new blog

I will be blogging from another blog you can find here.  I liked the look of this other one so I’m going with it.

On the Uses of Adversity

As I write this, know that I am a foreigner in a strange land with few friends and finding it difficult. I read this, this morning and was encouraged. It is from The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas A Kempis.

It is good for us to encounter troubles and adversities from time to time, for trouble often compels a man to search his own heart. It reminds him that he is an exile here, and that he can put his trust in nothing in this world. It is good, too, that we sometimes suffer opposition, and that men think ill of us and misjudge us, even when we do and mean well. Such things are an aid to humility, and preserve us from pride and vainglory. For we more readily turn to God as our inward witness, when men despise us and think no good of us.

A man should therefore place such complete trust in God, that he has no need of comfort from men. When a good man is troubled, tempted, or vexed by evil thoughts, he comes more clearly than ever to realize his need of God, without whom he can do nothing good. Then, as he grieves and laments his lot, he turns to prayer amid his misfortunes. He is weary of life, and longs for death to release him, that he may be dissolved, and be with Christ. It is then that he knows with certainty that there can be no complete security nor perfect peace in his life.

Philippians 1:23

23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;

Oh joy!

Can somebody please translate this for me… It’s in English, but it’s Greek to me.

Adjectives modifying nouns in the accusative must agree: the nominative for neuters and inanimate masculines, the genitive for animate masculines and the feminine ending exactly the same as the noun ending, namely -y/-  i-o.

This is my fun reading homework.  Can’t wait to read all four pages.

Been traveling?

I haven’t posted anything lately cause we’ve been doing some traveling. We went to Kiev, and then Budapest trying to get a Chinese Visa for Lindsey. Though we were unsuccessful, it was nice to do some sight seeing in these cities. Both are pretty good tourist spots for English speakers because many people speak English there. Also the have great public transportation (but Kiev’s leaves no room for personal space).

I saw something on this trip that I hadn’t seen in a while.

I remember when I lived in America these where everywhere, but unfortunately this was one of the things I had to let go of.

Be Prepared

When I was growing up I was in the Boy Scouts. My father was an Eagle Scout and hoped that his boys would be Eagles too. Unfortunately, my brother and I quit about half way through. I couldn’t bear to wear those super short army green shorts in public. I’m very fare skinned and trust me, nobody wants to stare at my pasty white legs.

The scout motto is, “Be Prapared” and ever since then, my father has made sure that no matter what he’s doing, he has enough supplies, food, materials, and these days protection (he started packin). This approach has largely shaped the way I do things as well. To me, it just makes sense to make sure you have what you need before you begin. Who decides to build a house without counting the cost, buying the material, or drawing the plans.

When I packed for moving to Ukraine, I probably made about 6 trips to Frys Electronics the week before I left. I wanted to make sure that I had all the proper converters and adapters for all my gadgets. When we got to the airport Lindsey and I had – 5 large bags, 1 guitar, 2 rolling carry-ons, a backpack, and a laptop bag. It was ridiculous how much stuff we had to lug around.

Now to the point…

What is hard for me is remembering that God is in control and not me. So often I find myself trying to do it all by myself and relying only on my efforts; just to find myself exhausted, frustrated, and burning out. How do I get to that place of dependence upon the Lord.? Society constantly pushes independence in my face. The truth is on my own I am nothing.

John 15:5

I am the vine and you are the branches he who remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

All this jazz about being prepared…………..details details details………….

Sure it makes sense to have a plan or goal that your trying to achieve but at what point do we stop and say, “O.k. God, your turn.”

So often we forget how Jesus sent out his disciples. I believe his instructions were to take nothing – not even a change of clothes. Dang, that’s harsh. Maybe he was trying to help them understand that it’s not what they have (material things) that will save peoples lives.

Lord, help me remember that you’re in control.

Russians, Hungarians, and Non-Ukrainians

I am a foreigner living in another country, Ukraine.  I do not speak Ukrainian which can create some frustrating situations sometimes.  I am taking lessons to learn the language 4 times a week, but I have to admit I have horrible study habits.  I’m a busy bee and can’t sit still very long before my mind wanders to other things that need to get done.  If I am studying something interesting I can really get into it, but this Ukrainian language is very difficult and doesn’t use the same alphabet.  On top of that, the material I am working with is not top notch and unorganized.  I’m currently contemplating how to develop better study habits for learning difficult or uninteresting material.  Somehow I must force feed myself this stuff.

With that said I had a pretty interesting week.  Wednesday evening our neighbor came up and knocked on our door.  She is Russian and was trying to explain something to us (In Russian).  All I could understand was “No gas, …tomorrow…9am…..11am….”  Which is all I needed to know, but she was very frustrated I could tell because of our confused looks.  They are doing construction on our building and needed to repair some of the pipes.

Yesterday, I had another fun experience.  We visited a orphanage as a possibility for future ministry.  We took our tutor, Snezhana, to a nearby town (1 1/2 hour – bus ride) where we met her friend and met with the assistant director of the orphanage.  Snezhana translated for us.  As we were leaving, I thought I would impress my tutor and our new friends by saying “it was nice to meet you, and thank you” in Ukrainian.  The assistant director smiled and said something to Snezhana, to which they laughed.  She said that we need to learn the different dialects of our region (Transcarpathia) because she isn’t Ukrainian.  But Snezhana was pleased.

When we returned home from our outing, our landlord was coming down our stairs.  We haven’t seen or heard from her since February when we paid for our first 3 months rent.  We knew that she would be by soon for the next three but were unsure when.  She is Hungarian, and of course speaks, you guessed it, Hungarian!  She quickly had me go with her to the attic area.  She showed me that our cistern (water storage device – we only have city water certain parts of the day and the cistern is what we use when the city water is shut off) was leaking and that the surrounding overflow was full of water.  She used a lot of sign language to explain that we need to let our sinks run to drain all the water.  After about an hour we had drained all the water and refilled the cistern.  She told me to check on it to see what the problem was or is.  This was a very fun experience trying to figure out what the heck she was saying and interpreting all the sign language.

Needless to say, I have a lot to learn here.

Guilt & Desire to Save

Henri Nouwen wrote in the journal of his mission work in Bolivia & Peru:

The two most damaging motives in the makeup of missioners seem to be guilt and the desire to save. Both form the extremes of a long continuum, both make life in the mission extremely painful. As long as I go to a poor country because I feel guilty about my wealth, whether financial or mental, I am in for a lot of trouble. The problem with guilt is that it is not taken away by work. Hard work for the poor may push my guilt underground for a while, but can never really take it away. Guilt has roots deeper than can be reached through acts of service. On the other hand, the desire to save people from sin, from poverty, or from exploitation can be just as harmful, because the harder one tries the more one is confronted with one’s own limitations. Many hardworking men and women have seen the situation getting worse during their missionary career; and if they depended solely on the success of their work, they would quickly lose their sense of self-worth. Although a sense of guilt and a desire to save can be very destructive and depressive for missioners, I do not think that we are ever totally free from either. We feel guilty and we desire to bring about change. These experiences will always play a part in our daily life.

The great challenge, however, is to live and work out of gratitude. The Lord took on our guilt and saved us. In him the Divine work has been accomplished. The human missionary task is to give visibility to the DIvine work in the midst of our daily existence. When we can come to realize that our guilt has been taken away and that only God saves, then we are free to serve, then we can live truly humble lives. Clinging to guilt is resisting God’s grace, wanting to be a savior, competing with God’s own being. Both are forms of idolatry and make missionary work very hard and eventually impossible.

Humility is the real Christian virtue. It means staying close to the ground, to people, to everyday life, to what is happening with all its down-to-earthness. it is the virtue that opens our eyes for the presence of God on the earth and allows us to live grateful lives. The poor themselves are the first to help us recognize true humility and gratitude. They can make a receptive missioner a truly happy person.

I believe that these are the main reason why a lot of people do missions. I myself struggle with them.

When we as Americans see the oppressed or read news stories our hearts break and we praise God for his blessing on our county. But we also feel like we should do something about it and not just sit back in our easy chairs. The line from Spider man rings through our heads, “with great power comes great responsibility.” I believe this is founded on the Bible verse, “to him who has been given much, much is required.”

Along with the feeling of guilt is the desire to save. Some countries whose main religion believes that animals are sacred struggle with hunger and starvation. In our hearts we cry out, “If they only knew the truth..if they only knew Jesus Christ they could eat those cows! We must save them!”

Lord, help me not to serve out of guilt or the desire to save but rather from a thankful heart who is greatful for what you have done for me.

Obedience and Faith

Some excepts from the Obedience and Faith, chapter of Charles Colson’s book, Loving God.

If faith depended on visible evidence, it wouldn’t be faith, “we walk by faith not by sight” the apostle Paul wrote.

Job 13:15

15“Though He slay me,
I will hope in Him
Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.

True faith, as Job understood, rests on the assurance that God is who He is, on that we must be willing to stake our very lives.

Knowing how susceptible we are to success’s siren call God does not allow us to see, and therefore glory in what is done through us. The very nature of the obedience He demands is that it be given without regard to circumstances or results.

for 29 years

Today is my birthday and I turn 29 years old. I’m still young. I look young and feel young (unless I’m forced to work out or do hard labor). There will be no big celebration anywhere, since Lindsey, my wife, and I have recently moved to Ukraine as missionaries. No birthday cake and no cell phone blowin’ up all day from moms and dads, brothers, sisters, and friends wishing me well. Our cell phone is local only and it would be really expensive if they called it. I did receive some birthday mail and talked to some family via Skype which was nice.

We are starting our fourth week here and still are learning the language. Our friends are few and fare between, mainly because most of them speak English. That’s not very common around these parts. I think we are going to visit a new church this afternoon at 3pm and return to the Gypsie church we visited last week this evening at 7.

As I ponder the last few years, I can say that it has been good for the most part. Despite a few set backs in learning what exactly I should do with my life, I was able to develop some good relationships with my friends and family. This is important since now we no longer living down the street. I know that these relationships will be a lot of the fuel that keeps me going.

I know that all I have gone through until now has been preparation for what God wants to do with my life.He has a funny way sometimes, how he builds our character through our choices and circumstances. He knows what the outcome will be and still holds onto the reigns. It’s comforting to know that I’m not in control even when I think I am.

Psalm 23:1-3

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Losing and Gaining

Society says that a good life is health and wealth.

Christ says that the only way to find one’s life is to lose it for His sake (Matt 10:39).

• How is a life lost for Christ different from this ideal?
  • We are consumed by the self driven society in which we live. “It’s all about me,” screams from news headlines, advertisements, and the media. The idea of thinking of others before ourselves seems to be long forgotten. Sure, having lots of money and everything I could ever want or dream sounds wonderful, but what about everybody else. How many people will I ignore that are hurting and broken in my pursuit of happiness? I’m sorry, but I can’t help but think of all the Christians who have gone before me who were willing to forsake it all for the sake of the gospel. When we let go of our lives and allow God to take control we truly begin to live as God intended us to. Once we as Christians begin to view our lives not as our own, we start to understand that everything we have is not ours. God is the giver of our food, shelter, jobs, leisure time, etc. We are to be good stewards of all of these. Not only the stuff we have but the gifts He has given us. We all are different and have different abilities that God wants to use to show others His love. It’s really amazing to think that God created me special and different, unlike anyone else but it’s true. He wants to use us for His purposes, we just have to be willing to get out of the way.

• What does the “Victorious Christian life” mean?
  • I get so sick of hearing the prosperity gospel being spewed all over the body of Christ. Sure it’s true that God blesses those who give, but when people begin to give for the sake of receiving, somethings wrong. What happened to the Lord is my Shepard I shall not want? There are a lot of wealthy people (material) who could live really well without all the extravagant crap. Anyways, that’s a whole other issue. The Victorious Christian life can be described as being wealthy and experiencing financial rewards due to good stewardship. But the greatest victory of all time came through what appeared to be defeat. When Christ died on the cross and was buried, He rose again on the third day proclaiming that all authority had been given to Him. He conquered the grave and offers us all eternal life and salvation! How could such defeat promote such an outcome? Only through the awesome power of God can what appears to be a disaster be a complete success. Does this mean that the Victorious Christian life means we are always poor and needy, giving away all of our stuff to others and barely getting by? Not necessarily, but by doing those things we are allowing God to bless others through what we have been given and are reminded of our dependence upon Him. Knowing that God is leading, providing, and caring for us will help us experience this paradox of victory.

John 12: 24-26

24I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.