far the trip has been great! We had a beautiful time with some family and friends at the airport before we left. By far the most unexpected thing was a minivan caught on fire at the airport right outside where we checked in. Lots of flames and tires exploding but no injuries....but it sure made for a memorable start! We finished the time with family and friends at the airport being prayed over with a prayer led by Oscar. After that saying goodbye...or as John reminded me "It's not goodbye, just see you in three months." I'm very grateful for that as I already miss family and friends...and our sweet pup Toby. I'm very excited though for the adventure ahead. On the plane on the way here John and I reflected on how there is a lot we don't know going into this trip...our living situation, what life will look like daily, what ministry we'll be investing in, any of the people....but we know of Our God, and He is faithful. We know He has sent us to go for a specific purpose and that He who began this good work in us will carry it on to completion. And we're looking forward to seeing God at work and discovering what lies ahead. We can feel your prayers so keep them coming!
Love you all and may you see God at work in your midst,
Katie

Summer With Inca Link

As you're reading this, Katie and I will be taking off for South America.  We've talked with many of you about our summer plans, but I don't suppose that we've really posted online widely.  When we got married, we discussed how neither of us felt like the Lord was leading us to live overseas long term.  However, we both felt an interest in what God was doing around the world and how our passions for worship, discipleship, and transformational development could be used by Him.

This past winter, God laid it on both of our hearts separately to pursue a short-term opportunity overseas.  We feel God's calling to be Christians who live and work locally, but think and serve globally.  This has led me to serve three different organizations over the past few years, in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Peru.  This year, however, we looked for a way to serve God together internationally, and God opened a door for us with Inca Link, a Christian ministry working with disadvantaged youth in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.  Inca Link runs a big summer internship program, so we'll be joining by some 30 other young adults from around the country who will be spending all or part of the summer in South America.

We will, after visiting the ministry in Colombia and Ecuador, spend most of the summer living in Trujillo, Peru, a mid-sized coastal city in northern Peru.  We will be working alongside the long-term missionaries there to mentor the summer interns and lead short-term teams that come to serve the youth.  Inca Link operates a youth camp and a children's home there and is trying to end the crisis of youth who live and rummage through the city dump for their daily bread.  Serving with Inca link gives us the opportunity to serve the needs of a community in Peru while simultaneously investing in college students from North America who are figuring out what it looks like to live a life dedicated to God.

Our team training will take up the first two weeks.  We'll be rapidly moving throughout Bogota, several cities in Ecuador, Lima, and Trujillo as we compete Amazing Race-style.  I don't know anything about what this time will look like, but it should be really exciting as we experience new things and try challenges we haven't considered before!  After that, our next 10 weeks will be in Trujillo with half of the interns (the rest go to Ecuador).  We'll host a few short-term teams and spend some time on a self-directed project to help the ministry or the community.  We really don't know much about what that time will look like either, other than that for us, our number one priority is to serve as the long-term missionaries want.  Katie and I feel strongly about not coming in with big plans or expectations, but going humbly to listen, learn, and serve at their request.

Katie and I can't wait to improve our Spanish, learn a bit about the culture, and see God at work.  We expect to learn a lot more about God and understand ourselves better as we minister together and worship together.  I can't tell you a lot more than that, because we have kept ourselves pretty much in the dark about the summer in order to let God work as freely as possible.  I hope we learn more about ministry, and about missions.  I hope we are as blessed as anyone we help minister to.  And I can't wait to see all our friends and family again in mid-August to share stories and encouragement!  Stay tuned to this blog to catch our updates as we post them.

Phrases We Should Stop Using, Pt. VI: Time?

Back to "Phrases We Should Stop Using."  This time, I'm thinking about one we use a lot..."time is money!"  We like to toss this one around a lot when calculating out our time, or deciding how much time to spend on something, or discussing our annoyance with how much time was wasted by such and such thing.  I'm not sure we should be using it so much anymore!

Like many of the other phrases I've looked at in this blog series, this one has a right time and place.  I'm a business manager, so I frequently deal with the "time is money" concept.  We pay our employees, so their time is indeed money to us.  I'd be foolish not to count the expense of our salaries in figuring the cost of some program.  If a program is 2 hours long and we didn't have to buy anything to throw it, the program wasn't free, it probably cost hundreds of dollars in staff time.  If the staff wasn't doing that, they'd be doing something else for us.  It's a basic concept in accounting.  But that's accounting.  It's not the real world.  In the real world, time is most certainly not money.  It's so much more than that.

If we went around with the mindset that time is money, we'd probably end up super stressed and very busy trying to maximize the value of our time.  We'd be neglecting our relationships in favor of productivity and rushing from one thing to the next, missing the beginning and end of everything.  And...I may have just described the lives of many Americans.  Life is about much more than cash, or money, or income.  The richness of life is not measured in dollars and cents - we know this, it's frequently talked about.  Yet we still live our lives this way.  I'm terrible at this.  I stay very busy.  I've got a very long to-do list and wasted time is more than just a nuisance to me.  It means something isn't going to get done, or I'm going to lose quality time with my wife, my friends, or my pillow.

Time is not money.  Sometimes we need to have a mind to throw that equation out the window and spend our time extravagantly.  Sometimes we need to throw it to the wind and spend an extended amount of time with someone.  Maybe they need a kind ear.  Maybe we do.  Or maybe they just need the extravagant gift of several hours of your time.  When we allow time to equal money, we lose our relationships.

Micah 6:8 on Poverty and Development

Thinking about the poor and development always brings me back to Micah 6:8. “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  This is so critical to me in my approach to the issue of poverty. God asks us to act justly. To recognize justice when we see it, and to seek it. This may mean a firm hand with the poor, avoiding excessive handouts or doing things that may bring harm to them. This may also mean trying to put right social systems that have exploited and broken the poor.

God asks us to love mercy. Justice helps us get what we deserve, but mercy comes flying in when we ought not to get what we justly deserve. The bleeding man on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho didn’t really need justice, he needed mercy! The countless sick and dying people whom Jesus healed were already receiving justice, but Jesus gave them mercy. For us this may mean casting our own cares aside to care extravagantly for the poor. It may mean giving of ourselves until there isn’t much left. It brings us to a place of compassion where we connect with the poor on a personal level.

And God calls us to walk humbly with Him. If we’re not doing this, what else do we have? We can’t have pride before God, especially when we’re doing development. If we do, we’re putting ourselves in God’s place as the savior of the poor. The poor don’t need a savior, they already have one. Nor should we presume to tell God how we’re going to go about His work. It’s His work, and we are privileged to be used by Him. We get to join Him. This humility must translate into our attitudes toward the poor as well, and then we’re in the right position to do development.

Flattening World

Part of the cover art for Thomas Friedman's book.

I think that we're living in an interesting time today.  It wasn't long ago that much was being made about the word "postmodern" and how dramatic the cultural shift was that had happened moving from the "modern" age to the "postmodern" age somewhere in the 80s and 90s.  Everyone wanted to define postmodernism as something, and as one myself, I generally laughed at the generalizations and simplifications.  A few wisely pointed out that you can't define something when it's in the midst of happening, and that we'd have to wait until the transition was complete to really understand what had happened.  Then I began to wonder...with all the rapid acceleration of just about everything, the exponential growth of just about everything...will the transition really ever end?  Will "postmodernism" ever actually coalesce into something understandable, or will it continually be giving way to the next thing?  In such a world, can we made generalizations and definitions?  I believe the answer to that has to be a qualified no.  We can't define it, but we can understand it (how's that for a postmodern statement!).  We can think about the individual dimensions of shift as they happen, and be the wiser for it.

One is the worldwide cultural phenomenon of flattening.  Hierarchies are being pulled down.  I suppose it started in the Western world, where Hofstede's measure of "power distance" (the perceived gulf between a leader and subjects) is already reasonably low.  The US has a score of 40 on the index, and I think the relative closeness shows.  We already want our leaders to be servant leaders, on the same playing field as us.  I think, however, that the postmodern shift has begun to bring that measure even more down.  Some made much of the Occupy movement, others thought it was a passing fad, but it definitely was a sign that power distance is decreasing.  The White House responded with a petition feature on their own website.  The people have begun to demand the power back from the leaders they put over themselves.  They demand that all information be open and available.  It's not just in government and business, it's in civil society too.  Church leaders can see it in their congregations, as the members demand a say in what happens and aren't afraid to criticize their pastors and church leaders.

It's not resting just in the developed, Western world either.  Egypt, with a Power Distance index of 80, recently pulled down their own government and replaced it.  The highest-scoring country on the index, Malaysia (with a 104), is currently experiencing protests about perceived inequities in a recent election.  The people are not at rest, and they are questioning what their leaders are doing.  In this type of environment, leaders must beware.  They can't expect their actions to remain unquestioned, or to hope for secrecy in decision-making.  Leaders ought to be willing to embrace openness and equality and allow the people to satiate their appetite for information and a sense of equality.  And we ought to be aware of these shifts and study them.  Hofstede's measures are not static.  It's time for a re-evaluation of them, particularly in how Power Distance has shifted since Hofstede first published his findings in 1980!