Jim's Mission Journal

Magnum Bars and Wal-Mart

2011-04-23T10:01:00.000-04:00

You don’t have to be around me long to discover that I love ice cream. It is genetic. One of my favorite quotes from my grandfather was “I think I want to have some ice cream.” He would open an entire box and cut it in slabs with a knife. Oh, the memories, but I digress. (BTW, my grandfather had a much deeper influence on my life outside of ice cream, but the subject of this blog triggered the memory!)

While living in Kazakhstan, our family occasionally enjoyed a type of ice cream bar called “Magnum bars.” They were very yummy. Then as I’ve traveled the world over the past few years in my role of missionary oversight, I have found that many countries have Magnum bars. Yet I never have seen them in the USA. I began to tell our missionary kids to find where Magnum bars were sold in their country so when I visit, I could treat the kids to one. Those who keep up with me on Facebook will attest to the many photos I have of enjoying a Magnum bar in different parts of the world. And I always joked how backward the USA was in that we were one of the few countries where you could not find a Magnum bar.

Well, recently a Facebook friend, well aware of my quest for Magnums, informed me that she saw them at a Wal-Mart in Nicholasville, Kentucky. At first I was very happy – Magnums accessible any time. But then I began to feel a bit sad. One of the things that have made Magnums so much fun to seek is that they were not readily accessible. They were different.

I remember when a very tasty treat we sometimes got in Kazakhstan appeared in Wal-Mart in the USA. We had the same sort of feeling – it just didn’t seem so special anymore. Wal-Mart represents the commonplace. If you can buy it at Wal-Mart, then is it really a special treat? The whole idea of quest is gone. Yeah, just pick up a box of Magnum bars on the way home from the office. In fact, I’ll be less likely to enjoy them while traveling if they become commonplace here.

Well, a blog on a mission page usually is not just about something like ice cream. What happens when the Gospel seems commonplace; when it is, so to speak, available at your local Wal-Mart; when it isn’t new, it doesn’t seem to require a quest, it isn’t surprising? The Gospel is by no means commonplace – it is incredible and life-transforming. Yet we risk losing that since we have the illusion that it is just part of the landscape. Often seeing the reaction of people for whom it really is new news or where it must be sought at great risk can help us in the USA get a reminder that it far from commonplace. Those of us in places like the USA need constantly to refresh our understanding of the Gospel and never relegate it to the shelves of Wal-Mart!

No, I’ve not been to my local Wal-Mart yet to see if they have Magnum bars nor have I decided whether or not I will allow myself to enjoy one on US soil. I’ll keep you posted.

January 12 - First Anniversary

2011-01-11T20:48:00.003-05:00

January 12 may not be a day to stick out in most of our minds. But given that I am now in Haiti, it is a day that is very much at the front of the minds of the people here. One year ago, an earthquake caused devastation, especially in the densely populated capital city of Port-au-Prince. Estimates of 230,000 people lost their lives. Many bodies never have been recovered.

As we drove through Port-au-Prince upon arrival, I was floored by the countless buildings in varying degrees of collapse. Some are only known to have existed by the rubble in the lot. Some look OK at first glance, but then you see the cracks and realize it is not usable. A full year later, the evidence of the devastation is still clear. I cannot imagine what it was like shortly after the disaster.

Most of our time in Haiti so far we have been in the interior. In an area that felt the quake, but did not experience damage. Yet it seems nearly every family could tell of a relative or a loved one that they lost who was in the capital for work or study. The ministry we are visiting lost several graduates of their grade school, who were in university.

So I hope any readers will take some time to pause on January 12 in remembrance of the people of Haiti who lost their lives and to pray for the Lord to raise up a people to Himself from the rubble of the disaster. In the four days we have been here, we have seen so many indications that the Lord is doing just that - may we, their American neighbors, be prepared to stand with them in prayer, support, and service.

Tribute to a Life Well Lived

2010-11-15T09:22:00.001-05:00

During all our years in Kazakhstan and in the four years since returning, we could count on receiving birthday cards and notes from Miss Gertrude Bloede. The cards were always unique, as she would cut the front of a card she had, then tape it to a blank index card, and personalize her note. A true missionary – do not waste anything! I later got to know other missionaries she supported, and found they had the same experience. Whenever we sent a newsletter out, we would certainly receive a hand-written note from Gertrude. When our son Keith served two years on the ministry ship Logos Hope, he received letters from Gertrude.

I just received word that this dear woman passed away last week at 99 years of age. Keith and I visited her in June at her room at a retirement village just outside of Lebanon, Ohio. We had a delightful time with this godly woman, whose mind was 100% sharp. She retold the story from her perspective of the tragic day 40 years ago at Red Bird Mission in Kentucky, when Shawn’s father, after whom Keith was named, was shot and killed. Keith Myers had been a missionary pastor at Red Bird. Gertrude had been a nurse at the mission at the time, and spent the days following with the family – Shawn was 5 at when this happened. I think that experience gave Gertrude a special bond with Shawn and all of her family.

Gertrude served for many years as a missionary in Sierra Leone, traveling to her appointment by ship in 1951. I loved hearing her tell stories of those years. She then moved to Red Bird Mission in 1965, and even upon retiring made frequent visits back until travel became impossible, but that was only after she was 96 years old!

To be supported by and prayed for by her and to receive frequent letters from her over all these years has been a special blessing to our family. We will miss her kind notes, notes that made it clear that she read every word or our updates and prayed for us accordingly. She now joins the cloud of witnesses in my life that we read about in the book of Hebrews.

Thoughts on Short Term Mission Trips

2010-08-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

The focus of our most recent issue of our agency's magazine Unfinished is ministry in Central America. For my column, I decided to broach the subject of short term missions. I did this with fear and trembling. I have become known as a voice of caution among our staff in this whole phenomenon of short term mission trips. I've not wanted to be a wet blanket on what I know has been a very wonderful experience for so many people, but I've also sensed the need to speak truth in an area where wishful and romantic thinking sometimes dominates the discussion. What began as my usual column for the publication turned into an article. It was kind of funny for me to write on this since I've never actually been on a short term mission trip myself! (Well, it depends how you look at it. I spoke in a church a couple years ago and was introduced by the pastor as "The Ramsays who just returned from their mission trip to Kazakhstan." Hmmm - 10 years is one LONG trip!). Anyhow, upon joining the staff of The Mission Society four years ago, it did not take me long to realize that short term missions is a dominant them in missions especially in Central America. I've had several opportunities to see various aspects of the impact on the receiving end, still not having been a part of the "going" end of a short term team.

As I put my article together, I worked with our missionaries in Nicaragua since I had visited them a year and a half ago and was encouraged by what I'd seen them do with short term teams. It gave me the opportunity to approach the subject with honesty and to ask some of the hard questions that are often ignored, but to point to a case where those questions had been addressed. I was still nervous in submitting the article and begged our editor to change or even to reject the article if it came across as too harsh or judgmental. I really had no desire to throw cold water on something I know has rejuvenated the faith of so many in my home country. I've thrilled to see more people engaged in mission personally - not to relegate mission to a distant denominational department or a once a year mission focus weekend at their local church. It's great to see US church goers speak of personal experience of ministry in different cultures. Yet I wanted to invite those same people to a sober discussion of how these good intentions have created some real problems in the region as well.

Since the magazine came out a couple weeks ago, I've been relieved with the initial feedback. Our Church Ministry department plans to use the article in their short term mission training component. Some churches have asked for reprints. I am so thankful to the Lord that somehow my intent of writing the article seems to have been communicated. So I decided I would share this with my e-mail list as well in hopes that it might be interesting to you or a helpful resource to your churches. The link to the article is http://www.themissionsociety.org/magazines/unfinished/2010-47/198 . There are other related articles in the magazine by my colleagues and some helpful excerpts from books that are worth reading as well - you can see these by looking at the table of contents on the right side of the page. You can also subscribe to the magazine using a link at the top of the page. Our editor does a great job of making it an informative, teaching magazine, rather than a self-promoting, fund-raising magazine.

Easter Holiday from Church?

2010-05-15T21:48:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I met with a couple who are preparing to serve as missionaries with The Mission Society. We talked about various possible directions, focusing on possibilities of working among the unreached peoples of southern Asia or working with the house church in a closed country to help them reach beyond their borders. It was exciting stuff, just thinking of being part of a movement to share the gospel with people groups who have yet to hear.

It is hard to imagine people who have no clue about Who Jesus is. They haven’t had the opportunity to make a decision about him, to answer that important question he posed to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” As we were wrapping up our time together, we began talking about their children and how they were doing with the whole idea of packing up and living in a far-away place. At that point, they related an experience their 13-year old daughter, Mary, had recently.

Mary was talking to a friend a few weeks ago. The friend suggested that they should spend the night together that Saturday. But Mary, knowing the coming Sunday was Easter said, “It probably wouldn’t work out since Sunday is Easter.” The friend responded, “But Easter is a holiday – do you have to go to church on holidays?”

The discussion served as a reminder to me about how many people all around us in the U.S. are as clueless as to who Jesus is as those who live in places that have never had access to the gospel. Why is it that they are clueless? We can blame the media, the lack of prayer in schools, MTV, postmodernism, or whatever we want. But the fact is that the way people learn about Jesus is when someone who knows Him shares about Him in word and through their lives. In an unreached people group, the reason people don’t know is because there is no one there to do that. But in our U.S. culture, it suggests rather that the many who do know and believe are not being very intentional about telling those around them.

On Jogging and Mental Maps

2010-02-01T23:35:00.003-05:00

I’m attending a missions week up at Toccoa Falls College in the mountains of NE Georgia. Today I decided to go for a jog. I looked at Google Maps to chart the course. And off I went. It didn’t take me long to realize I should have checked out the topographical version – the first mile went up, up, up – a 400 foot rise a later map check revealed. Then I came to a fork that was not on Google Maps. I went one way, up, up, up for about 10 minutes – dead end. So I came back and went the other way – another dead end. Oh well, I finally returned – so much for my nice, clean 5-mile loop!

Being the somewhat neurotic sort, I got back to my computer and turned on satellite view. Aha! There were more roads than the map showed, so I should have made a turn somewhere that just did not show being a crossroads. I also could see now that this was a mountainous trek, so I should anticipate some hefty hills.

This reminded me of what I learned way back in Missions 101 about world view. Our world view contains all the assumptions we make about how the world works, how we relate to one another, how we do the basic routines of life. My prof called it our “mental map.” When we go to another culture, it is a different “mental map,” which can cause disorientation.

Well, I knew I needed a different map here, but I didn’t take the time to look at all the dimensions of the new map. So I ended up with unexpected difficulty and I made wrong turns. If we head to cross-cultural ministry, however well intended, without doing the hard work of learning the various facets of the new culture – the new mental map – we are apt to run into all sorts of surprises and difficulties that just didn’t show up on the initial rendering. And we very well may end up getting lost in the process and create problems not only for ourselves, but for others. Most importantly, the very Gospel we came to share can get distorted or even just lost in the process.

That’s why good preparation for missionary work, whether for a 2-week trip or for a life time of cross-cultural ministry, is of vital importance. I get very concerned when I hear of a church group going to another country to “do ministry” with only an hour orientation before heading to the airport! They are going with a surface version of the new mental map at best. We need to show our love for the Lord and respect for the new culture by doing the work required to get a decent handle on the new mental map we’ll be using to negotiate the culture!

Tomorrow I’ll try my run again, this time armed with satellite imagery that should help me find the elusive loop!

A New Generation – Urbana 2009

2010-01-01T01:31:00.001-05:00

I just finished attending the huge Urbana 2009 student missions conference. Over 15,000 young people gathered to learn about and explore commitment to God’s mission in the world. It has been an amazing time.

As I have listened to the sessions and had well over 100 individual conversations with students, I began to see an exciting pattern develop. It is clear that God is calling a new generation to His mission. No surprise there – every generation is called by God to His mission. Yet each calling has its unique characteristics – each generation has aspects of God’s mission that is revealed with more clarity than other generations may have had. They come with new passions and new ideas. The same Mission of God, but new facets and approaches.

There is an exciting passion among students to confront issues of injustice and poverty with the power of the Gospel. This isn’t a fuzzy “do-gooder” type of approach, trying to come up with human solutions – the approach that has characterized various “social gospel” attempts of the past. This generation seems to be gifted with a radical abandon to Jesus Christ and a willingness to confront systems of poverty and injustice with the light of the Gospel. They seem to experience the deep offense that such systems are to the Creator and feel compelled to challenge and change.

As I listened to them and felt this passion, I realized that it is not a negation of what has gone before, but it really is that God is stirring something new. Those of us who are a bit further along in years – parents, church leaders, mission leaders – need to recognize what God is doing and do all we can to encourage, to advise, and to release this incredible energy and passion.

Can Missionaries Have Fun?

2009-09-07T09:09:00.004-04:00

One evening in Kazakhstan after a great team meeting, our kids were playing together with the usual banter. My friend and colleague, the late Joel Duggins, turned to me and said, “I think we’re having way too much fun.” Our years serving in Kazakhstan were full of experiences and times that were really fun – with our family, with our national friends, in our church cell group, with our mission team. We spent a lot of time laughing, enjoying life and enjoying one another. When asked what the most important characteristics are for a missionary, I include sense of humor along with dependency upon God and flexibility as the top three. I sometimes think that people were attracted to the Gospel as much by the enjoyment of life they saw within us as they did by the words we spoke.

I think it is better than it used to be, but somehow there still is that impression that Christian work – especially mission work – consists mainly of “suffering for Jesus.” It comes across as a heavy burden. And one gets the impression that the more miserable the person is, the higher up they are on the spiritual food chain. While Joel’s question was asked in jest, it can make those involved in missions be a bit nervous if they’re having fun! Somehow, I can’t really be doing God’s work if I’m having fun.

This past Sunday, our worship leader Aaron Keyes preached about joy. He did a great job of demonstrating the Biblical mandate for the Christian to have a deep, abiding joy. It’s not option – it’s a command! In fact, Christians should really be known as some of the most joyous, most fun people to be around. It doesn’t just mean that we are party animals. Nor does it belittle the reality of the challenges we may be called to face. But it does reflect a joy that enabled Paul to command us to “rejoice” even when he was in chains (Phil 4:4). “The joy of the Lord is our strength,” Aaron reminded us from Scripture, suggesting that the lack of joy makes us weak.

My experience has been that the phrase “you can’t out give God” is true in all aspects, not just financial. When I give myself fully into His service, He gives me an enjoyment of life that provides a different perspective on circumstances. The love and community He enables us to experience with our brothers and sisters reflect His joy – the result is that we really can expect to have fun together.

Certainly I don’t recommend a person become a missionary simply because it sounds like fun. But rest assured, if God does lead you into full-time, cross cultural ministry, while there will be hardships and challenges, you can also anticipate “having way too much fun” in the midst of it all.

A Day in the City of God

2009-07-14T11:38:00.002-04:00

The City of God is a large, infamous favela (slum) in Brazil. As part of the training for our new missionaries, we break them up into small groups and spend a day in various favelas around the city. I was in the group that visited the City of God.

It was an experience that drew out a range of emotions. Our guide used to be a weapons dealer in the City of God, but became a Christian several years ago and had his life transformed. He is a successful account manager for a large firm – but he still spends much of his free time in the City of God, ministering to people, praying with people, and working to improve the situation there.

We walked past the tiny shacks – many no bigger than a college dorm room, built out of various scraps of wood and cardboard, with an asbestos slab laid across for a roof. Drainage water ran down the middle of the dirt path. As we walked, people saw our guide and came asking for prayer. When a woman came to me, I asked how I could pray with her. She said she has AIDS. I and others prayed with her, then encouraged her to seek help from people in the church who could walk alongside her.

We had many other precious and heart-wrenching times of prayer with people. Shawn prayed with a woman who had lost a child at 10 months old. Her 2-year old boy has stomach cancer and leprosy. She said she had been beaten a couple days ago because other moms didn’t want her boy playing with theirs. She said she was ready to take her and her son’s lives.

I could go on – it was one thing to pray with people, but the emotions were so mixed since I knew that in 2 hours we’d be back at our training camp and in 2 weeks we’d be back in Georgia. It was a powerful reminder that real transformation takes place when someone is willing to stay and be a part of people’s lives for the long haul. Drive-by missions feels great and I believe our prayers made a difference, but lasting, full transformation requires so much more. I got just a taste of the burden Christ must have felt when he looked at Jerusalem and spoke of the harvest being plentiful, but the workers few. I pray that He will call many people to the harvest in general, and that He will call some to the City of God – that it can be transformed and live up to its name.

Lurking Evil

2009-06-23T17:06:00.001-04:00

When I was a kid, I remember my dad used to quote a line from a radio show that he listened to as a kid – “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” With no offense intended to The Shadow (the name of that radio show), I think our Lord is the only one who truly knows that. Even though I know mentally and from the Bible that all humans are way short of the glory of God and even though I am aware of horrors that have occurred at the hands of humans historically, I still find myself astonished and horrified.

Most recently, I have been grieving for the people of Iran. In the past two days, the protests were given a face in the person of young Neda Soltan. Neda had just gotten out of her car during a traffic jam caused by a protest rally. In the next moment she was shot through the heart and died in the arms of her friend and piano teacher. She wasn’t throwing rocks; she wasn’t shouting. But someone put her in the sights of his scope and pulled the trigger. What evil inside a heart allows that?

I know such evil exists, but somehow when it occurs in a specific instance and I am confronted with that specific consequence, I find myself sickened. This particular instance has gained worldwide attention, but there are tens of thousands of equally horrible things being done constantly. Sometimes in the name of religion, sometimes in the name of “national security,” sometimes simply because the perpetrator has the power.

Only God knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, and only God is able to do anything about it. This event is just a stark reminder to me of the need of the world for God and for His ultimate sacrifice in Jesus, who took the consequences of evil onto Himself in order to allow our hearts to overcome it. It takes that level of cosmic power to deal with the depth of evil that could train its sights on a young woman for no cause but to take her life and instill fear and hatred. May God somehow use the tragedy taking place now in Iran to enable His message of love to reach the people. I pray for workers willing to go take that message.

Valuing Uniqueness

2009-05-23T10:17:00.004-04:00

This entry formulated in my head as I attended my daughter’s high school graduation. In the speeches by the principal, students, and others, several times they alluded to this high school being “the best high school in the nation.” In addition, there was high emphasis on individual success, on this class being the best yet,” “making their mark,” being leaders, etc. In talking about their children, parents usually focus on their achievements (grades, club leadership, athletic achievements). Children are steeped in this sort of emphasis from the day they are born.

As I reflected on this, it hit me how much uniqueness is a high value in our culture. Uniqueness is a prerequisite for meaning – and not just uniqueness, but uniqueness in comparison with anyone else. This brand of uniqueness is expressed in the language of superlatives. I have to be that leader, my organization or group is the best, I have to make the most impact. The unstated corollary is that my uniqueness is defined with respect to how I measure up to other people. One who cannot lay claim to this understanding of uniqueness is considered a loser. Perhaps having lived in another culture has made me more acutely aware of this trait in my own culture. I’m not ready to judge this as a fully evil trait - it could well be that it is the driver of some of our culture's economic and political strength. But how does it impact our understanding of the basis of our value as humans?

I often hear the same type of talk in the churches and in missions. I can’t help but wonder how it might blind us to the real implications of servanthood and of dying to self that are the Kingdom values Jesus hammers on in the Scriptures. Our value comes in our relationship to God; our meaning is found in Him – not in attending the greatest school in the country, or living in the strongest nation in the world, attending the church with the best worship anywhere, or sending the most missionaries. It’s hard to hear the Biblical command to “die to self” when self is constantly being propped up with the myth of uniqueness.

So I am very proud of my daughter in her graduation, but I’m thinking perhaps my focus should be more on the character that she has developed than on grades and achievements or on whether or not her school was indeed, the best high school in the nation.

Schedule Disruptions – God’s Planning

2009-05-07T08:38:00.001-04:00

I am on the plane, returning from a packed trip that included a visit with my daughter Rebekah in Scotland, then a field visit to our team in Kazakhstan, where my family had served from 1996-2006. When scheduling this trip, I found the best fare I could get was by buying separate round trip tickets – Atlanta-Istanbul, Istanbul-Astana (Kaz). So to see Rebekah, I delayed the departure to Kazakhstan and bought yet a third round trip fare Istanbul to Edinburgh. I saved money, but my trip to Edinburgh ended up being a 31-hour trip, complete with four plane changes! I don’t recommend you hire me to do your travel planning.

After buying the tickets so they all lined up, Turkish Air changed the schedule which resulted in us having to spend an unplanned full day in Istanbul. I was frustrated as that shortened our trip to Kazakhstan and it meant the expense of an overnight. As I was planning, I remembered that one of the young women from the student ministry in Kazakhstan was now in Istanbul for Hodgkins Lymphoma treatment. Lyuba is a sweet, bubbly young woman who I had gotten to know the 2-3 years prior to our leaving Kazakhstan in 2006. So I wrote her to see if she’d like to get together.

I ended up being able to see her mother in Kazakhstan so she could give me some stuff to bring. She is understandably concerned about her daughter and it was good to be able to console her and to be her courier. It was fun to see what a Russian in Istanbul misses – the care package included pickled fish, a packet of Russian mayonnaise, dark bread, porridge mix, and some of that fake crab meat. Lyuba was very excited to get it!

Yesterday I spent nearly 3 hours with Lyuba. She was glad to have a chance to speak Russian, as she has been living with an American missionary family in Turkey for 5 months. We had a delightful visit which I think was a blessing and encouragement to her. And she was ecstatic about the care package from her mother!

As we went our separate ways, I thought about how if Turkish Air had not changed the schedule, it would not have been possible to have this time together. Did God orchestrate this? I don’t know. But I do know that He wants us keep our eyes open for ministry opportunities, especially in the midst of interruptions, and that He will use us even when things happen that we really had not intended or even wanted.

Connecting Worlds

2009-04-28T03:03:00.001-04:00

I am writing this while in the airport in Kazakhstan with missionary Joyce Chellis and her son Travis. Travis is leaving after his 2-week visit to his mother. It’s his first time to visit the place that has been home to his mother for nearly 13 years now. We had a nice chat on the way here about his experience. He said it sort of “gives a face” to what his mother has been doing. He had heard her stories, seen pictures, read letters. But now he can connect her life with his own experiences here.

This makes me mindful of one of the difficulties for the missionary that may catch a person by surprise. When you live some where for an extended period of time, it becomes an important part of your life. People become dear friends and the list of shared experiences grows in the place of ministry. And yet there are also friends and family back in the home country with a list of shared experiences. So the missionary and the missionary kids (MKs) feel in a way that they exist in two totally distinct worlds.

With our own family, we saw how our children eagerly desired that there would be connections between the worlds. The first time that their grandparents met some of the other members of our team on home leave in the US was a huge blessing. Finally the two worlds had at least some connection. I remember when Sherry Waid, a friend from our home church in Kentucky, came to visit us two years into our life in Kazakhstan. She experienced our life and met our friends. It was a huge blessing for us to have the connection and it created a bond with her that continues on today 10 years later, even though we don’t often have a chance to see one another.

So I’m wrapping this up as Joyce says “bye” to Travis, knowing now that when she speaks of the people and village she has grown to love, he will have a greater connection to this important part of her life. That will be a blessing to both of them that will now be shared for the rest of their lives.

A Question of Allegiance

2009-04-12T11:22:00.003-04:00

I recently responded to an e-mail from Vince Rutherford, a good friend, supporter, and former long-time missionary to Pakistan who had some questions for reflections based on his recent reading of Paul Hiebert’s book Transforming Worldviews. (This is a book I would highly recommend for an understanding of missions). Hiebert identifies the difference in a “bounded set” approach toward thinking of the Kingdom of God as opposed to a “centered set.” The former focuses on the boundary – either a person is “in” or they are “out.” This is the most common approach the church has taken to the question of salvation. However, Hiebert argues that the more Biblical approach is a “centered set” where the focus is on the Kingdom center – Jesus Christ. A person is either moving toward that center or moving away. Whether or not there is a boundary becomes less the issue.

Vince repeated Hiebert’s question: “Can a village person become a follower of Jesus after only a very basic hearing of the gospel story?” Vince followed with his own musings: “I am wondering about the many people around the world who have heard a bit and have begun to pray in Jesus name for help in their problems. Are they ‘in the Kingdom’ even though they are only near the edge?”

I believe Hiebert was right on with the distinction between bounded and centered sets - as a math major, I like his use of those concepts! When one begins to understand that distinction, then it certainly does challenge all sorts of assumptions of what it means to be "in" or "out" - even those words themselves fall short of being good descriptors.

I believe for the final question, we have only to look at the Scriptures. Did the Samaritan woman, the man possessed by legion, the thief on the cross, etc have sufficient information to be considered a "follower of Jesus?" What they had was a real encounter with Jesus - not a propositional confession. That encounter was sufficient for them to shift their allegiance to Christ. I've found that speaking of allegiance to or alignment with Christ is more in line with Kingdom thinking than the more limited terms we tend to use when thinking of personal salvation. Certainly "born again" and "saved" are Biblical images - but they are not the exclusive ones that are used. They just fit more with the bounded set approach, so as children of the Enlightenment and modernism, we've tended to focus more on them at the exclusion of other images.

What this way of thinking does is really free us from assuming the burden of being the judge. It really is not (nor never has been) my responsibility to determine who is in and who is out. My responsibility is live my life in such a way that people will be introduced to Christ and have a genuine encounter with Him, such that there is a changing of their allegiance. Then in community, we work through the implications of this shift of allegiance on our lives. Our tools for that are His Word, the guidance of the Spirit, the community of faith, and (giving away my ecclesiology) the community of faith through the ages.

The Thrill of Discovery

2009-04-02T09:02:00.002-04:00

A few of us are out here in California attending training in experiential learning and facilitation. Yesterday we got to practice our newly acquired skills on some college kids at a low ropes course. At the final debrief, one of the gals in my group said it was so neat how I didn't seem to have an agenda, but simply asked questions and allowed them to think through the issues for themselves, rather than giving them answers or even forcing them into certain answers.

It was so interesting to see how it worked. As our instructor encouraged us, to "trust the process." I was surprised how much discipline it took on my part to listen to the young people and tailor my next question or comment based on what they were saying, rather than thinking so hard about where I wanted to go that I didn't even hear them. Yet I found with patience and true listening, the insights they came up with were as good or better than content I could have delivered. Their excitement of discovery was enormously higher than if they had just received content from me. And the cool thing was that my enjoyment of hearing them come up with these insights actually was higher than the enjoyment of delivering the info myself.

It is good to be reminded that the One who had all knowledge spent three years giving teachings in the form of parables and often in the form of questions. Talk about content! He could have spent all three years lecturing and still not covered half his content. But instead, He lead the disciples (and us) on a journey of discovery. So often we forget this as we consider training and discipleship.

A Different World

2009-03-20T05:41:00.006-04:00

I am writing from a conference in Bangkok Thailand. It's been an intense week of teaching, discussions, and meetings. Knowing all of us would have mental fatigue, the organizers left Wednesday afternoon free. So 4 other guys and I headed to the river. Well, we had good intentions of going to the nearest point on the river, but the little tuk tuk (like a little motercycle/tricycle used to transport people) driver had other ideas. What should have been a short 5-minute drive ended up being an hour all the way across town. Anyhow, we made it to the river. We decided to take a Thai longboat ride. These boats are so cool - they are long (go figure) with a high, pointed prow. There is a huge engine in the back well above the water with a long propeller. The driver moves the propellor in and out of the water and side to side to steer - there is no rudder.

He took us through several canals around the city. We saw parts of the city that you could see no other way. Houses right up on the canal or on stilts in bordering marshes with no road going to them. We realized we were seeing an entire subculture that probably exists quite separate from the busy city-life of Bangkok. People on little coracles, paddling around getting fish or collecting plants. One place looked like a village built totally on a marsh - all the houses on stilts, no roads anywhere. At one house, I saw a little girl no more than three on the veranda - no railing and the water below. I guess living there, having the water all around is just part of life. So we'd see kids playing in places that any landlubbing parent would freak out about!

Very interesting to see a totally different way of living. Our funniest was the "floating market" - which ended up being an elderly man on a little canoe-like boat floating up to us and offering various trinkets and beer.

Troubled Times

2009-01-19T22:15:00.003-05:00

This past week was a tough one. Due to the economic tightening, which unfortunately often hits nonprofits the hardest, we had to lay off 6 people from our office. We had developed such a close-knit team among the staff, so this was especially hard not even considering the additional work load this will mean for those who are left. As hard as it was, I am so thankful that it was handled with love and caring - all of us felt God's presence in a very real way that entire day. We've already heard some good things from several of those who are gone about how God is already answering prayers. But either way, we miss them dearly. We fasted and prayed for two months that this could be avoided - yet when the time came and the December numbers were in, there was no doubt that this was necessary to stay afloat until things pick back up a bit.

So one wonders, "What is God up to?" A person could get pretty bogged down in theological questions. Did God will this? Did this happen because someone wasn't being obedient in their giving? Did this happen because somebody on Wall Street was greedy? Did this happen so that those laid off would be given new opportunities? Did this happen because the media has freaked everyone out? I guess we could drive ourselves crazy trying to answer such questions. I think the asking is normal any time there is pain, disappointment, suffering, or tragedy. When Jesus was asked a similar question about why the man was blind, due to his sins or the sins of his parents, He basically said, "Neither. So that God could be glorified."

Does God cause such things in order to be glorified? Well, I'm not going to touch that one or I'll be guaranteed a flood of e-mails! What I can know for sure is that God desires to be and can be glorified in any situation. He can be glorified in each of the lives of those laid off. He can be glorified in The Mission Society as we try to regroup and move forward. He can be glorified in the lives of those who have lost houses in this economic crunch as well as in the lives of those who have managed to hold on. The question is, will we look to Him?

A few months ago, my colleague at the Mission Society - Darrell - shared something he had noticed when in China. When people in America pray in times of difficulty, we usually pray for intervention - for God to protect us or change the situation. I can assure you, that's how I was praying last month regarding the possibilities of layoffs! But Darrell noticed that when the Chinese pray, they pray that God will enable them to be faithful in the situation. They've had corrupt governments for centuries - emperors, conquerors, communists. They really don't expect that to change - it's part of the landscape in a fallen world. But in Christ, they fully anticipate God to redeem each situation in their lives.

I've reflected a lot on that over the months. The question is not so much "Why did all this happen?" The question is, "Will we be submissive to God in the midst of it and seek to see Him glorified in us and in the situation." Sometimes He does His best work when folks respond with that level of submission to Him, submitting even the questions of "why me - why us?"

A Great Way to Start the New Year

2009-01-10T17:56:00.002-05:00

On January 2, over 80 missionaries, missionary kids, Mission Society staff, and guests gathered in the mountains overlooking San Jose, Costa Rica for a conference. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, learning, worship, ministry, and fun. As we sought the Lord together, He answered with a spirit of unity and renewed commitment to being effective ministers of His Word throughout the region. I posted some photos on Picasa for those who might be interested in getting a visual picture of our time together.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jimbobka/CostaRica2009?authkey=H67NBM2zDRE&feat=directlink

EARTHQUAKE!!!

2009-01-10T17:43:00.004-05:00

I was in San Jose, Costa Rica at the airport, awaiting my flight back to the US when it hit. At first I thought a plane had crashed into another part of the airport, but within 2-3 seconds, I realized I was experiencing a humdinger of an earthquake. The whole building banged a couple times, as if someone had tossed us and we were bouncing to a stop.

It is quite a sensation - wondering if it will continue, if it will get worse, if those big speakers on the column above you will come down, if you'll spend all night at the airport, if you'll be a statistic on the evening news! As it turned out, things returned to normal at the airport within a couple hours. Whew, it passed.

But did it? As the reports trickled in over the past couple days, it is clear this was a life-changing event for hundreds and a life-ending event for several. Many homes were destroyed, some roads are still blocked by landslides and there are still people who are stranded.

I realized how much I tend to judge an event by how much it affects ME. All is back to normal. Thank you God for protecting ME. Glad I didn't miss MY flight. In fact, if I hadn't just been to Costa Rica, would I have even known it happened or, if I saw the news item, would I have paid any attention? No conclusions here - just a reminder of how life can be dramatically changed in an instant. And a reminder of how self-centered people are at their core.

Reflections From Ephesus

2008-12-22T09:42:00.006-05:00

During a recent trip to explore the possibility of work in Turkey, I was able to spend a day in Ephesus. It is a huge archaeological dig that has been in process for much of the last century. What has been uncovered and reassembled is breathtaking. This was my first time to visit any site that has a key role in the Bible. It was surreal thinking that the apostles Paul and John would have been seeing the same structures. It was awe inspiring to stand in the amphitheater where Paul addressed the Ephesians and to see the harbor where they had their tearful farewell. This was one of the great cities of Rome and one of the cities where the early church was founded. Yet as the water receded from the harbor and earthquakes hit, the city died and soon was forgotten. There now actually is a small town nearby. We met with a couple of believers who work there - they told us there are no fellowships of believers meeting in that town.

One can't help but consider the parallels especially as we experience the current upheavals in our own civilization. A great city and civilization that must have seen impregnable and never-ending is now just an interesting archaeological dig. And the city where the Apostles themselves lived and where one of the first churches in history was established no longer has a single church. Yet the indicators were already there even as John penned revelation - John, who tradition holds spent his last years in Ephesus. We visited the place he is purported to be buried. In the letters to the churches in Revelation, Ephesus is the church who Christ rebukes for having "forsaken their first love."

Standing in that place and reflecting on those words, I could not help but be reminded that no people has an entitlement to God's favor nor any civilization a promise of longevity. In fact, it is when we begin to rest on those assumptions that complacency creeps in and we risk losing our first love. I could not help but be saddened to think that this place, so rich in the history of God's revelation, now is practically without a witness. When I look at my own culture as we argue over nativity scenes, when I see charitable giving as the first thing to go when economic times are uncertain, and when I am often confronted with a myopic view of what it means to be church, I wonder what would the content of a Revelation-style letter to the churches in our nation and our time in history be? Like the Ephesians, we are called to repent when we have lost our first love. We are called to recommit ourselves to being carriers of His Word to a nation and world who need to hear it. Just some reflections caused by a recent experience in the light of our current times.

Lost Voices

2008-11-04T19:48:00.004-05:00

Well, my great plans for a travel blog during my trip to Prague didn't work out. I'm back home now. It was a great trip, though.

The most memorable, though, was a trip to Terezin I took on Saturday. It was the location of a Jewish Ghetto during the Nazi occupation - many lost their lives there due to horrible conditions. 84,000 passed through, ending up in the more well-known places of horror like Auschwitz where they lost their lives.

In one room, the wall was covered with names of those who perished. But it wasn't just anyone - it was limited to children. The tragedy was overwhelming. As I looked at the birth dates, I realized these people would be my parents' age. Most were born in the 30's, but perished from 1942-1945. Thousands of lives lost - what contributions would they have made to the world had they not been destroyed by that evil? How many children and grandchildren would now be in the world today if that generation of children had been allowed to live.

As you walk into the room, you are met by a photo of a boy of about 12 years old. Here is the poem he wrote while in the ghetto. He later died in a concentration camp.

A little garden,
Fragrant and full of roses.
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.
A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.

To read such words in the context of that place created an incredible sense of sadness. Yet even today, children's lives are cut short by hunger, war, and sex trafficking and their innocence is destroyed by the self-centeredness of many adults. It must grieve the heart of God.

Praying for Us - They Really Mean It!

2008-10-19T20:22:00.002-04:00

Last weekend Shawn, Rebekah, and I traveled down to Tallahassee to visit the folks at Killearn United Methodist Church. This church, and particularly a women's fellowship group, have been supporting us and praying for us since we first started preparing to go to Kaz back in 1995. They invited us down to help kick off a day of service they were doing in the community, then share with them in their worship services on Sunday (4 services, no less).

It was truly a joy to be with them and see the enthusiasm of the people who turned out on a Saturday to go out and serve. But the greatest blessing was the number of women from the fellowship group who came up to us - many had never even met us - and asked knowingly about our family and ministry. They had been praying for us. One woman - Mrs Dorothy, is 91 years old. She asked very specifically about things I had shared about in newsletters many months ago. She asked about each of our children, again knowing what they were up to, remembering what we've shared about them over the years.

We've had this experience before, but it always humbles me when we meet others who say they pray for us and really mean it. It is truly the lifeline of all people - would that we all prayed for one another with that same fervor that we as missionaries are blessed to receive.

Economic woes or opportunity for faith?

2008-09-30T21:56:00.001-04:00

Like many folks, I've been afraid to even look at my retirement accounts for fear of how much lower the value is than it was just a week ago, not to mention a year ago. I get nervous when I hear predictions of economic collapse. I am tempted to get impatient with the gas stations with no gas here in Atlanta this week. I want to grumble about paying $4.50 a gallon after waiting in line when I do find a pump. And I wonder at the intensity and meanness of the political dialogue (if one could call it that!).

But what if I just stop for a few minutes and consider the things that are not on the radar screen of most of us in the USA? Even if my retirement vaporized, the fact I am in a house still puts me among the wealthiest people in the world. If our whole economy were to collapse - I'd be no worse off than the many friends we had in Kazakhstan when we moved there in 1996. I don't like paying $4.50/gallon for gas, but in most countries it's much higher, and the vast majority of people in this world don't even own a car. And as inane as the political debate is and the meanness of the tone, at least varying opinions are allowed and I'm not likely to be shot by someone who holds an opposing view as mine.

I don't know where all the current challenges will lead, but I do know that the Lord does not want us to be myopically focused only on that which affects us. RIght now, hundreds of Christians in the Orissa State of India have fled to the jungles after having their houses burned in a wave of militant Hindu violence. Dozens have been killed. Yet that hasn't shown up once on my home screen of Google's top five news stories. In our churches, are we praying for our brothers and sisters in India in addition to praying for our own economy and our retirement accounts?

Lest anyone think I'm standing in judgement here, let me hasten to assure that I include myself in this. I am astonished at how quickly even someone who lived in a collapsed economy for 10 years among people with limited freedom and now who has seen poverty around the world can get grumpy about waiting 15 minutes to get gas and having to pay more for it! I expect Shawn could identify such a person - she has to live with him!

I guess I would encourage myself and all of us who testify to Christ as Lord that we need to ask Him to help us see the world as He sees it and to maintain His heart for the world, even in times when our self-centered nature pulls us toward self-pity. Especially in uncertain times as this, we can be witnesses to faith in a sovereign Lord, for whom NONE of this is a surprise or even a "blip" on his time line. Can the God - who gives strength to the believers in Orissa who choose death rather than recant their faith - can that God be trusted to see us through these times, regardless of who gets elected, which way the stocks bounce, or whether or not the local gas pump is empty? Let's allow the uncertainty of the times help us not focus on the uncertainty but on God's faithfulness and constancy.

Russian Language at the Beach

2008-08-04T22:05:00.004-04:00

I'm on vacation, but while playing on the computer, I realized it has been over a month since my last post. If I don't post now, my usual pattern of lack of follow-through will consume this blog. So, a vacation blog. We are at the beach - much needed vacation. Shawn and I with our younger two children, Jon & Naomi, plus 4 Duggins children - Hannah, Ruslan, Lydia, Albina. Out in the water today, I heard "Vada kholodnaya". Russian! Since returning to the US, we don't hear Russian much - when we do, our ears tune in and our hearts leap. It was a teenage girl speaking to a boy. Then she spoke typical teen-English to the other boy. So I introduced myself. Turns out, she was adopted 7 years ago from Kazakhstan! The Russian-speaking boy had been adopted just 5 months ago, along with a biological sister, also from Kazakhstan. This family then has two biological children. So we got to speak some Russian to the kids, then visit with the parents. The kids had come from near Pavlodar, a few hours north of Karaganda where we'd lived.

As we spoke with the parents, it reminded me of the many adopting parents we had known over the years. It is a grueling process, a real emotional roller coaster with the excitement of bringing home children mixed with the complete dependence on the whim of the local officials, who often see opportunities for personal financial gain. I congratulated these folks on going through it twice. It was good to see these kids - a happy ending to the story.

3 Weddings and a Couple Doctor Appointments

2008-06-18T20:27:00.002-04:00

I just returned from 3 weddings of nieces and nephews. And although I don't anicipate a funeral, ironically I had appointments this week with a cardiologist and a orthopaedist. (Nothing serious in either department - routine check with the former, working on a bum shoulder with the latter). However, seeing these young folks get married and seeing my other nieces and nephews being all growed up, having Rebekah finish college, etc. You just can't help but ponder the movement of time!

A colleague told me that on his annual checkup when he turned 50, the doctor warned him that the body is designed to last 50 years, so things will likely start going wrong. Hmmm. At 48, that does give me pause to thought. Another generation enters the scene with excitement and potential. Most of the young folks at the weddings were solid believers, desiring to serve God. I see the generation above me in their twilight years, some already with the Lord. Many who are also solid believers who have allowed themselves to be used mightily by God.

The winds of change come and go. Fads, fashions, wars, kingdoms. But God will always raise up a new generation to carry His word in their hearts and to live it in their actions.

Into the Future

2008-05-22T20:29:00.002-04:00

(The following text is from my e-mail "diary" I send out every few weeks. It's something I started way back when we first went to Kazakhstan. You can get these via e-mail by sending an e-mail to Ramsays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.)

Weekend before last Shawn, Naomi, and I were in Western NY to attend Rebekah's graduation from Houghton College. We are very proud of her accomplishments and look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for her. She majored in History. For her senior seminar project, she studied the culture where she grew up, doing a major project on the impact of collectivization on the Kazakh people during Stalin's years. It is neat to see how the Lord is already integrating the experience our children had growing up into their adult lives.

As the graduates paraded across the stage, I could not help but wonder what the future holds. What sort of world will they be ministering in? The week before her graduation, we had a 2-day intensive session with a handful of staff and missionaries at The Mission Society to consider that question for ourselves as a ministry. We took a look out 25 years and gave thought as to what sort of world it might be - painting a picture of the horizon out there and our place in it. It was a good exercise to help move us away from thinking in today's set of assumptions. We all know that the rate of change seems always to accelerate.

We tried to imagine what the world will be like in 2033 and what would be the shape of the religious landscape. We know that mission will be a calling for believers until Christ Himself returns. But what forms will it take then? How will those who call Jesus Lord and Saviour best communicate that Good News to others? And given those possibilities, what do we need to be doing now as believers and as a mission agency to prepare ourselves for that world? This whole process is a precursor to a year of long range planning we will be doing with our missionaries worldwide. When one begins to look ahead, it can be overwhelming. Just looking around at the world today can cause a person to want to retreat into a fairly closed-off, isolated life, just ignoring the world. 80,000 dead in China. Conflict in the Middle East that seems it will still be going in 2033. Election years that evoke ever-increasing cynicism. AIDS in Africa. The warnings of limited oil from my childhood seeming now to become reality. Collapse of morality and basic social institutions. The list can go on and on.

But this should not scare us off as believers. God does some of His best work in the midst of human chaos and tragedy. He does not call us to be ignorant, nor does He call us to despair. But we are to fully engage the world in whatever location He has placed us.

That's what comes to mind as I think of these young folks completing their studies. I've gotten to know many of Rebekah's friends -these and other young folks I've met among our other children's friends and our young interns serving with The Mission Society. I think of the young believers we worked with in Kazakhstan. When I think of these folks, I can't help but be convinced that God is preparing a new body of Christ-followers who will be ready to engage this newly messed up world. He is always there in the present as well as in the horizon!

Bragging Time - I mean "objective evaluation of your child" Time

2008-05-12T10:25:00.007-04:00

OK, I won't normally use this blog to brag on my kids - but when a guy's daughter graduates from college and has professors gushing to him about what a great student she is, it's hard to think about much else. This weekend Shawn, Naomi, and I went up to Houghton, New York to attend Rebekah's college graduation. She majored in history. Last week, she completed her final assignment - a 70-page senior seminar paper which she also had to defend before a committee of professors. The topic - the transformation of the Kazakh culture from a nomadic people to Soviet citizens. This is very painful period of oppression and forced cultural change among the Kazakh people of Central Asia.

I'll let interested readers ask Rebekah for the text, but it is such a joy to see her, having grown up in Kazakhstan, use that experience and interest to understand the culture better. I could include all the comments her advising professors said about her paper and presentation, but that might sound like I'm bragging. I could wax on about how blessed I was to see the deep friendships Rebekah has developed with some really great young people, about the love and respect I see people have for her, and just generally about what an incredible young woman she is, but, I'll avoid that. You just gotta be careful about people thinking you are biased about your own children....

Anyhow, we are very proud of her accomplishments and eagerly await how God will continue to work in her and through her in the coming years.

Stories

2008-05-03T22:03:00.002-04:00

Fresh back from Colorado Springs where I attended a debriefing seminar at MTI (Mission Training International). It was good to work on some skills for debriefing missionaries. But I went away with much more. I left convinced that debriefing is not something just to get a quick check on "how we're doing", but it is a profound gift we can give people to tell their story - to express the joys and struggles of their experience. Without that possibility, people can get stuck and have a hard time getting perspective on their past. It was very interesting to see all the ways that we tend NOT to listen - that we tend to short circuit the process. Yet the Lord made us so that we need to tell our story and to listen to one another's stories. It is amazing how much of the Bible is exactly that - the Psalms are full of David's expressing the paradoxes of life. We no less need to give expression to the experiences we have. So hopefully I'll be a better listener and will seek ways to give people changes to reflect upon their life experience with me.

Paraguay Travel Log - April 18 - Foz do Iguacu

2008-04-21T20:58:00.010-04:00

I can't really visit Paraguay without visiting the famous Falls of Iguassu. And having visited, this log would be incomplete without a couple photos of this amazing site. It was overcast and foggy during my visit there, so I don't have the rainbows that you might find in other photo collections. It is one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. The photos cannot do justice to the massiveness of the reality.

Paraguay Travel Log - April 19-20 - They Way Home

2008-04-20T17:26:00.002-04:00

Well, the travel for this trip continued to be exciting. Argentina was experiencing a major forest fire resulting in a thick smoke settling in around the airport in Buenos Aires. My flight was delayed by 5 hours, causing me to miss my Delta connection to Atlanta. So I got to enjoy an overnight. The fun part was that the lady at the taxi place did not speak English, so I got to put my fledgling Spanish to the test and was able to ask for a cheap hotel close to the airport and even found out what was causing the smoke. So I enjoyed an extra day in Buenos Aires prior to finally getting home this morning at 6:00am. The hotel was nice AND both my bags arrived with me.

Paraguay Travel Log - April 13-18

2008-04-20T17:14:00.003-04:00

My final few days in Paraguay consisted primarily of meeting with our missionaries. I come away from the trip with a great respect for the caliber of people we have working there. They serve in diverse ways - teaching in a seminary, drilling water wells, teaching at a Christian school for expats, working in a poor community, developing children's ministry, construction, etc. All do it with passion for the people. In the image to the right, missionary Alica Grey prays with an elderly woman who lives in a small 1-room squatters shack, about the size of a typical living room.

My meeting Tuesday with Pablo and Claudette went very well. Pablo serves as president of the Methodist denomination and his wife the educational work. They have served from the beginning. We had a good discussion about the future - vision and challenges - and how our missionaries can assist.

I enjoyed being hosted by the Carrick family this trip. They have really made Paraguay their home, speaking Spanish fluently, navigating the nutty traffic, and building close friendships with the people. Their three teenaged kids are delightful. By the end, I was even friends with the two enormous dogs they own. On my first day, I think they wanted me for an afternoon snack, but by the end I was able to pet them.

The challenges of our work in Paraguay along with the Methodist church there is to keep finding ways to share the faith with the people that will address their lives. Many are very poor. The risks of unhealthy dependency are very great in church work, especially with the abundance of mission teams who come with good motivations, but sometimes with money and attitudes that end up disempowering the local folks. But the church is established and will grow as people live out the grace and truth that is the Gospel.

Paraguay Travel Log - 12 April - Celebration!

2008-04-13T11:38:00.003-04:00

Today I headed out early with Christian Dickson to visit a church camp run by the Methodist church. We were joined by Mary Jo and her daughter Rebekah Phillips, two fellow Kentuckians who have been engaged with the work in Paraguay for many years. Christian's daughters Camila (9) and Ann Belen (1) were also with us. The camp was great and I had the chance to see the swimming pool that was built using funds from Redwood Christian Park in California, where I'll be speaking in two months.

And we had ice cream on the way home. Wuhoo! Second round. And my luggage arrived - oh happy day.

This evening we attended the big celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Paraguay. I was able to share on behalf of The Mission Society, which has been part of this work from the start. About 1000 people attended from the various Methodist churches that have been planted throughout. (It was really, really hot, but I managed to wear a sports coat and tie in spite of it. I figured that should be worth several spiritual points and earned me another round of ice cream.)

It was good to see the relationship our missionaries here have with the people. Lots of hugging and laughing that made me sense the depth of the history that has been made over these 20 years, and the commitment required by those from all over (Brazilian, Korean, US, Paraguayan) who have been part of the work.

The celebration lasted over 3 hours, ending in a consecration service for four new pastors. We got home late, stopping for empanadas (sp?) on the way home.

Paraguay Travel Log - 11 April - Off to the Boonies!

2008-04-13T11:29:00.006-04:00

Friday I went (dressed in Christian's shorts and t-shirt and Ian's sandals) with missionaries Ed & Linda Baker and our field leader Christian Dickson to Yrybucau (sp?) - a small town about a 4-hour drive into the interior from Asuncion. It was a chance to see some of the church plants in the more rural area, a school that Christian's wife Angelica directs, the agricultural center the mission is developing, and several of the wells that the Bakers have drilled. There obviously is great need in this area and it was good to see the needs being addressed by the various people in ministry there. I told Ed and Linda that if I had to make a short list of what I've learned in the past year or so of travels with my new role at The Mission Society, somewhere in there would be the importance of water in so much of the world. It is amazing to hear the impact that is made in many parts of the world simply by providing access to water.

When we got back, we had ice cream - which was high on my agenda for this trip. Hopefully not for the last time!

Paraguay Travel Log - 10 April - The Arrival

2008-04-10T15:27:00.004-04:00

Well, I got here. Long flight, on an exit row next to a window/emergency door that I think they forgot to insulate, so it was really cold all night. Overnight flights are the worst - even though the time zone in Asuncion is the same as Atlanta, the overnight on an airplane guarantees jet-lag like symptoms. But it was a nice, safe flight. My connection from Buenos Aires to Asuncion was delayed an hour, but got here fine. But, no luggage. Ugh. I've beaten the odds (sorry for the gambling language, but really it's mathematical probability language) over the years - only once having had a bag delayed. And that was a trip home to Kazakhstan, so no big deal. But now it's happened. I have a nice dinner meeting tonight and only the couple things I tossed in my carry-on "just in case" to show for it. Sigh. Main concern is whether all the chocolate goodies I brought for the missionaries will still be there when it arrives and will not have melted in the heat if it does make it! But if some delayed luggage is the worst thing that happens, I'll count it as joy! I had a missionary colleague in Kaz tell me when we first came there in 1996, "If you get here with your passport, your kids, and the shirt on your back, consider everything else a bonus!" Good attitude.

Kingdom Talk - True Ecumenism

2008-04-04T19:27:00.002-04:00

Evangelical Christians sometimes get spooked by the word "ecumenical" - and for good reason. Often it has reflected a sort of least common denominator approach. And the "least" part of it was pretty low. But what I call true ecumenism is something we are commanded by Scripture to seek. Finding true unity - and that unity only exists as we together seek the Kingdom. We see the Kingdom and the King (Jesus) as the absolutes, but we recognize also that the Kingdom may play out in various forms through history and through culture. The Kingdom of God tends to break out from within rather than invading from without. Jesus showed up inside a specific culture at a specific time, ushering in the Kingdom. But neither that culture nor that time could contain it. It continues to break out over the world in many different ways. How tragic when we miss out on this due to a mistaken assumption that when it breaks out there it should look like it did when it broke out here. True unity occurs when we sense and celebrate the commonality of God's Kingdom in its varied forms and ways.

Kingdom Talk - Just the Basics

2008-03-28T07:41:00.002-04:00

Historically, people have tended to add to the Gospel what it means to be a follower of Christ. Some of that is natural since we need to discover and work through how the Gospel plays out in our individual cultures and in our own lives. How do we apply the principles of what Jesus teaches in our workplaces? How do his teachings challenge our own culture? Yet the problem comes when we take these additions and confuse them with the Gospel itself. We end up becoming the very thing Jesus spoke so adamently against as he locked horns with the Pharisees. And when we do that, those additions become obstacles to others coming into direct contact with the Gospel - especially as it is shared across cultures. A person may think that becoming a Christian means I have to dress a certain way or hang out with certain kinds of people. They become put off by those items and as a result never come face to face with the person of Jesus. So while it is fine and expected that we apply the Gospel in our own lives, we need to do a "Kingdom check" every so often and revisit what the core teachings and values of the Kingdom are. We need to check these against our own lives. And we need to make sure that these values are the focus of teaching and sharing with others rather than focusing on the exterior of our faith.

Kingdom Talk - Radically Sold Out

2008-03-21T17:23:00.002-04:00

The conference I was at has concluded. Every time I've done a comprehensive inductive study of Mark, I am struck again at the radical demands of the Kingdom. I remember first being hit by this back in my college days. It continues to this day. This is no half-way with Jesus. You can't just get your feet wet, then stay there. He is gentle, but he is demanding. The measure you give will be the measure you get - the more you enter the Kingdom, the more you are invited to come in. Yet the more you allow yourself to remain on the fringes, the further outside you'll find yourself. This is the challenge - the nature of the challenge differs from culture to culture, but there is no doubt that one effect of sin is our tendency to go into drift mode. We'll use anything to innoculate ourselves against Kingdom demands - routine, work, addictions, distractions, even church. It takes constant vigilance to keep our focus, but if we seek Him, He is faithful to help us along the way.

Kingdom Talk

2008-03-18T18:44:00.002-04:00

At the conference I'm at, we are going through the Gospel of Mark. I have done inductive studies on Mark many times and in Kazakhstan I taught a class on Introduction to Inductive Bible Study Methodologies, using Mark. One thing you can't escape if you look at Mark in its own context is the absolute emphasis on the Kingdom of God. It is the central part of the teaching of Jesus. The problem is that often we either skip over that or we look at many of the parts of Mark outside of that lens. Or we assume the Kingdom of God = the Church and move on. Yet, when reading carefully and allowing the radical nature of Jesus's teachings to soak in, one cannot help but be challenged and confronted anew with every serious reading of Mark. Are we really living as participants in God's Kingdom? Are we reflecting the values Jesus talks about that are central to the Kingdom? Do we allow ourselves to see past the surface appearance and dig into the assumptions that we make about our faith, our church, and our culture? Well, when starting this blog, I promised myself I'd keep the entries short. So I'll stop by simply encouraging a good, inductive read of Mark. I may make additional comments about the Kingdom in future entries as well. Stay tuned...

Airplanes and Human Nature

2008-03-14T06:09:00.003-04:00

I wonder if any psychologist has done a disseration on human nature on airlines. Having just finished a 14-hour flight from Atlanta to Seoul and looking forward to another 6 hours here in a while to get me on to Bangkok, it's sort of fresh in my mind now. Of course, when I say "mind," remember I'm on 24+ hours of no sleep.

What's interesting is how the "competition" shifts. First, the competitors are those jockeying for a position in line. And the enemy are those who try to board before their zone. If you happen to be an airline club member, thus allowed to board first, you definitely deserve to get on first and you might get frustrated at the low life types who don't give way. Of course, if you don't have that perk, then you look with disgust at the folks who waltz to the front of the line. Who do they think they are, anyway?!

Once on the plane, now it's the overhead bins. On one flight you are thankful for the empty space a couple rows back, since your bin is full. On another flight, you conjure up tortures that would be appropriate for the bum two rows up who put his suitcase in your overhead bin. And it goes on - fighting over the armrest or thinking evil thoughts about the guy in front who leans his seat back, planting the video screen firmly against your nose. On and on.

When the flight is over, everyone goes separate ways and all is forgotten. But what about when things go wrong. In coming back from Kazakhstan last December, we were delayed 19 hours. All of a sudden, the other passengers were no longer competitors, but we felt a sort of comeraderie; even friendship. One lady showed Shawn and me her daughter's wedding photos. I'm sure people who survive a serious scare or accident on an airline even develop a sense of community that goes beyond the flight itself.

Are we really that utilitarian? If someone is in my way, he/she is a member of the impersonal "they" who are out to inconvenience me? But if someone and I together are put upon by another "they," then we become fast friends. Hmmm. Well, in about an hour I'll have the opportunity for an attitude check!

Dogs and Missions

2008-03-11T22:42:00.008-04:00

These two don't seem to have much in common, but the past two weeks have sort of brought them together. During all of our years in Kazakhstan, we never felt we could own a dog since it would be hard to handle with furlough schedules, plus apartment living and really cold winters just seemed incompatible with dog ownership. Although lots of local folks did have dogs. Our kids missed having pets - especially Naomi always wanted a dog. It was one of the many small things that they did give up by growing up there, although there are so many things they gained. But now that we're stateside, we decided last week that it was time. So Lizzy, a Dalmation/American Bulldog mix, is now part of our family.

It is noteworthy that we brought Lizzy home just two days after a dog of our missionary colleagues, who live in a village in Kazakhstan, saved their lives by waking them up in the middle of the night to a house fire. They all escaped unharmed, but the dog was too panicked to leave the house with them through the smoke and flames and perished. Ringo will go down in dog history as a hero. Fortunately the house wasn't destroyed, but many of their belongings were ruined by the smoke damage.

So who knows how the Lord might use Lizzy in the life of our family?!

Crucifixion and Resurrection

2008-03-07T22:24:00.003-05:00

Whew - I almost forgot again, but here I am, making a second entry! I am at our mission organization's President's Gathering in Florida. Lots of great presentations today that have my head spinning. Darrell Whiteman, our staff missiologist, shared as I have heard him on many occasions past, but it always hits me over and over. He talked about how we should minister in the model of Jesus. Incarnation - living among people, living in a way that they can understand, sharing the good news of the Kingdom with them. But what hit me harder this round is what follows. Darrell talked about how Incarnation will always lead to Crucifixion. When we give ourselves to God, we will certainly be asked to die to things. Maybe to prestige, to security, to convenience, perhaps even to long life. I've experienced that in the past, but I think every day we are asked anew, "what will you die to now?" But the incredible thing is that Resurrection follows Crucifixion. The "backwards law" of the Bible, as one of my seminary profs used to say, comes in to play. As we die to things, we then become alive to so much more. That is the experience of mission and ministry. I'm so thankful that we've been able to experience that in some small way through our lives.