Resurrection in the City

One less.  As we made a right hand turn on Grand Boulevard in front of our ministry building there were remnants of the crime scene from the night before.  White ash dotted the black asphalt where the flares had warned off traffic.  Crime scene tape hung without purpose, now that the light of day had brought back regular activity.  One less.  The thought of there being one less person in the world, in our neighborhood, weighed heavily on me as we rounded the corner, our day proceeding as usual.  For another family this loss of life will leave a gaping hole that will make it impossible for this to be another day as usual, and for one forty-year-old man an eternal destiny, of either life or death, has been decided.

No doubt there will soon be a memorial erected on a sign or light pole beside the street, flowers and teddy bears marking the loss of his life.  We see it many times here in the city, pillars of stuffed animals charting an all too familiar path, winding its way through city streets toward eternity; violence abruptly ushering souls from their bodies, some prepared to meet their Savior, and some not.  If I let myself dwell on it pain tightens my chest.  Too many, Lord.  Too many lives lost in life and in death.

Death and brokenness are daily realities in the city.  It can be overwhelming sometimes, but I find both anguish and mercy for those of us who remain.  The loss of life will always bring pain, but facing it regularly keeps us focused on the frailty of life.  Death provides an urgency that usually wanes in our complacent hearts.  As followers of Christ we are here with a purpose, one that we must not take lightly.  There are lives that hang in the balance. 

With the prevalence of death in the city, it is easy to let discouragement creep in, but this month as we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord, I am reminded that we serve a God who conquered death.  He is a living God, with the power to breathe His resurrection into any and all who accept it.  What a gift of freedom for the city, locked in the bonds of death and brokenness.  Ministry in the city can feel a daunting task at times, but Christ’s freedom and power are unleashed in the world through His people.  That is why the only answer in the face of death and brokenness is to invest in the expansion of God’s Kingdom.

I cannot reach everyone, but if I disciple even two people who each disciple two people, who each disciple two more we will soon have the resurrection power of Christ rushing through the city streets.  Churches of the lost, who now are found, will multiply with eternal force bringing the hope and freedom and healing and power of our Savior.  This is our prayer; this is our mission. 

Praise God, death has no hold on us in Christ!  He has risen!     

Batman Could be Jesus

I read an article about a man who dresses up like Batman and spends thousands of his own dollars to buy batman memorabilia to visit hospitalized children and encourage children to fight bullying at schools.  The journalist detailed a visit to a children's cancer ward, where "Batman" held and encouraged and offered gifts to suffering children and their families.  Now, I have no idea what "Batman's" spiritual position may be, but as he was described holding a small toddler who was soon to be discharged, tenderly whispering "I'm so glad you're feeling better" I thought, that's one time that Batman could be Jesus.

When you're on the mission field it's easy to start to think you can only be Jesus on the mission field.  Sometimes you take yourself too seriously.  There is a spiritual war going on and, yes, it is serious, but there are so many ways to be Jesus in a broken world.  Sometimes being Jesus means preaching the Gospel in a hostile land, and sometimes being Jesus might mean dressing up as a superhero and wrapping your arms around suffering children. 

But, hey, let's be real. most of us don't have $5,000 Batman costume lying around.  So maybe being Jesus looks like buying coffee for your neighbor, being a Big Brother or Big Sister, or finding a family in your church who doesn't have transportation and making sure they get to church with you each week.  Maybe it looks like cleaning toilets or telling some jokes or sending an encouraging text to a friend or sharing your hobby with others or hugging someone you don't particularly want to.

Our friend "Batman" didn't become Batman over night.  He spent time and money and made plans to invest in people's lives.  So it is, as we are called to be like Jesus.  It takes time.  It takes investment.  And, most importantly it takes intentionality.  It's easy to get sucked into the whirlwind of life and lose all intentionality.  It's easy to stop being intentional even on the mission field. 

We must fight against this.  We must wake up each morning and ask Jesus how we can be more like Him that day.  You never know where He may take you, but wherever you go as Jesus, you take the Kingdom of God with you and that is what we were made to do. 

Holy, Kingdom work, Batman!

Kids Gone Wild...Spring Break 2012

This week our ministry building was filled with the sounds and goings-on of kids on Spring Break!  With the help of a volunteer group from Manhattan Christian College, we ran a five day kids program where we had lots of fun, food, and learned about how we can choose to follow Jesus.  Many of our kids were regulars but we also got to meet new families and see returning families we hadn't seen in awhile. We also had a stomach bug that went through a few of the volunteers and then through most of our staff by the end of the week, so we are most thankful that God helped us make it through the week! 

Some highlights:

• Akeisha earned special acknowledgements with an award for being a leader all week long, encouraging others to stay on track. She also was the only one who learned all the memory verses. She is a sweet young woman and I hope God keeps her in our lives!
• When asked what the kids knew about Jesus, Cobie, a young energetic bo,y said, "I know that old ladies talk about Him way too much!"
• Discussing a story about Jesus healing the 10 lepers a volunteer asked, "Have any of you ever been sick?"  Xavier says, "I had the chicken pox!"  "How did you get better?" asked the volunteer.  Xavier exclaimed "I ate chicken soup!"
• At family night on Friday, all of the kids performed a skit where they shared with their family what they had learned all week!

I think pictures of their smiling faces say it all...

Women and the Holy Spirit

Recently I (Adria) had the opportunity to attend a regional women's retreat through World Impact at our organization's camp in Florence, Kansas.  I, two other staff ladies and one of their infants, and one of my neighbors crammed all of our stuff  into a minivan and headed out there on Friday.  It's about a seven hour drive, which allows plenty of time to get to know one another.  The lady from the neighborhood is a Mom of four, and grandmother of nine.  She cares for several of her grandkids, and has a house full of little ones at all times.  It was such a blessing to get to know her more and for her to have some much needed rest.  She loves the Lord and is looking for more ways to deepen her relationship with Him.

When we arrived, we realized that a good portion of the attendees from Dallas and Wichita (the other two city ministries in our regions) were Hispanic, and some did not even speak English!  The demographics of those cities are so different from our own; North St. Louis is 98% African American.  The retreat was set up to accommodate the Spanish speaking ladies, with interpretation and even by singing worship songs in Spanish. 

Yes, I took High school (and a little college) Spanish, and I lived in Houston and Camarillo...both areas where there are a lot of Spanish speakers...but I'm ashamed to say that almost none of it stuck.  Much of our World Impact staff from Wichita and Dallas can speak Spanish, but the rest of us were at a loss to communicate.  It was uncomfortable to try to sing songs in a language I couldn't understand, and the sessions were hard to focus in when every sentence had to be translated. 

However, I was so encouraged by the way the Holy Spirit worked and brought unity among us.  Jesus doesn't ask us to change our culture to worship Him.  But, He does ask us to be ONE in Him.  That means we have to do the hard work to bridge the cultural and social barriers that divide us.  It was humbling to sit through the Spanish sections and be completely clueless.  I had to check my impatience several times, realizing the Spanish speaking ladies were having patience for me, during the English speaking sections. 

It wasn't the easiest way to conduct a conference, but it certainly proved to be a powerful expression of the unity we have in Christ and how the Holy Spirit overcomes all barriers! By the end of the weekend everyone agreed that the Holy Spirit had been at work. One of the older Spanish speaking ladies came and gave us all hugs as we left Sunday morning. I couldn't say anything of consequence to her, but in her hug there was an understanding that we are all on the same journey with Christ. I didn't have to understand her words to understand that she was my sister in faith.  All in all it was an encouraging time, and to steal the words of my neighbor and friend, we'd been refreshed and "ready to come home and kick butt!"

Save our Children...From Veggie Tales?

Our front porch is a gateway to the world.  In our neighborhood, hanging out on your porch (or someone else's) is one of the best ways to build relationships.  It's also a great way for your three-year-old to learn the F word, watch a screaming match, and hear raunchy rap lyrics bumping from a nearby car.  Right now he's still fairly oblivious, but the day is soon approaching where he will take note of these things and we will have to have conversations about how we as Christians are to be different from the world.

You might think that we fear these upcoming moments, but I'm actually looking forward to them.  We have a pretty controlled environment inside the home and monitor what he watches and hears very closely.  But, outside the home, we don't have any control, so, it is best that we embrace life and use it to teach. 

There are probably some of you who think we are bad parents for exposing our family to so much of the world and raising our child in a potentially dangerous environment, and that's OK.  I don't agree with you, but you're entitled to your own opinion.  I grew up very sheltered and I appreciate my parent's efforts to ground me in Biblical truth and protect me from emotional and physical dangers.  And we take much of the same approach when we dictate what Andrew and I pour into our little guy.

But, like we are all so good at doing in the suburbs, we can build false senses of security, neglect our need (and our kids' need) for God, and think that the best way to be a Christian is to live a life separate from the world.  But, that's not the life we were called to as Christians.  We are called to sacrifice and to live by faith, to deny self and carry our cross.  And, most of all, we are called to infiltrate the world with our light.

I say this because I recently had a conversation with two families who have children from 13 years on down who went on a tirade about movies.  Movies can be such a hot issue, everyone has their own standards, but when I heard them agree that Veggie Tales were often questionable I had to laugh out loud.  Apparently they occasionally slip in appalling things, particularly that one based on the Lord of the Rings! 

I would find this opinion ridiculously extreme from anyone, but knowing that one set of parents engages in regular verbal/emotional abuse with their children and the other has such a loose grip on reality that their children will never be able to engage in the world appropriately made me almost bite my tongue in half.  I couldn't help the derisive laughter that escaped my lips, masking my rage at their hypocrisy.

Is this what we have become as Christians?  We stand in moral judgment of something as innocuous as Veggie Tales, while we call our children "idiots?"  We disparage the Lord of the Rings for being evil, but would never have a real conversation with an unbeliever?  We won't let our children participate in an Easter Egg hunt because of its pagan heritage, yet fail to let our children engage in a church community at all?

I'm not advocating bombarding our children with foul things.  I care about protecting my son's ears and eyes and heart.  But when do we cross the line of protection and step into a lifestyle of fear and self-righteousness?  When did Jesus become enough for us but not enough for our children? 

My husband and I have responded to the call to be inner-city missionaries, which comes with its unique challenges when raising a family.  I'd be lying if there weren't days when I fear the variables of raising children in this environment.  But, I know that God will pour out more grace and more mercy on my son, because I will ask Him for it, and he will have a beautiful (and difficult) opportunity to know the price of sin, see God's mercy in spite of it, and share forgiveness and love with others.

Granted, there's no easy formula for how much to shelter or expose our kids from and to the world.  But, I think a good place to start is in our own hearts as parents.  Is our protection based in fear or pride?  Or, is it an appropriate shelter from biblical danger?  Are your teachings and rules meant to train our children to love and serve the Lord or to abide by "Christian" rules?

If we are to teach our children to love and serve the Lord, it will be a messy, challenging, and sacrificial process and our kids will experience hardship along the way.  But, ultimately, it is our lives that will dictate what our children become.  Are we the kind of men and women we want our children to be?  Do we LOVE and SERVE the Lord?  If we do, chances are that our children will follow our lead.  It doesn't always look like we want it to and it certainly is not easy, but we can rest in the knowledge that our children are sheltered in the hands of God, much more capable and loving hands than even our own.  

We do not have to live in fear or stand on pride when leading our children.  Jesus is enough for us and He is enough for our children.  Let them experience His power, as well as know about Him.  Your children will never mistake the meaning of Easter with Easter Eggs if they get to see the power of the resurrection bringing the spiritually dead back to life!

A New Blog

I know, I know.  I'm not the avid blogger that I imagine myself to be.  I always have the best of intentions to be a "real" writer and blog every day...but life and laziness and a million other things get in my way.  So, what should a person who is scarcely an adequate blogger do but start TWO blogs!

I love having an outlet for family and ministry updates, but I've also been looking for a way to blog through a more focused lense, something more my own.  My new blog The INTJ Life: One Woman's View of the World is a response to a blog I posted on "Written Not With Ink" last year called I'm an INTJ Woman and a Freak of Nature.  I got several responses from INTJ women who also felt just a little off center from the rest of the world and then I noticed that I got three times the views of that post than any other.  I knew I was on to something.  There may not be many of us (INTJ women that is) in the world but we sure want to know that we're not the only ones!
So, I'm going to attempt to lead a double blogging life...we'll see how it goes!

A Modern Day Plague

I'm convinced that incompetence is a plague for the modern day.

If we were in the book of Exodus, somewhere between the plagues of frogs and lice, it would read, "And then incompetence swept over the land.  When you couldn't find an item in Walmart, absolutely no one could point you in the right direction.  When you ate at a restraunt your server would inexplicably vanish, leaving you with empty drinks and no E.T.A. on your missing food.  When you tried to navigate the incredibly confusing foster care system, everyone would give you different answers to the same question...that is, if they bothered to call and tell you at all!  And there was gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes because everyone was frustrated all the time."  Or, something like that.

Lately our journey with said foster care system has included some gnashing of teeth...although we have spared society and left our clothes untorn.  Sometimes I just reach my limit and want to yell in the halls of the court or in the isles of Walmart, "Does anyone give a crap anymore???!!"  I mean, I used to believe people who had jobs knew what they were doing.  Silly me.

Not to be melodramatic, because bad service at a restaurant is annoying but, hey, its not like I'm on the verge of starving.  But, in situations where lives hang in the balance it would be nice to know people knew what they were doing.

Today was supposed to be a big day for our family.  Instead it was frustrating and left us feeling a little shell-shocked.  I am grateful our little guy is yet too young to fully feel the emotional roller coaster like Andrew and I do.  I would never wish to change our journey, because it has brought us Little Man, but it has tested our faith and our character every step of the way.

In the face of such grand incompetence I have been forced to acknowledge two things:  I need more grace and more faith.  I need more grace/love/patience for people around me and I need more faith/trust that the Lord is bigger than any system and He is ALWAYS competent.  When I feel like running through the streets screaming, there is comfort in the knowledge that His timing is always perfect and He will never let me or Little Man down.

I'm so grateful that I don't have to go on this journey alone, because, I might go crazy (or crazier, I guess).  Love you, Andrew, and Happy Anniversary. It wasn't the day we had hoped for, but it was a day that proved God brought us together for a reason and He's not finished with us yet!