18 Dollars - Personal reflections on living and leading missionally.

My prayer today...

2009-08-19T08:36:00.001-07:00

God,

Today I put up pictures of Kamri, Lucas, and Lilli in my office. Beautiful and happy children you have made. You have done a great thing by providing them a place in which they can be given shelter and food. You have provided them a place in our home and hearts. You have planted seeds of discontent with the suffering of people in Uganda - first with Linda and Jill, then with Blaine, and now with me. You used those relationships to bring us to this moment, this moment of advent, this moment of anticipation, this moment of standing at the edge of dark and light where we face the dark not knowing where this journey will lead us, but as we step into it the light overcomes the darkness and where we stepped by faith we now see with amazement the reconciliation of people unto You because of our obedience to Your calling, Your leading, Your love.

So, today I pray for a pathway to be made, for a road to be paved from families who await the opportunity to adopt through Promise Kids a Future in Georgetown, Kentucky USA and Noah's Ark Orphanage in Busia, Uganda. Obviously the first family to get this privilege will be us, and so I ask specifically God to make this happen within the next six weeks.

Jesus, you proclaimed that You would give us anything that we ask in Your name, and so I ask for these things in the name of Jesus of Nazarareth, Son of the Living God.

AMEN

19 Years Ago Today

2009-08-11T10:40:00.001-07:00

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking 19 years ago today. I was about to marry my fiance, the girl I had purused and who had pursued me off and on for five years. I belive I was anxious, but I had very little idea what was about to transpire. I was poorly prepared for the battles ahead. I was a deer in headlights.

In many ways I was masquerading as a confident gentleman. She had very little idea who I was deep down, other than a guy who desperately wanted her to be held by no one else. Even though we had spent five years getting to know one another. I had very little idea who she was.

While she was far more devoted to me and far more transformed by Christ than I she was also far more wounded than I. She had bandaged those wounds as well as she could, but some of them had cut her pretty deep and most of them were from me, and continued to be from me for years.

It is only by the grace of God and our determination to not fail that we made it this far.

The Waiting Game | Evotional.com

2009-06-08T07:56:00.001-07:00

I read this on Mark Batterson's Blog this morning. As Kristi and I continue to play the waiting game with this adoption. As the number of children and names of children change, the suspected dates of travel (I've finally stopped putting dates on a calendar for this trip), and as I continue to wait to see if I will ever be given the opportunity to be focused full-time on ministry and church leadership and part-time scientist this was a great word. The Waiting Game | Evotional.com

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It's been a while....surgery, clots, etc.

2009-05-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

How much can you cram in a month?

I think that was the question I was trying to answer over the last 30+ days that saw me try to finish a class, including writing five papers - one 10-12 pages. Guess what the class was on?

STRESS

No joke it was on preventing burnout in ministry and identifying and preventing becoming distressed.

But I digress...So, it is a little ironic isn't it that over the last 30 days I have had ankle surgery that left a 4 inch scar on my left ankle. We have purchased a third car, and hopefully Saturday will sell one of the three. I went back to work every other day for a week, but toward the end of my first week back I began to get an ever increasing pain in my calf. At first I thought it was a cramp, but by the following Monday it was evident that the cramp was something a little more serious. After spending all day at the Doctor's office and hospital I receive word that I had a clot. I proceeded to be put on two anticoagulants, one a shot I got to give myself twice a day in my abdomen for a week. :) It was like going through a second recovery, because I had to take pain meds again to deal with the pain in my calf. Now I'm back to taking them only to help me sleep since my foot is still really sensitive to touch. My dad came to mow the lawn last week only to have the mower break before the yard was even half completed. That led to me finding someone to come mow it for me on a day when it actually decided to not rain.

With the unexpected blood clot came the disappointment of not being able to do my usual Mother's Day shopping with the girls. While we did make something happen it still was a disappointment.

Did I mention the class was on dealing with stress?

Now on top of that I have a 40th borthday party to plan and implement for Kristi. While I hope to be off crutches by then it will only be by the grace of God that I pull that thing off.

Tomorrow I will venture back to work in a wheelchair. We'll see how that goes. I am finally able to stand for a couple of minutes without too much pain, although my foot still turns purple.

If I learned anything from my class on stress it was to reduce the number of things on your plate, so in lieu of plugging away at my Masters over the summer I'm going to take a break and maybe pick it back up in the Fall. That is if we aren't going to be in Uganda in the Fall bringing home three children.

Of course that could still happen this summer, too.

Did I mention that the class was on stress?

Seize the day: An ankle analogy

2009-03-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well it was last year at this time that I was considering having surgery on my right ankle. I eventually did, and a loose piece of cartilage about the size of a penny was removed. It was like new money.

Yesterday, my good ankle, one I can only remember spraining once was injured. Going to the left I made a pass as I jumped into the air landed on my left foot cleanly and was hit hard from behind. I felt something pop, and now 24 hours later it looks pretty nasty.

I'll be 39 this year. I love playing basketball. I can still compete with the young guys even if I'm 20 pounds overweight and need 30 minutes to warm up. I wonder when it will click inside of me that I'm too old for it. Honestly, I can't imagine the day of not being able to run up and down the floor, but sadly those days are numbered.

If something really popped then the time might be now.

Seize the day! It might not be the last time you play basketball, but it might be the last time you see a child, kiss your wife, work, drive, walk, see, preach, speak, sing, and the list goes on.

Seize the day! If we have seize the day attitudes I think joy might be a whole lot easier to come by, patience a whole lot easier to practice, and peace a whole lot more available to live in.

Seize the day! It might the last time you...

Proud Papa

2009-02-16T18:32:00.001-08:00

Tonight we experienced our first County-wide Spelling Bee. Shelbi, who won her school spelling bee, along with one of her best friends made it to the final four. Megan WON!

It's a pretty cool story too, because she had a school project due today as well. Megan had to create a short term goal and then determine some steps on how to reach that goal. Megan's short term goal was to win the Spelling Bee and she accomplished that goal. Pretty cool.

Entering the Spelling Bee Shelbi made all kinds of excuses to not study her words. She felt that there was little chance of her getting to the final four. Shelbi was within one letter of getting to the final two. The word was vicariously. We thought she had done it...V I C A R I O U S E L Y. One lousy "E" kept her out. Once she missed that word Megan became the winner, and then Shelbi entered a spell off for second and third place. During the spell off she had several hard words and it seemed she could have spelled the competitors words with ease. She ended up fourth. One place away from a trophy and a savings bond and was noticeably distraught. Who wouldn't be disappointed coming so close to a reward and yet falling just short?

Tough stuff for my little girl. It was like losing three times.

I was quite proud. It wasn't so much that she had made it all the way to fourth. It wasn't that she had spelled croquet or mystique correctly. It was how she handled herself in defeat. She cried a little, and the Shelbi I knew before Christ began a good work in her would have responded with anger. Anger more at showing her emotions in public, then angry at losing. She graciously took compliments of several people, and she was happy for her friend.

I think that while it would have been nice to be the parent of the Spelling Bee Champ. In a way God gave us the opportunity to see evidence that this little girl, our first born, is going to be quite a woman. A thoughtful young lady with perspective beyond her years.

When you can be proud of your kids in how they handle defeat there is a level of satisfaction that all of this teaching and modeling and questioning and rule making and integrity actually makes a difference. At least it did tonight as I saw one handle victory with grace and one handle defeat with grace. It was a great night to be a Daddy.

I want a Kindle 2

2009-02-11T06:57:00.000-08:00

This is not my typical post on this site, but I just wanted to get it out there, and I want Relevant to offer me free digital versions of the books that they send me. Now if I just didn't have to fork out the $350.

I read, maybe 20 books a year on top of the Bible. If I was able to get them for $10 each instead of $15-$25 it would pay for itself in two years. The only problem I have is of the 20 books I read a year half are sent from Relevant and 50% of the other half may not be available digitally yet.

So, it might actually take me 3+ years to pay for the thing; however, there is something very exciting about being able to have 1500 books in one compact place.

8 Passenger Arrangements

2009-02-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Growing up there was a TV show called Eight is Enough, and while that was a family of ten, eight of which were children, I may need to go watch a few shows on TV Land or something in order to figure out how they did it.

Did you know that the number of vehicles that will seat eight include a couple of SUV's and two minivans, unless you want to step up into the 15 passenger van?

Did you know that five girls and one boy might mean a little too much hormone, a few too many weddings, a few too few bathrooms, and can create significant sleeping arrangement issues?

Did you know that when you say yes to one in God's economy it could equal three?

Did you know that the likelihood of owning two eight passenger vehicles is highly unlikely, which means that there will be a need to dictate who drives what when?

Did you know that it is completely possible to be totally pumped and anxious about an opportunity and completely overwhelmed with the transition at the same time?

Nothing concrete yet, but we could become a family of eight...I think it's just sinking in.

Send President Obama a note via IJM

2009-01-20T08:06:00.001-08:00

Dear Robert,

The inauguration of President Barack Obama has historic significance that citizens across the political spectrum can appreciate and celebrate. With at least nine new Senators and 52 new Congressional Representatives coming to Capitol Hill, change is in the air in Washington.

But there are some things that haven’t changed. Beyond our borders, the poorest of the poor are victimized by violent crime – sexual violence, slavery, trafficking, police brutality, and property theft from widows and orphans. And justice systems in poor countries are ill-equipped to protect victims of violent oppression and apprehend and prosecute perpetrators. Add your name to a letter bringing these important issues to President Obama’s attention.

IJM works in twelve countries to investigate and prosecute exploitation of poor and vulnerable children, women and men, but we alone cannot provide relief for all the victims who desperately need it.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Make sure that the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress help make public justice systems capable of protecting the poorest of the poor, and the most vulnerable among them: children and women.

Please add your name to a letter bringing these important issues to President Obama’s attention – and share this message with others. Thank you for raising your voice.

Warmly,
Eileen Campbell
Director of Justice Campaigns

Adoption - Gratefully Wrecked

2009-01-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure no one reads these posts, so I'm just putting this out there for my own sense of sanity as I try to purge every sense of selfishness in order to discern clearly what it is that God wants to have me do.

I fully believe that God often reveals things to us when we stop asking questions like, "What's going to happen?" or "If I do this then what?" Often my desire is to be 100% secure in the results before I make a choice. I try to guarantee that I will know how a new TV will perform in my home in real life situations before I buy it. I try to guarantee I will make the most money possible by waiting to the absolutely last moment to cash in on a stock trade. I try to guarantee that if I go to an expensive all you can eat place that I will see to it that I get my money's worth (it's one reason why I've quit going to buffets).

Often the results of my mountain of research and desire to be as close to 100% confident as possible is disappointment. I've often waited too long to sell a stock or to buy a stock. I still have not bought a TV because I'm looking for that perfect combination between flawless picture and really low price. And I haven't been to an "all you can eat" place in some time. In other words, my desire for confidence, my desire for reduced risk...for the sure thing has caused me to miss out on huge opportunities for growth. And I'm not just talking about opportunities that are financial or for pleasure. I'm talking about everyday life opportunities have been missed because I failed to make a decision. The key to my indecisiveness has been that I have failed to seek the opinions, commands, and wisdom of God in my decisions.

On Friday this came to a head. I'm sitting on a plane that eventually never takes off. While sitting there waiting for it to be fixed I get a call from Jill Baker, our adoption agent. She updated me on the situation and it was more of the same concerning that Alex, our soon to be son is ready and we can move on him at any moment. Fiona, our soon to be daughter; however, is still a big unknown. In Uganda they are very prudent in making sure that when they can a child isn't being traffiked. So, they interview all of the living relatives to make sure that all of them are willing to allow the child to be adopted. This is a really good thing when those in authority do their job. Fiona's family lives a couple of hours away from the probation officer, aka social worker. He has been unwilling to follow through with his interviews. The mother, dying of AIDS, even came to meet with the probation officer and he disappeared for a week. So, here this little girl sits in limbo, but of course she has no idea any of this is happening behind the scenes.

It's caused me to see a new perspective as God looks down on His people, His kids, and He knows what could be and yet because of our refusal to follow through on being diligent in aligning ourselves with the commands of God we and those around us remain in an orphanage thinking that this is as good as it gets. I'm beginning to see co-workers and friends as orphans, and I believe I need to begin helping them see what's going on behind the scenes so that they can go home.

Back to the story. After the update Jill springs, "Alex's mother has been coming to the orphanage asking them to take Alex's little sister. I think that we could get things turned around pretty quickly on her if you wanted to go that route."

Now if you were to read my last post (http://18dollars.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html) you'd know how we go to this point. So, there is now a plan C, a plan D, and a plan E.

Plan C involves forsaking Fiona and adopting Alex and his little sister. Still two kids, still in the age range, and still in need of a home. Plan D involves sticking with Fiona and Alex and maybe considering Alex's sister once she comes to the orphanage. Plan E involves bringing home all three. That's right...three.

There was an awkward moment of silence on my end, but I immediately knew that I was done trying to guarantee the results of this process. Instead I need to discern the will and heart of God for my family and for these children. I told Jill that my head wanted more data, but my heart knew that the only solution to this problem was the Holy Spirit.

I'll blog about this later, but I'm now into day five of my fasting and praying and I feel no closer to the choice than I did when I got the news. At the same time I am being transformed, and the new perspectives I am getting is only a product of trusting God for sustenance. Now may He who knows what my future would look like with never adopting, as well as what it would look like with one, two, or three reveal to me the BEST choice...the choice that will bring Him glory. Any of you out there reading this...I'd covet your prayers too.

Times Article: "As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God"

2009-01-05T12:31:00.001-08:00

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From The Times

December 27, 2008

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset

Matthew Parris

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.

We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.

This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.

There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.

I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.

Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.

To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

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The African Planter - from Christian Vision Project

2008-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

In the 1950s, while Kenya was still a British colony, a group of white expatriates started a church. Since they were from free church backgrounds, largely Plymouth Brethren, they called it Nairobi Undenominational Chapel. The church was located near the Governor's house, within a secured area where Africans were not allowed. So the church had no African members.

After the Mau-Mau Rebellion, as whites left Kenya for Rhodesia and South Africa and other places still under British rule, the church dwindled. In the meantime, the University of Nairobi, in the center of the city, began growing and occupying the land around the Chapel. But until 1989, the church had no university students, and only one African family among the remaining twenty members in the congregation.

That's when the congregation approached an indigenous African church to take over. And a young graduate student named Oscar Muriu became the pastor of Nairobi Chapel.

Today the church has planted 25 congregations in Nairobi, with thousands of members, and is planning to plant churches in Asia, America, and Europe. Andy Crouch of the Christian Vision Project interviewed Oscar at the recent triennial Urbana missions conference

The African Planter
An interview with Oscar Muriu - Nairobi Chapel pastor on mission trips, and working well across cultures.

When you look at the Scriptures, Paul's model of missions is very different from the model of Western missions in the last 100 years. The West has designed a model of missions that only works for the West.

What happened to change Nairobi Chapel from a dwindling group of discouraged whites to a vibrant, international, church-planting fellowship?

They began to pray that God would show them what to do, and they sought new leadership to help them reach the African students around them. That's how I got to come to the Chapel. I was finishing my studies at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology.

Any given Sunday maybe ten, sometimes only four people were there! They probably figured, "He can't do much damage."

Did you have a plan?
I knew nothing about church leadership. My core prayer was, "Lord, give me 30 university students," the number I believed was the critical mass needed to turn the place around. And one of the first students who came along is now an associate pastor with us, and several other students who came are now pastoring congregations we planted.

Last year we divided the main church up into five different congregations. I'm pastoring one of the new church plants that's meeting in a tent on Ngong Road.

Since about 65 percent of Nairobians live in the slums, we made a commitment that for every church we plant to reach out to an educated elite, like us at the Chapel, we would intentionally plant two churches that were unlike us, in the slum areas. So of the churches we have planted, seven or eight are like the Chapel, and the others are in the slums.

Is church leadership different in slum areas than it is in educated areas?
For me, planting churches among the university educated is easy. They are like me. I only need to be myself to be like them. The challenge comes when I cross the social divide of status and wealth. That's been hard.

My hope had been that we could be a multi-economic church, where the poor, the rich, and the middle class were together. But it's not turning out that way. Partly because of the location, partly because we communicate in English, partly because of what the different groups understand. When I deal with university students and the educated elite, I'm using statistical evidence, I'm quoting historic figures and world leaders, I'm citing books and movies.

Well, that doesn't work with the poor. They do not understand statistical references; they do not know who Einstein was; they do not understand a reference to a movie; they've rarely seen a movie. So the language of the educated elite excludes them. What they understand, what persuades them, are real-life stories and parables like Jesus told.

We have tried to develop a multi-economic church, but I've not been able to do that.

So how does the Chapel plant churches in poor areas?
I think of us as a Robin Hood, whose task is to take from the wealthy and give to the poor. So we find leaders who can speak the language of the poor, and we link the poorer churches with a richer, more educated church.

I have the responsibility to resource and enable the churches in the slums, and to develop ministries that will be a blessing to them, and to help my members have real presence in the slums as a result of our generosity. We recognize that we need one another and we are going to work together. It's not in the same gathering, but there is a relationship there.

That's not an ideal answer, but it is the real answer.

What's your role as leader in bridging the economic gap?
King David said he would be happy to be a gatekeeper in the temple of the Lord. I consider my role as gatekeeping. If you go to the Ritz-Carlton, there is a doorman there. He never actually stays in any of the rooms upstairs. But he directs everybody to those rooms and assists them if they need help. I see my ministry largely that way.

I am a doorkeeper at the Nairobi Chapel. My ministry is to open doors, particularly for the younger generation, to get where God wants them to be. There are a lot of young people who want to serve the Lord, but they're stuck. They don't have access to the power structures within the church, to resources, to networks, to opportunities, and so my task is to open doors for them.

If I meet anyone who would be a blessing to Jane, who leads our HIV/AIDS ministry, I get them together, open the door for Jane.

How do you keep from being consumed by all your multiplying ministries?
I can only oversee so much. I think it's Peter Drucker who said that the larger an organization becomes, the more it consumes resources internally.

Our church is descended from the Plymouth Brethren, a movement of very small congregations, usually 50 people or less, due to their lack of formalized leadership. They have a council of elders, but not official pastors or hierarchy. That means they can give away a remarkable percentage of what they collect.

The Plymouth Brethren originated among the educated elite in England. They didn't need pastors because they were all educated, all well trained. They didn't need well-developed structures, because many of them were tutored in running organizations. Their numbers were small, but if you look at impact on missions, the Plymouth Brethren were phenomenal.

I've taken this legacy to heart. The more I control centrally, the more resources we will need, but the less opportunity there will be for others to grow and become what they could become. If I'm going to have a lasting impact and legacy, I have got to be one who frees people, blesses them, gives them opportunity, opens up the doors, and releases them to go.

At the same time, in our culture people look up to leadership. So increasingly I have taken the role of father figure to many of these ministries.

Our government is introducing tax-free giving next year, so we're saying to many social service ministries our people have begun: "Use us. If you're independent, you may not have tax-free status. But under our umbrella, you will."

While I do not desire to control them, they want to be associated with me and with the Chapel.

What's your overall vision for the Chapel?
First, we want to bring a million people to Christ by the year 2020. This won't happen just by casual evangelism, member to member. That's important, but we need to do a lot more. That's why we're talking about radio, about education as a means of evangelism, about ministry to children.

Kenya's average lifespan has dropped from 47 to 40 as a result of HIV/AIDS. I'm over 40; I'm living on borrowed time, so to speak. And 50 percent of the continent of Africa, of our 850 million people, is under the age of 15. Without a strong children's ministry and youth ministry, there's no future.

In many churches the bulk of resources go toward adult ministries. How can we construct a church that turns this upside down? In these ways we want to lead a million people to faith.

How do you keep count?
One way might be to give a Bible to each convert, then keep track of the Bibles, and see how well we're progressing. The numbers give us a target, but they are not sacrosanct. We're after more than conversions.

What else are you after?
We want to disciple at least 100,000 of those new converts into positions of power and authority. We call them the Daniels and Esthers who will be in the king's court. At the last election, we encouraged our members to seek political positions. Two of our members won seats in Parliament.

In our poorly governed nation, where there is so much massive poverty, we cannot shy away from politics. We have to get into positions of authority and power.

Also, many of our members are in business and industry. We've got to encourage them to rise to the top and to work hard at changing the way business is done, so it is favorable towards the poor also.

Where does the vision to plant churches come in?
We have a commitment to plant 300 churches. We want half of those to be in Nairobi. Then 60 in other parts of Kenya, 30 in East Africa: Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Then about 30 elsewhere on the continent of Africa, and 30 off the continent of Africa.
How do you plant churches internationally?
Getting visas is hard for Africans. In fact, I was supposed to come here to Urbana with five university students. But the United States denied them visas. Crossing borders is difficult.

One answer is the refugee highway. We don't cheer displaced people movements, but if you look at the gospel over the centuries, refugees—persecuted, migrant people—have been some of the greatest vehicles for the spread of the gospel. Jesus himself was a refugee, fleeing to Egypt and later coming back.

Another track is business—exporting the educated. I tell our members, "If you have reached the top of the ladder here, think about relocating overseas. Open up an opportunity for some of the younger people on the continent who are unemployed. You can go as a missionary."

This leads to the fourth point of our vision: to be a catalyst for missions. There was a time when the West would talk about "closed countries" to missions. They were never closed to Africans!

Africans are not looked on as colonialists or imperialists. Usually Africans enter a society at the lowest rank. We are non-threatening. We tend to be looked down upon. Jesus himself entered society at the most vulnerable point, as an infant, threatened, unwanted—a refugee. This tends to be the door that Africans use to enter communities around the world.

Americans don't do missions that way. Americans always enter from the top. Because they're well resourced, they represent a majority culture. If you try to enter quietly into the city of Nairobi, we all know that you're there! But when I go into London, I can enter quietly—except for the police, people don't notice me. I think that actually puts us at an advantage in terms of the communities around the world that we can enter.

What must Americans learn, and unlearn, to be effective agents of God's mission in the world?
When you look at the Scriptures, Paul's model of missions is very different from the model of Western missions in the last 100 years. The West has designed a model of missions that only works for the West.

It depends on a monetary unit that is recognizable internationally, it depends on a strong economy that has a lot of disposable income, so that a lot of missionaries don't even go to the church for support. They go to the general community, to their networks of friends and family. In Kenya, you cannot support yourself that way as a missionary.

Likewise, Americans enter the economically depressed communities of the world with a lot of resources. They come and stay in hotels. Paul's model says, "Stay with whomever opens their door to you."

When I come to America, I depend on the goodwill of Christians in this country to open their doors, because I can't afford to stay in hotels. But when Americans come to Kenya, they prefer to stay in the hotels.

We are a very hospitable people. But we've found that Americans want their space. They want to be picked up from a hotel in the morning and be dropped back in the evening. And they can afford to pay for their space. They can afford to eat what they want. They can, in a sense, travel with a little bubble of America around them.

But the two-thirds world cannot afford this model. In my own country, until recently, when you left the country, you had to pay an airport tax, collected in U.S. dollars. I'm not even out of my country, and they are refusing my money! And if I pull out my money in this hotel here, they wouldn't know what to do with it. But you pull out the greenback anywhere around the world, and they're happy to take it!

So what is the alternative model of missions?
Well, Paul presents a model that depends on hospitality. When Africans come into the U.S., they go where they can find hospitality. The second largest population of Sudanese in the world is in Minneapolis—St. Paul. When a Sudanese comes into American with no money, that's the first place he goes. Sure enough, he will know somebody, and he can depend on that network of hospitality.

So we want to be a catalyst in missions, to wake up the African church and say, "We may not be able to use the model of missions that the West has used, but we have other models." We can design new models that do not depend on money. We have our ways of getting into countries, our ways of surviving in those countries, of enabling one another.

And what's your vision for you personally?
A legacy of leaders. As a young pastor I was struck by the passage that says, "David was faithful to his own generation." But Psalm 71, titled a psalm of David, says, "Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare your power to the next generation." David was not living just for his own generation. He was living for the next generation.

So as a church, we want to impact the next generation, to develop young leaders. That's why we planned for five young leaders to come to Urbana with me—if they had been granted visas! It's important that we continually invest in the next generation.

Your church has a huge vision. How can churches in the West help? We're used to sending short-term mission teams over to paint walls …
Yes, and after you leave, we repaint many of the walls that you painted! (Laughter.)

Okay, seriously, do short-term mission trips help?
They work for the West; they don't work for us very well. We don't call them "short-term missions" any more. We call them "short-term learning opportunities." The problem with calling it a mission is that it implies an agenda. There's something I need to come and do for you, or to you, to better your life. In reality that doesn't happen in two weeks. Life is far too complex for that.

The greatest benefit is that you come and you learn. Unfortunately, not enough short-termers are listening to the two-thirds world, who receive them.

Americans tend to be very poorly informed about the world. America generates enough news on its own that its news organizations don't have space for international news. Yet America exports so many movies and so much news that everybody around the world knows about America, whereas American knows about nobody.
So what happens when there is an interchange?
As a Kenyan I was quite familiar with American long before the first time I came here. The culture shock for me is minimal. But Americans know almost nothing about Kenya. And so the culture shock when they come is very deep. Some of them see destitute poverty for the first time ever.

When you see poverty in America, on your television, it is sanitized. But the first marker of poverty is that it smells. That's how you know real poverty: the smell. I have watched short-term missioners come in, and I've realized, Oh boy, we need to go and debrief quickly. Because they're weeping, they're broken, they have an immense sense of guilt. This is more about them than it is about what they came to do.
Are such "learning experiences" the best use of our resources?
The problem for Americans is that if a church isn't doing these things, it isn't cool, and the youth program isn't cool. So there's a lot of pressure for all youth programs to do this. Short-term experiences have their place, but they need to be more carefully constructed. All too often a church says, "We'd like to come for a short-term experience."

Then they say, in so many words, "We're going to do A, B, C, D, and we're in charge."

We want to say, "Guys, you're coming as our guests."

Do you know that when the President of the United States travels, his people take over all the security of the nations he travels to? When he came to East Africa, the airports were completely taken over by Marines. The local policemen were moved out. The attitude was We don't trust you. Your people could be terrorists. We'll do things our way.

Short-term missions tend to be like that: they come and completely take over the agenda, the programs, the life of the church. But that's not the way you visit a friend.

Besides bringing an agenda, what tends to distinguish the American personality?
Americans have two great things going for them culturally. One is that Americans are problem-solvers. Every time I come to the U.S., I like to spend a couple hours in a Wal-Mart. I find solutions to problems that I never thought of!

The rest of the world, even Europe, isn't so intent on solving inconveniences. We tend to live with our problems. In America you almost never go into a house where the sinks have two taps, a cold water tap and a hot water tap, because that means you have to mix the water in the sink to get it to the right temperature. You have these single faucets that mix the water before it comes out. It makes perfect sense. But that's a problem the rest of the world wouldn't even think to solve.

Americans don't easily live with a problem—they want to solve the problem and move on. The rest of the world is more willing to live with the problems.

The second great thing for Americans is that your educational system teaches people to think and to express themselves. So a child who talks and asserts himself in conversation is actually awarded higher marks than the one who sits quietly.

How are these traits seen, say, in Africa?
Those two things that are such great gifts in the home context become a curse when you go into missions. Americans come to Africa, and they want to solve Africa. But you can't solve Africa. It's much too complex for that. And that really frustrates Americans.

And the assertiveness you are taught in school becomes a curse on the field. I often say to American missionaries, "When the American speaks, the conversation is over." The American is usually the most powerful voice at the table. And when the most powerful voice gives its opinion, the conversation is over.
So what should talkative, problem-solving Americans do?
I tell Americans: "We're going into this meeting. Don't say anything! Sit there and hold your tongue." When you sit around a table, the people speaking always glance at the person they believe is the most powerful figure at the table. They will do that with you when you're the only American. And at some point, they will ask you: "What do you think?"

Don't say anything. If you say anything, reflect back with something like "I have heard such wisdom at this table. I am very impressed." And leave it at that. Affirm them for the contribution they have made. Don't give your own opinion.

Americans find that almost impossible. They do not know how to hold their tongue. They sit there squirming, because they're conditioned to express their opinions. It's a strength at home, but it becomes a curse on the field.

In a sense western missions has been marked by that. But isn't it strange that Jesus not only entered society incarnate at the weakest point, as a defenseless child who needed the care of his host community, but he also told his disciples: "Do not go with money; do not go with a second pair of shoes; go in a stance of vulnerability; be dependent on the communities you visit"? Isn't it interesting that for 30 years he doesn't speak out; doesn't reveal himself; he remains quiet, and only after 30 years of listening and learning the culture does he begin to speak.

So how can Americans communicate well with Africans?
When we communicate in Africa, we are very guarded in what we say. We don't want to offend. Westerners say that Africans never tell you what they really think. They tell you what you want to hear. And yes, that's true! Because from our perspective, every engagement between two people always has the potential of leading to a lifelong relationship, or preventing a lifelong friendship.

Africa is a very relational continent. It's the relationships that make society work.

In the U.S. things work irrespective of relationships; in fact, if you have a relationship, it can sometimes work against you. In Africa it's the opposite. So we are always guarded and gracious in our communication. We want to guard the relationship. When the Bible says, "Speak the truth in love," we err on the side of love. The possibility of a relationship means I cannot tell you the total truth until I am secure in this relationship with you, until I know that the truth will not hurt this relationship.

You do it differently. Speaking the truth has a higher premium in your context, so you are unguarded. You speak the truth, call a spade a spade, at whatever cost. And if the relationship suffers, well, that's too bad, the important thing is that the truth was spoken.

We never do that. I've had to learn to be more assertive in my dealings with Americans just so they would hear me! I have had to learn to speak truth more directly. Americans have to learn to listen to the relational side of things.

Your church has developed some deep partnerships with churches in the United States. What have been the key ingredients of those partnerships?
In each of these churches it's been important to find a bridging relationship—someone who comes in quietly, speaks slowly, is a good listener, and is trying to learn.

Many churches in America have been inspired to think about the needs of the world, but they may not know of anyone who can play that role. How does a church in North America cultivate those kinds of people?
There are several starting points. First, many churches should start with cross-cultural opportunities nearby. The most important is the racial divide. The tensions that govern that divide, things left unsaid, presumptions, stereotyping, are the same as at the international level. But at the international level they're more easily disguised so that you think they don't exist. Whereas here, in the racial divide, you know they exist, they're the elephant in the room, and you know they have to be brought up at some point, otherwise the conversation isn't really going anywhere. So I think that's actually the first crosscultural training ground.

A second would be internationals who have come to live in America. They are wonderful bridges. They understand Third World perspectives. They can be your "consultants."

The third approach is to send individuals. We have an exchange program with Chapel Hill Bible Church in North Carolina and with Elmbrook Church in Wisconsin, where we exchange our budding leaders to serve on the pastoral staff for one year. After that year in another culture, they come back and become a bridge person. That exchange gives those individuals the gift of seeing that the world doesn't always work from your cultural perspective. If you send us a young leader, we will do all we can to ensure that he doesn't incarnate into the missionary community in Nairobi, but that he incarnates into the African community! A year is a short time, but when those leaders go back, they can think biculturally.

Are there enough such churches in Africa to handle this level of partnership? I'm afraid once we publish this article, you'll be overwhelmed with churches wanting to do this with you.
In the whole continent of Africa there are increasingly more. What you need to become bicultural is a mentor, someone you can sit with on a weekly basis who will help you begin to understand our world from our perspective. It doesn't have to be a church like the Chapel; it could be a church in the slums that partners with a church like ours. In a cosmopolitan place like Nairobi, where so many have traveled overseas, there are countless potential mentors. And in the whole of Africa, there are multitudes of such churches.

The task we at the Chapel have is to say to other churches, wake up, there's a golden opportunity here to craft a new model of missions. So come, learn with us. There is enormous potential for us all to learn together.

Posted on May 1, 2007
[Christianity Today International]

An adoption story

2008-09-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

In September of 2007 I spent almost a month in Uganda with a team of people preaching, doing door to door evangelism, and running a soccer camp for boys and girls aged from 8-18. The camp was designed as a tool to help pastors learn to relate to the kids in a personal way for the purpose of growing them as disciples.

Upon my return I was presented with a card from my family. It read, "Congratulations! It's a Boy!" Inside it announced that Kristi had begun the inquiry into adoption, an adoption from Uganda. This was a huge leap of faith for her, and my eyes flooded with joy to see her excitement.

Another team returned from Uganda in the late winter of 2008 and came home bringing news that the orphanage in Busia had opened for business and that children were already being placed there. By Spring we had found out that there was a three year old boy ready for us to bring home. As we were awaiting word on his medical testing I continued to ask Kristi some what if questions, like "What if he has a sibling? or more than one sibling?" I even scheduled a lunch with Jill to discuss the possibility and to try to persuade Kristi to consider bringing home more than one. Kristi was pretty confident that adopting one was already a cliff dive for her and that multiple children would be too much for her.

In June a miscommunication occurred that led us down a life changing path. Jill called us to inform us that the three year old boy had a sibling, a five year old sister. I hesitantly called Kristi to break the news. I knew that she would be upset. I knew that she could not bring that little boy home and leave his sister. Within a day she had made the resolution that we would bring them both home.

Within two weeks of that news we discover that the original three year old did not have a sibling, and that this pair of siblings was another three year old boy and his sister. However, because of the heart wrenching decision we had already made we remained committed to bring home two children, a three year old brother and his big sister.

Another curve ball was served up in July as we received word that the paternal grandfather was unwilling to relinquish guardianship. Because of the issues with communication we have remained unclear as to the grandfather's intention. Tomorrow we hope to hear for sure what his intention happens to be.

This has also caused us to create a Plan B, which happens to involve adopting the original three year old and another five year old girl.

Now I find myself in amazement asking, "Did God use the miscommunication and confusion to help change Kristi's heart so that we'd eventually bring the original three year old home with another Ugandan child?" Either way this is going to end up being a great story.

To Him who is able to do exceedingly more than we can imagine...to Him be the glory. AMEN

The Inspiration for 18 Dollars

2007-11-07T17:24:00.001-08:00

Eva, a 20-something single mother of Savage, a fun loving 4 year old Ugandan.

Here's her story...

Once upon a time in Uganda there lived a girl named Eva. Eva ran the restaurant at the Cool Palace motel whose main business came from men staying the night with the woman they had bought for the night. Eva's story began before she was even an afterthought. It turns out that Eva's mother was married and her husband died. As was the tribal custom the clan leaders got together after the funeral and decided that Eva's mother's brother in law (her dead husband's brother) should now be responsible for her wellbeing. Eventually one thing leads to another and the brother in law sleeps with Eva's mom, and was now considered to be his second wife. Eva's mother eventually conceives, and gives birth to Eva much to the first wife's displeasure. Eva's stepmother oppressed Eva's mother to the point that it made living with her daughter an unbearable situation. So, Eva's mother moved out and left Eva to be cared for by her father and stepmother. Since widows in Africa are among the poorest people in the world it was the logical place to leave her daughter.

As a young girl Eva was invited to attend church, and remembered accepting Christ at a young age. Eventually Eva came home and tried to talk to her father and stepmother about Jesus, and eventually Jesus had worn out His welcome. So, Eva was forbidden to return to church. Over the years the church ban would be lifted and re-instituted until it's final time while a youth. At the age of 18 Eva began to go clubbing, started drinking, and met a handsome man, a prince, so she thought. She was eventually seduced, and she conceived a child. After informing her prince Eva was informed that the prince was already married, and in fact married with children. The prince, turned toad, and left Eva to fend for herself. In the mean time Eva's stepmother saw it as her opportunity to finally rid herself of the reminder of her husband's other woman, and moved Eva's father to remove Eva from the home so that she would not corrupt their other children. So, to the street she went. In Uganda there is no such thing as child support, no such thing as government housing, or shelters for women and children. Since she had no recourse against the father of the child in her womb Eva left Jinja, and moved to be with a cousin in Busia. It was at this moment that Eva made an agreement with God. She cried out to Him and pledged her undying faithfulness and even if He were to take the child that she would carry for nine months she would be faithful to Jesus.

In time she found a church that nurtured her new faith and a job. She made a small wage by cooking for a restaurant. This afforded her to rent a decent one room apartment which consisted of a concrete floor and four walls. As the months went by she prayed that God would somehow make a way for her to afford the hospital bills she would incur when her baby was born. The months went by and it came time for her to give birth. She worked all day long and upon laying down to rest for the night the labor pains began, and before she could yell for help there came a tremendous rain storm. The rain was so heavy and the noise was so deafening as it hit the tin roof that no one could hear her screaming in pain as she, by herself, gave birth to her firstborn son on a concrete floor. As soon as Savage, meaning survivor, was born the rain miraculously stopped. And she gave praise and glory to God for sending the storm, so that no one could hear her cry. Odd, you say? Why praise? You see, she had delivered a healthy baby boy without the need of a hospital, and so the bills miraculously never materialized. Savage is now four years old, and he gives the warmest of hugs.

Amazing, but we've still not reached how I came up with the question. So, Eva's story continues. In Uganda there is no minimum wage, and so if you don't sell anything then there is no check. And in a 3rd world country it's not uncommon to go days or even weeks without income. On the last day that four of our team members were there Eva received a tip. To the giver I'm sure it may have seemed like a small gift. It was barely a calculable percentage of the expenses she would incur on her journey. Unbeknownst to the person giving the gift Eva had just been told by her landlord that if she didn't come home that day with three months of back rent that she should expect to be thrown into the street along with her son that evening. That may not sound like a big deal, but Busia is not a beloved little village on the edge of Uganda, but can be a very dangerous place for a beautiful 20-something. The night before Eva remembered her agreement with God and fought a tremendous temptation to steal what she needed from the restaurant's take. She resisted the temptation, refused to take the money and instead prayed long into the night to be delivered from her circumstances. The next morning an unsolicited tip made a life altering impact in the life of a mother and her child. When she realized what had been given to her she rejoiced not in the giver of the gift, but in the Lord in whom she placed her trust. You see she needed exactly 30,000 shillings to escape eviction.
The tip was exactly 30,000 shillings.
30,000 shillings translated into about $18.00.
Rent was $6 a month.

As I reflected on that story and many others like them from my experience in Uganda I was blindsided by the question. I couldn't get away from the question. It has infected everything I think about and has gained control of many of my decisions. Now I want to warn you that this question seems simple and harmless, but as I take you through the question I think you'll see that it can do serious harm to your current way of life.

So, finally the life altering question...are you ready? Here it goes...

"What could, should, would you do with $18.00?"

And so this blog is dedicated to a woman who must live by faith, and to her son.

It is here to challenge people to live simpler, give up more, and take money in $18.00 increments and change a life.

On the posts that follow we'd like to hear what you did, or what God was able to do, with $18.00, or in some cases multiples of $18.00 (10 multiples of 18 would be $180.00). We can suggest some places to check out, but in the end we just want you to do something.

Note that we will moderate comments so yours won't appear immediately, but should within a day or two.

Some other places to visit and support include:

www.ijm.org (Frees people from oppression, especially child sex slaves, and rehabilitates them)

www.tomsshoes.com (Donate a pair, or buy a pair and donate a pair to a child)

www.compassion.com (Support a child in poverty)

www.worldconcern.org (An international relief agency)

www.worldvision.com (or go here to donate to Bangladesh Cyclone relief)
(Free Josh Groban Christmas CD for giving $25)

www.promisekidsafuture.com (Actually support an orphan in Uganda, or adopt one)

www.bloodwatermission.com (Jars of Clay ministry to clean the blood and water in Africa)

www.harmonychristianchurch.com