A Global Gospel & Student Winistry

You can know that your actions have far reaching consequences that you can't predict that could help others know Christ and grow the kingdom. You can understand that the smallest of actions have a ripple effect that just gets bigger with time. But, when you see physical evidence of what a simple action that someone else has done and how God is using it to change lives on the other side of the world you realize the scope of what it means that the gospel is global.


  This week I had the opportunity to go with our middle school ministry to Student Life Camp at Ridgecrest in North Carolina. We attended the conference last year but it was just a single night and half a day, this was five days and more intensive. Besides being a chaperone (which will probably be forever odd to be considered) I helped teach bible study to our guys. That lead me to meeting Francis. Each morning we had a meeting with Student Life leadership to discuss the bible study we'd be teaching that day. Tuesday morning I met Francis while at that meeting. He was sitting in front of Jared and I and turned around to talk to us. The first thing I remember him saying after he said hello was to tell me I looked like Ed Sheeran and that if I went to Africa people would think that I was the talented Brit.

We talked for a moment and the meeting started, Francis stood up to speak for a minute, introducing himself and telling us why he was there. You see, Francis is a graduate of Compassion International. He was sponsored as a five year old in Marthare,Kenya by a man in Dallas,Texas. That sponsorship not only lead Francis to saving faith in Christ, it has rippled outward. Francis is set to graduate college in October and is leading a group of about seventy young believers in Marthare in a bible study and working with the Compassion School he was taught in when he was younger. Right now he is with Student Life as a Compassion advocate and is using his story to draw attention to the children around the world who need people to give them the chance to know Christ.

  We heard not only his testimony Tuesday night but the story of his life in Marthare. It was heartbreaking but also a clear example of how God is the source of comfort and peace that surpasses our finite ability to understand and He loves us,even when we are hurting and don't want that. When he finished speaking they had him pray for the service as we were given an opportunity to go out and sponsor a waiting child,having now heard of how doing such a thing can have such an impact. It would have been a beautiful thing to hear this man pray for children like he had been regardless, but they asked him to pray in Swahili. It was chilling, I cried. I couldn't have told you a word he said aside from Amen but the Spirit in that building could be felt. 


I could end right there and you'd get a glimpse of how God moves. But,I'm not going to because that isn't the end. See, while I was introduced to Francis that Tuesday morning I actually met him Monday night. The college Ministry has sponsored a little girl through Compassion from Uganda named Evelyn for many years. I started personally sponsoring a little boy from Rwanda named Niyosenga last year (at Student Life) and it remains one of the best decisions I've ever made. So, when I know there will be children that need to be sponsored I can't help but go look at their pictures and see who these children are. Francis was at the booth and after a moment of my looking he approached me, patted my shoulders which much to my displeasure were sunburned and asked me how I was doing. I talked for a moment and left, so I recognized him in the meeting but didn't know him enough to talk to him.

  Tuesday night changed that. I visited the booth several times Wednesday just to say 'Hi' and to see how many children had been sponsored. But I also did something that is so unlike me I surprised myself, I prayed with Francis. I'm not outgoing, I don't like talking to strangers, and praying with someone I don't know is not a regular activity for me. Yet there I stood in the middle of the lobby with Francis and two of the students who had gone to look at the booth with me and I had my arm around a guy who I'd met only twenty-four hours before but it didn't matter because this wasn't just a guy, this was my brother. I can tell you only that it was God moving in me because I wouldn't have done that otherwise. I still don't like praying in groups of people I don't know and would never have dreamed that I would be doing it in the middle of a lobby filled with other people walking around.

I'm glad I did, it was a growing experience, it was also a God-moment. It isn't a surprise for me to tell you of my love of Africa and its people. That there was a man from Africa at this conference and not only there but there to speak and he was put in my path is something only a sovereign God could have orchestrated. I want to go to Africa. I want to be among a people who don't speak my language but that understand my heart for the gospel to be spread there. Having Africa brought to me is an awe inducing experience that my only response is to praise a God who works far above what I can imagine.

All that being said I was reminded how global the gospel actually is. It reaches around the world to draw the nations to the one who created them. And that doesn't always look like what we would think, it isn't always missionaries slogging through jungles or doctors working in villages. Sometimes it is simply a guy writing a letter to share his love of God with a little boy who needs to hear that God loves him even at his worst, and gave His son to save him because that is how much He loves him. Our actions are an outreach and we don't always understand how far that reach actually goes or who it touches.



So you've heard the global gospel part of this post now it is time to hear the Student Winistry part. First, that is not a type the 'W' is supposed to be there. I firmly consider the opportunity to work with and disciple students a win-Student Ministry+Winning=Student Winistry. This week was fantastic. These students worked their tails off to mulch,stain,and renovate a park at a local church while we were there. It was hot, we got rained on (which was incredibly fun and another God-moment)  and they just kept working, it was physical work but they didn't stop until we put the tools away yesterday afternoon.

It was great to be with them as we served. It was great to be with them as we worshiped. The best part was being with them as we studied the Bible in Family Group. They soak stuff up like a sponge. Their insights were great to hear and it was interesting to see the things that stuck out to them. Too many times people think that students should just be entertained. We do them a disservice when we see them as unable to actually understand the word of God. They get it, they need it, this is a generation that is growing up in a world where Christ is not so much exalted as He is mocked and ignored. If they don't get His word from us or encouraged to grow with Him personally we are failing as disciple-makers and stewards of the gospel.

This weekend showed me again that age is no definition for understanding the gospel. The only requisite is a life changed by God and revelation by the Holy Spirit.


Now a few random things that don't really fit into the above but happened this weekend and need to be mentioned:

I get really excited when I see cows and sometimes mistake donkeys for them.
Speaking Swahili and having a southern accent is hard.
If you fall asleep during bible study I will Gibbs slap you in the head.
He Reigns is one of the best hype songs in existence.
Making Middle School boys laugh (especially when they are tired) is as easy as flipping a light switch and way more fun.
Rocks are Earth Mints and should be placed on pillows as such so that people feel welcomed.
NEVER let Middle School boys try and show you the way to a place they've never been. You end up hiking through the woods after showering but you usually have really good conversation while doing so.

Being called an adult on student trips is still a surprise.


Kwaheri,  (Goodbye)
Jared.

Gyroscope of Grief and Hope

I think before I speak. These past few days have been no different. Last night and the events that have taken place today have been tumbling inside my head for hours. Earlier this morning I sent a text describing that thought process as 'like my brain has downloaded a bunch of files and been tossed inside a gyroscope or maybe a blender'- basically I couldn't think straight. Even now things are not as straight as I'd prefer them to be, but clear enough that I can at least make something that resembles a coherent thought.

  Last night when my phone lit up with an alert from BBC to report that attacks in Dallas I was asleep and didn't fully realize the news the icon was informing me of until my younger brother text me a few minutes later. Then I got kind of numb and then I fell asleep. I woke to worse news than I had fallen asleep to and was met with images and video to go along with the words on my phone screen. Our world is a messed up place and tragedies are unfortunately not uncommon. You'd think that by now anything like this would just be par for the course, not that it would produce apathy, but that I wouldn't be taken by surprise.

The first half hour I was awake I did nothing but scan news stories and watch video feed of the chaos in Dallas. Then my brain pushed me out of bed. It sounds weird I know but I do my best thinking when I'm moving. So I exercised but it didn't really help as much as I was hoping it would. Then I did something completely out of the ordinary for me, I read my Bible while the sun was shining. I don't normally study during the day, like writing, I prefer to read and study my Bible when it is dark and everything is quiet. Not today. And there I found the hope I needed. Hope that doesn't dissolve the grief I feel but gives me the strength I need to deal with today. A hope that is placed in the kingdom of God where darkness doesn't exist because it can't stand the light.

  Grief though, Grief that seeps in like water through a crack and then relentlessly pours in like floodwater. Grief that reminds me just how easily life is taken and that a single second is enough to change the life of so many people. A not so gentle reminder as I watched video this morning of how many family members and friends I have who wear a badge that marked victims last night. How this was not a traffic stop gone wrong or a call response turned bad. These were men who were essentially sitting ducks while working a protest. A scene like this could have easily unfolded here a few weeks ago during Riverbend. A bunch of officers, a bunch of people, easy targets.

I think that more than anything is what makes this day so heavy. These officers were not actively responding to a distress call they were simply there like their jobs called for them to be. There were no bullets to dodge just people to protect as they exercised their right to free speech whether they agreed with the officers being there or not. You know there is a chance of harm when they are called to a scene, but standing there, that is a different story.

 When blood is shed we mourn. Life is a gift not to be squandered and the loss of it leaves a profound impact that ripples out. We bleed red and we bleed blue.



(A/N:So why a gyroscope? Because today that is where my head has been, stuck in constant motion of thought and emotion as they battled to be heard and felt. If you are wondering why I got a BBC update and not CNN,Fox, NBC, or ABC, it's because BBC reports quickly worldwide and I'm a news junkie, I want to know what is happening, where it's happening, and when.)

Free(dom)

Freedom

The word is basically a misnomer. We associate the word 'free' with gifts or giveaways. That in itself is no fault of our own, the word means exactly that. When you add the suffix 'dom' to the root word free you add a complexity that is not generally associated with the way we use free in conversation or definition. Freedom literally means free domain. When we say we have freedom we mean exactly that. America was founded by people who didn't want to be ruled over by the crown. Thereby we have a country that is a free domain.

  The problem with that is the root word. It implies that this country was founded without cost. The opposite is true. The reason this country exists is because for centuries people have given blood,life,and loved one's so that the ideals that created it can continue to thrive. We have plenty of freedoms for sure but they did not come by simply wishing they existed. We live in a society that was sacrificed for starting in 1776 and is still being fought for today.


What started as a revolution of men and women who refused to bow to the crown and wanted to choose things for themselves has become a country that represents what they wanted all those years ago;Freedom. People see America as a place where they can come and choose to live as they wish. They hear the word America and associate it with a place of choice rather than submission. We are known as the land of the free for good reason.



"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."-Beatrice Evelyn Hall

  Plenty of people disagree with war but the reason they can disagree with it is because of those who fought for them to have that right. The same can be said for all of the freedoms we have, every last one. They exist because contrary to popular belief you can have differing opinions and still want people to be free to choose those opinions. When it boils down fighting for freedom means everyone is free, not just those who think a certain way.

In as much as we are a nation that was founded by those willing to die for freedom we are a nation comprised of men and women willing to sacrifice so that others might also have that right. We are the defenders of the right that was so hardly fought for and aren't above securing it for others.


So, as you go about your weekend celebrating the birth of this nation remember that freedom is to be celebrated without certainty. But, don't mistake the name we've given to the definition. It cost the ultimate price.

For those whose blood fell to secure this freedom centuries ago.
For those whose blood was shed to obtain it for others.
For those who give blood and life even now to ensure that our freedom remains.

Thank You.