Worthwhile?

Once again, I find myself blessed with an incredible team of 11 other people who are doing a fantastic job of loving the kids of Hermano Pedro. Each one of them has shown great wisdom in embracing children who most need their love and attention, and I am truly grateful to God for bringing them here.

Today, after a wonderful worship service at Iglesia del Camino, we had lunch with my friends, the Derstines, who recently moved here to minister. It was great to hear about their transition and God’s direction on their lives. Then they accompanied us to Hermano Pedro where we orchestrated another “jail break” and gathered the kids in the courtyard for fun, balloons, and bubbles. By late afternoon we had liberated 27 children who had a great time.

  At one point during this time, I walked through the two wards that are next to the courtyard. During that stroll, I realized that there were still 32 children in their cribs. At that point, I faced a choice…do I try to bring more children outside or do I simply focus on giving attention to the ones who are already out? I realized that the greatest needs of all these children were not fresh air and sunshine, but rather love and attention. So, I chose to sit down and love the children who were already out.

I confess, I still don’t know if I made the right choice. I guess the answer would change depending on which child you asked. The few children I ended up holding would likely say my decision was right, while the ones left in their cages would undoubtedly say I was wrong. Regardless of the correctness of my actions, there were a lot of children who spent the afternoon in loneliness. And remember, those 32 children of which I speak only represent the ones in those two wards. It doesn’t account for the little ones in the malnutrition ward, the ladies’ ward or the men’s ward. There are around 240 residents of Hermano Pedro, which means there were around 213 to whom we did not give our attention today.

Add to that the awareness that Hermano Pedro is just one of many orphanages in Guatemala filled with children who need attention. And there are very few people who are actually trying to reach out to them.

All of this has left me feeling overwhelmed and very ineffective. Even with the great team of people with which I am working this week, we are only making a small ripple in a very large ocean. Is it even worth it?

But, of course, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” It is worth it. I know, because I saw the value in the faces of the children that made it to the courtyard today. For Delmi, Beberly, Ervin, Big Melvin, Louis Andreas, Patricia, Roberto, Diego, and 19 others it was definitely worth it. And tomorrow we will go back and make it worthwhile for more.

And, while we do, we will pray for more and more Christ-followers to come to this place and others like it and make it worthwhile for more and more children. And maybe, eventually, there will be no more children left in cages. Oh, please Lord, let this dream become reality! Let you kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!

My Heart vs. My Head

I once again find myself in Guatemala among the children I love. I am here leading a team of 11 other people and helping them develop a passion for some of the things that are so important to God. And I absolutely love it. Once again I am blessed with a group of people who love Jesus and who have walked right in, rolled up their sleeves, and started loving children. It is a wonderful thing to watch.

At the same time, this current trip has left me with an internal battle like never before. It was nearly a year ago that we recognized God’s call to move to Guatemala and begin a group home for children with special needs, and it has been an intense and busy year. We have placed our home on the market, sold most of our possessions, spent time fundraising, planning, and praying. And now we still find ourselves waiting to sell our home. As a result, we are still waiting to move.

And, with my return to Guatemala, I find myself asking God a simple question. “How long, Lord? How long until we can finally move and begin this calling?” I think this question has become especially strong this time because I am here without any of my family. Over the last few trips I have been able to bring Wanda with me. And the last trip I had the privilege of being here with Wanda, Brittney, and Krishauna. This time, I am here without any of the family that shares my passion for these little ones. In addition, seven of our ten children have never been here, even though they already have learned to love the children through our photos, videos, and stories. And that is hard.

We have always been a family that has embraced ministry and calling together, and that is true for our call to Guatemala. But at the present, ministering in Guatemala is only done by a few of us. I can’t tell you how badly I long to be here in this country as a family caring for these kids. And that desperate longing has led me to that haunting question. “How much longer, Lord?”

Now, before you begin to preach to me, I know what you are going to say. But you don’t need to say it. I know that God is good, and I know that He is trustworthy. I know that His timing is perfect and that He will fulfill this calling in us at just the right time. I know that He will do it in the way and time that is best for us. I know all these things…in my head.

But my head is not the only part of me. I also have a heart with a very big mouth! And it will not shut up since our plane touched down in this wonderful and horrible country. It is demanding its own way and insisting that the best timing is right now. (Actually, it is saying six months ago, but since that didn’t happen it will take the next best thing…NOW!) I have repeatedly told it to shut up and have preached the above mentioned sermon to it. But that big mouth keeps shouting me down.

So, one more time before lying down to sleep I will allow my head to preach to my heart:

God IS good

He IS trustworthy

His timing IS perfect

He WILL fulfill this calling in us

And He WILL do it in the way and time that is best for us

Now, close your big flapping gums, heart! I’m going to sleep!

Volcanoes and Tropical Storms

Although the media coverage has been very sketchy, I am sure that most of you have heard about the double dose of natural disasters that have recently hit Guatemala. Last Thursday the volcano Pacaya erupted, spewing lava a kilometer into the air. The resulting cloud of ash quickly began to settle on Guatemala City leaving up to three inches of black soot in some areas. This is especially significant to us since we will be living close to Pacaya when we move there.

This was quickly followed by tropical storm Agatha, which dumped as much as 15 inches of rain in parts of Guatemala. The resulting floods and rock and mud slides have resulted in 150 deaths with 100 still missing. Over 1,800 Guatemalans are now displaced and living in shelters. In addition, the rain turned the ash into a black mud and caused the ash still in the air to mix with the rain and fall as black, slimy drops. Streets were slick with the mix, resulting in numerous car accidents.

Guatemala City’s airport was shut down for five days and reopened on Tuesday. This has left several of our friends in a difficult situation. Don and Melissa Derstine and their family were scheduled to move to Guatemala on Friday. Due to the shut-down of air traffic their flight was rescheduled for June 7th. Scott and Melissa Davis were in the states visiting family and are still waiting to return to their home. Numerous teams that were schedule to fly in and assist with various ministries had to reschedule or cancel their trips.

On a positive note, I have spoken with most of our friends in Guatemala and was relieved to hear that they are all okay. Dick Rutgers has assured me that all of the kids in Hermano Pedro along with he and his boys are fine. Steve Osborn from Amor del Nino reports that they survived the weekend without power and water and all of the children are doing great (although a significant portion of their back yard was washed down the mountain along with a couple of large trees). I just received an e-mail from Mayra Garcia and found out that she, her family, and the kids at Kairos Christian School are okay.

When we received the news of these events our entire family had the same response…we all wished we were there to help. We already consider Guatemala our home, and it is filled with so many friends and children whom we love deeply. Our frustration concerning the sale of our home has grown, and we just want to be there. Combine this with the knowledge of these recent hardships and you will find that we have reached “critical mass.”

So, please pray for Guatemala:

1. Pray for the families of the dead and missing.
2. Pray for the families whose homes were destroyed and who are now living in temporary shelters.
3. Pray that Pacaya will stay calm and allow the airport to remain open so that teams can get in to help.
4. And pray that our home will sell soon so we can make our move to Guatemala.

Turning Over Tables

I recently attended an event that was held in a large church. As we were sitting in the pews waiting for the service to begin, I took some time to notice their facilities and equipment. The stage was immense, likely 50 foot wide, and there was a huge decoration on the front wall that promoted missions. In large wooden letters were the words, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” and this was accompanied by a huge wooden relief of the earth. I don’t know how much that display cost, but I found myself wondering how many lives could have been saved and how many people could have heard about Jesus with the money that was spent on it.

I walked back through their multi-million dollar building and saw their 64 channel sound board, their television quality cameras and multi-media system, the numerous large flat-screened televisions scattered throughout, and the enormous wooden cross suspended over the foyer with recessed lighting attached. I approached one of the church’s many greeter stations and examined some of the paperwork that was lying on it. There was a prayer guide for the congregation that listed ten ways to pray for the church. Of those ten ways, eight of them involved church finances. The members were encouraged to pray for God’s provision, that those who had made financial commitments would fulfill them, that those who had not made commitments would do so, etc.

And as I observed all this, I found myself asking what Jesus would say about it all. That is a hard question to answer, especially by those who are imbedded in the culture of the west. We have come to see such facilities as a sign of God’s blessing on a ministry and an acceptable part of the American church. And, while most churches do not have such elaborate facilities, most have bought into this mindset to some degree or another. Western Christians spend money and they tend to spend most of it on themselves and their comforts.

In light of both scripture and the incredible needs of the world around us, I believe this to be sin. And I believe that sin needs to be addressed because it is distorting the name of Jesus and leading people to hell. But how do we do this? I do not want to be a harsh, condemning, finger-pointing person. I want to be known, above all else, as a person who loves Jesus and who loves others. At the same time, I don’t want to fail to shout a warning from God loudly enough and enable the travesty to continue.

Recently I have heard from some believers in my life who told me that they feel like harshness should not be a part of the message, but that it should be conveyed with hope and love. I don’t disagree with that, but I do question what real hope and love looks like. Is it simply wrapping the message in gentleness and a soft tone? Is it to always give words of encouragement, never criticism? Is it to say it with a smile on your face or tears in your eyes?

How does this fit with the person of Jesus? There is no doubt that He was the perfect incarnation of both hope and love. Was His words always soft, encouraging, and gentle? I don’t believe so. When addressing the religious establishment of His day he pulled no punches. Using words such as “whitewashed tombs”, “brood of vipers”, and “Woe unto you” he confronted the religion that had become so distorted as to misrepresent God and drive people away. He was also know to get physically violent at times, overturning tables and driving animals and their sellers out of the temple with a whip. Do these instances show Jesus to be unloving or reveal Him as the perfect incarnation of love?

Both the Old and New Testament are filled with prophetic words of harshness which seek to warn and turn people from sin to repentance. And the harshness was love’s attempt to spare the people from the consequences toward which they were headed. (If your child were preparing to walk in front of a moving car and I screamed loudly for him to stop, would you see me as unloving and berate me, or would you recognize it as love and thank me?

Please understand, I am unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as my Jesus. And in no way do I claim to be a prophet. I don’t have all the answers, nor do I come close to perfection in living out God’s Word. At the same time, I have been given a very unique opportunity to gain a world-wide view that has helped me to see some obvious truths from Scripture that are most often ignored or missed by many western believers. And, in light of that, I am convinced that the church in America is walking over a cliff and taking others with them. There are deep and profound problems within the church-at-large that extend to its very foundation. These problems manifest themselves through poor priorities that cause us to ignore the needs of the world around us while focusing on our own desires. We build facilities while ignoring Isaiah 58, James 1:27, and Matthew 25:31-46, and we wonder why God is not blessing and reviving us. Meanwhile, the world around us hears our words and sees our lives and recognizes the contradiction. So they turn away from the truths of scripture we preach because we are failing to care about the world for which Christ died to save.

So, I am haunted with how to issue the warning. I want to do it in with love, and I want to do it effectively. Somehow the warning must be shouted. The western church must be awakened or it will perish. It is time to start turning over tables.

The Value of a Single Life

What is the value of one single life? I think that is a worthwhile question to ask. In a society which seeks to put a dollar amount on everything, it certainly seems that we are placing less and less value on human life while increase the value of the temporary trappings which surround us. So, let’s try to put a price tag on a human life.

Of course, in order to do that we first need to ask, “On whose life are we placing this value?” Is it your life? Is it your spouse’s life? Or one of your children’s lives? Or a friend? A coworker? A neighbor? Or is it just a stranger across town or on the other side of the world? Face it, most of us would apply a different price tag based upon our relationship with the person to whom we assign the value. Is there any amount that would be too much to spend to save the life of your spouse or child? Would you assign the same value to a friend, co-worker, or neighbor? Probably not.

But, for the sake of this article, let’s assume that we are talking about a person whom you have never met who lives in a remote village in Uganda. And, for further consideration, we will say that it is a little girl name Charinda who is eight years old. How much is her life worth? Ten dollars? Fifty dollars? One hundred? One thousand? Come on… push has come to shove and you have been contacted and informed that Charinda is sick and will die without medical treatment, and you are the only source of funding. How much would you be willing to spend to save this little girl’s life? Would you be willing to spend anything at all? Would you be willing to send $20.00 or $1000.00? Would you be willing to empty your bank account?

I ask these questions because the value we place on the life of a stranger is the true value we place on life in general. It has nothing to do with the value we place on our spouse or children. It has no bearing on the price tag we assign to friends or co-workers. Those things are determined by the value we place on the relationship which we have with them, not life. So, what is Charinda’s life worth to you, and how do you decide that price tag?

For most people the answer would be, “The amount that I can give without making a significant sacrifice.” They may not say this out loud, but the way they live shows it. That explains why recent fundraising efforts for The Red Cross’ work in Haiti was so successful. The drive was based upon giving $10.00 by using the text feature on your cell phone. Who could not afford to give $10.00? And who would choose not to, especially when you don’t even have to mail a check? So, help was sent and lives were saved because millions of people gave so little that they wouldn’t miss it. And that is fine, I guess. But what happens when millions aren’t ready to respond? What happens when the response depends of the sacrifices and giving of a few?

Which brings us back to Charinda. What would you give and give up to keep her alive? Is she worth a night at the movies? Is she worth your cable television? Is she worth a decision to swear off name brand clothing and shoes? Is she worth settling for a smaller home or older car? Is she worth denying your children a few luxuries so she can have a few necessities? 

These questions are challenging, even haunting. I have been asking them of myself a lot recently, and I think it would be valuable for every believer to ask and answer them. Because the simple truth is that the answers we give to these questions determines the real value we place on life.

So…how much is a life really worth to you?

The Cure for More…and a Dare

Whenever I write or speak about materialism, I am frequently asked the same question. “So, are you saying we should give everything away and live in poverty?” And the answer to that is, “Yes, some of us should.”

There is no doubt that scripture indicates that is a viable option for some people. That was Jesus’ instructions to the rich young ruler in Luke 18 because he was owned by his wealth and Christ longed to see him set free. However, I don’t believe that is the prescription for most American believers. Rather, I believe the answer for most of us is found in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15:

13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, 15 as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."

There is no doubt that here in America most of us have more than we need, even if the typical person does not think so. Credit spending and the drive more more stuff has brought many families to the brink of financial collapse, but it is usually not because they did not have enough. Instead, most of these desperate situations were created out of the desire for more and better possessions. In other words, if the typical family could learn to live modestly off their income they would have more than enough. And much of that excess could be used to provide for others in need.

How do we do this? By asking a couple of basic questions:

1. Do I really NEED that? – As our family has been preparing for our move to Guatemala we have sold a large amount of our possessions which we are now living without. And we realize that, at some point in the past, we really felt that we needed those things. We now realize that we did not. Even now as we wait for our house to sell we find ourselves confronted even more directly by the question of needs verses wants because we realize that most of what we buy now we will be unable to take to Guatemala with us. As a result, we are now working hard to purchase only consumables such as food and personal care products. This question has actually been a source of liberation for us, forcing our family to focus on what is really important.
2. Do I really need THAT? – This sounds like the same question, but the focus is not on what we need but instead on what we choose to purchase once we determine it is a need. In other words, we may determine that we need to purchase new jeans due to the deteriorated state of our old jeans. (This is an example for our older folks as the deteriorated status of jeans would raise their value for teens.) But when choosing what jeans to purchase do we really need the $50 - $120 name brand pair, or will the $20 off brand meet our need. (Or better yet, can we find a pair at Goodwill for $3.79?) Do we really need to use our limited resources for that little cloth label or stitching on the pocket? Often just by being smarter consumers we can save large amounts of money which could be used to make an eternal difference.

In the spirit of these two questions, I would like to present you with a dare to a type of spiritual fasting. I dare you to ask and live by these questions for the next month with the following commitments:

1. If you are planning to purchase something, first stop and ask yourself if your really NEED it. If the answer to that questions ends up being “No” then take half the amount you would have spent on it and give it to a ministry that will use it to make an eternal difference.
2. If you determine that you really do need it, before your purchase stop and ask if you really need THAT. Do your really need the name brand? Do you really need that large of a TV? Do you really need the pre-packaged meals? And if the answer is no, set aside half the savings to give to a ministry.

I dare you to try it for just one month. It might be a life-changing experiment for you and a life-saving experiment for someone else.

The Poverty of Abundance

I have recently had a chance to spend time with a rather materialist person. Of course, they would deny that they are materialistic. In fact, I have yet to meet someone consumed with obtaining “stuff” who would admit that they are materialistic. Their consumerism is always wrapped neatly in excuses and justifications in order to allow them to continue to purchase and obtain possessions while convincing themselves that they are not shallow and self-absorbed. Yet the symptoms are there and the disease is evident.

Materialism - ma·te·ri·al·ism - \mə-ˈtir-ē-ə-ˌli-zəm\ - a preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things.

As I spent time with this person it was very evident that she was seeking to fill emptiness in her life and bolster her self-esteem through her possessions. And my heart broke for her because I know the emptiness of her pursuit. I know that no matter how many electronic gadgets and toys she obtains and no matter how expensive and abundant her wardrobe becomes she will never fill the hole in her heart. In fact, the more she fills her life with stuff the emptier she will be.

One of the greatest things God has taught our family over the last year is the joy of sacrifice. As we downsize our lives in order to follow God’s call and touch a dying world we are finding freedom, peace, and joy. Contrary to the mindset of the materialist, the more we give up the less we fear and the happier we become. I believe there are several reasons for this negative correlation:

1. No matter how hard we work to convince ourselves otherwise, we all know in our hearts that longing for and obtaining physical possessions is investing in the fleeting and temporary things of life. The fancy new I-Pad of today will become the obsolete, archaic device in the garbage in a short while. The greatest fashions of today will one day end up in a yard sale or Goodwill tomorrow. The brand new beautiful car of today will one day sit in a junkyard somewhere. And when that happens we can never regain the work, time, and money we spent to obtain those things. God created us to be people of eternity and we will never be happy as long as we are spending most of our time investing in the temporary.
2. Our possessions tend to isolate and distract us from the needs of the world. We surround ourselves with toys, gadgets, clothes, vehicles, and homes and pretend that most of the world is like us. We use these things as distractions to keep from seeing the world as it truly is. But God made us to be world changers. So when we insulate ourselves from the world and invest in our own comforts instead of loving and helping a dying world, we will always end up feeling empty. And we will eventually end up resenting the very things that we thought would bring us peace and happiness.
3. Possessions take a lot of time to obtain, maintain, and manage. The more we have the more time we spend keeping up with the work those possessions bring. Soon, we find ourselves becoming slaves to our stuff. Romans 1:25 says that mankind “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…” That sounds like an accurate description of a materialistic person. God created us to be people of relationships. Yet the more we want and have, the less time we have to invest in the relationships we need.

And while we spend our time amassing and serving our possessions the world dies around us. So we waste huge portions of our lives and miss the mission for which God created us.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change, one step at a time, with God’s help. We can step off the hamster wheel of more, bigger and better, realizing that it is not getting us anywhere. We can say no to the counterfeit and temporary and embrace the real and eternal. We have to. The consequences to ourselves and the world are too great not to.

(More to come on this topic)