Join the Club

The only people you can really share certain things with in secret are your girlfriends.

Shirley Knight

            M@ggie looked down at the slip of paper in her hands three times before the taxi arrived. As she slid inside the waiting cab, she consulted the paper one more time to tell the driver the address with her new, but faltering language skills. The driver nodded in understanding then took off.

The ride was a bit harrowing, to say the least. Narrow alleys that M@ggie knew were not intended for cars were ventured down with oblivious speed. She cringed. What if they got stuck? How would they get out? Best not to think about it. Finally, the cab came to a stop. She had made it.

M@ggie paid and thanked the driver (and God for letting her survive!) then ventured to her friends door. Her friend, Anna, greeted her at the door.

“Welcome! Come in!” she exclaimed.

M@ggie was ushered into the home teeming with women from the community. They were having a birthday party today. It’s a happy celebration, and despite the language barrier, M@ggie was thrilled to have been invited. How exciting to meet new friends at a party!

A full course meal is served, and M@ggie was offered a chair. Since all the other women were sitting on the floor with their meals; however, M@ggie does so as well. The room filled with laughter and conversation. It’s fun to soak up the happiness in the room. M@ggie tried her best to follow the conversations while eating cautiously. She never knew when the food would be tear-inducing spicy, so she was careful. The jelly cubes floating in the punch were a tasty surprise.

M@ggie was able to respond to some discussions, but found herself doing a lot of nodding and smiling. It’s okay, though. Smiles almost never get lost in translation. They women enjoyed having her at their party, and she quickly realized that she had become the newest of this very special group.

Later on as M@ggie left the party and climbed aboard for another adventurous taxi ride, she thought about all the possibilities presented by her new friendships. She looked out the window at the packed alleyways exploding with life and smiled. There would be more parties and dinners and …

            The best was yet to come.

Check out this picture of M@ggie making a dessert with banana leaves! Her neighbor showed her how. Yum!

Prayer Points:

• Good conversations when they step out for language practice. That God would lead them to speak with the right people.
• That they would be sensitive to those who may be “persons of peace”: those who would be open to the Gospel. And, that God would prepare the hearts of those He wishes to call through J@ke&M@ggie.
• Protection from disease such as malaria and dengue. The rainy season has begun!

Chance Encounters

There are no chance encounters.

~Anonymous

Pointing to the lemons, J@ke holds up two fingers and tries his best to say “Two, please.” The shop owner nods and smiles placing two lemons in a bag and accepting the cash in J@ke’s outstretched hand. A small victory. M@ggie meets him at the edge of the market. Treasures in hand, they are ready to head home.

After a harrowing (but typical) car ride home they unload their groceries and wait until it’s time to visit their friend. This friend has also been a language learner in SE Asia. It’s not easy getting acclimated to this new life, but they’re doing it one day at a time.

During a wonderful visit with their friend, J@ke&M@ggie learn of a woman who could help them practice their language skills.

“Let me introduce you to my language helper,” their friend said. “She’s been a lifesaver for me.”

“We’d love to talk with her,” M@ggie said. “It’d be nice to get the extra practice.”

After introductions and arrangements had been made, J@ke&M@ggie found themselves on the way to the pharmacy. You see, the language helper works in the pharmacy. She invited them over to talk while she worked.

J@ke&M@ggie sat on the couch in the lobby while their language helper worked behind the counter. Her day was probably filled with typical pharmaceutical activities: measuring out prescriptions, calling doctors’ offices (who can ever read that handwriting?), and speaking with customers.

During these activities, she included J@ke&M@ggie. She spoke with them, answered their questions, and corrected their grammar. There’s something almost musical in the ease and generosity of the helper. It’s much more than multitasking.

Before long, the customers were joining in, eager to help their new neighbors learn the language. They were happy to give pointers and coax tentative conversation from our friends. Such a valuable encounter was so specifically orchestrated by God to meet their current language learning needs.

It’s so encouraging for me to hear about dozens of such “chance” encounters for our friends. As you’re praying for people, it’s good for the heart to see progress and victory in the lives of those you’re lifting up.

Join me in thanking God for these special encounters and direct answers to prayer. He hears our prayers and pays attention to our requests for our friends who are separated from us by thousands of miles and great oceans.

He is faithful.

Prayer Points:

• Good conversations when they step out for language practice. That God would lead them to speak with the right people.
• That they would be sensitive to those who may be “persons of peace”: those who would be open to the Gospel.
• Protection from disease such as malaria and dengue. The rainy season has begun!
• Patience and solutions for the everyday headaches of life (i.e., ant problems in the kitchen…)

Take time to remember J@ke&M@ggie in prayer during this Christmas season. Thank God for sending his people to love and give hope to those living in SE Asia, and pray for extra measure of His grace over J@ke&M@ggie. Merry Christmas!

Hear the Echo

Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth.

Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo.

Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightening.

 ~Barth

            I’m guessing that lately you’ve been talking a lot about the things for which you’re thankful. I have. It’s something we enjoy doing during our Thanksgiving holiday. Maybe each person at your Thanksgiving table told the things that make them feel thankful. Maybe you took the entire month of November and posted a different blessing on your Facebook page every day.

It’s easy to be thankful one day a year when your loved ones are gathered around your dining room table and everyone’s plates are piled high. Being thankful a few minutes a day for month is also pretty easy. It’s not hard for me to be thankful in November. Or even in December, for that matter.

I struggle to be thankful when everything (and I mean everything) is going wrong. Do you? There are some situations that make me want to crawl under my bed, not throw a party where I can feast on turkey with all my friends. That’s just the truth.

I bet you can relate. How many days this year have you wanted to wave the white flag? I don’t know. Maybe you haven’t felt that way at all. It could be an awesome year for you. I, however, have been begging for terms of surrender.

It’s interesting to me that at that desperate place of begging to “tap out” God’s grace likes to take root. When you have no more ideas or plans or strength and you just raise your hands in a sign of “I give up”, God’s grace pours out like a breached Hoover Dam. So, in those lowest of lows, I still find reasons to be grateful. When I can’t take it anymore, the outpouring of His grace turns my anxiety to singing. It’s a kind of cycle. One feeds the other.

I know it’s a little early to make New Year’s resolutions, but I think choosing to reach out and accept God’s grace every day then celebrate it in thankfulness is the goal we should make for 2015. Much more fruitful than resolving to run three miles every day, which, let’s be honest, is self-torture.

In the coming days, take time to recognize and receive God’s grace then enjoy it in thankfulness, knowing that the greatest measure of His grace comes when we’re at our worst moments. Embrace the cycle.

Prayer Points:

• Good conversations when they step out for language practice. That God would lead them to speak with the right people.
• That they would be sensitive to those who may be “persons of peace”: those who would be open to the Gospel.
• Protection from disease such as malaria and dengue. The rainy season has begun!

Let’s also thank God for the little victories they experience every day. Hearing their flight numbers in English, getting invitations to neighbors’ homes, making friends with a little boy. They can feel the influence of your prayers. Be encouraged and keep going!

Lost

   The greatest obstacle to international understanding is the barrier of language.

~Christopher Dawson

I love how television (with all its faults) has a way of helping us step inside another person’s experience. It can inspire empathy in us, if we let it. For example, I’ve been watching the show Lost recently. I know it’s an old show, but it’s still very good. They introduce you to each character by showing you glimpses of their lives before their plane crashed on a deserted island. Some characters are easy to empathize with. They were good people in their previous lives, so we feel bad that they are suffering now because of this crash.

Other characters, however, don’t inspire much empathy. In fact, it almost feels like justice that they’ve been wrecked onto this island. One such character is a Korean man named Jin. In his previous life, he started as a good man only to make bad decisions (read “criminal activity”) in order to impress his wife’s father. All it took was a few “decisions” for him become harden. He seemed to want out, but didn’t seem strong enough to leave the toxic situation in which he found himself.

Despite his violent criminal actions and seeming weakness to get out of the situation, he is a character with whom I empathize the most. Why? Jin only speaks Korean. Everyone else on the island speaks English. His wife speaks English and Korean, but they’re currently estranged (no wonder when you consider his past), so he does not even speak to her. Think about it. What would it be like to land on a tropical island without any way of communicating with anyone on the island? How do you survive?

Oh wait. I think I know a couple of people who can relate to Jin. Jake and Maggie’s full time job right now is learning the language. They wake up and go to class for two hours. Next, they try to practice what they’ve learned in the real world. Finally, they go home to quiz each other on new words and phrases. When they wake up the next morning, they do it all over again.

Jake and Maggie have been going at this pace for an entire month. And there is still frustration at not being able to pick up the language quick enough. They’re looking forward to going on a field trip to the market with their teacher. They’re working hard to be able to function in the daily chores of life, like grocery shopping. The next time you swing into Publix to pick up a few things for dinner, think of Jake and Maggie. It’s a much more complicated process for them to buy their groceries. The new language and new money system (a whole ‘nother bag of worms…) make simple chores monumental feats.

Let’s be sure as we pray for Jake and Maggie this week that we pray God unlocks the language for them. Maybe like a reverse Tower of Babel. He can give them the words and phrases and help them make sense of a language and money system that is completely foreign. Let’s also pray that, despite the language barrier, they will be able to communicate love to their neighbors, so they will not be lost.

Prayer Points:

• To understand and be able to use the language and money systems well.
• Continue to build friendships with the people around them.
• Protection from attacks from the enemy.

Noise Cancelling

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.

~Mother Teresa

            Think of some of the sounds that fill your day. What stands out? I’ll tell you some of mine: the chime of my alarm clock (unhappy), the buzz of a text message (happy), voices of friends and family members (happy), the obnoxious roar of motorcycles driving past my place (unhappy). I’m sure you can think of several. Maybe yours include the sound of your children’s laughter (happy) or the sound of their fighting—“Suzy hit me! (UNhappy).

Wonder what Jake and Maggie are hearing in their new home? For starters, a lot more car horns. Apparently, the rule of the roads over there is simply “go with the flow.” Instead of silly things like double yellow lines and, well, rules, they do things like honk and wave to indicate their direction of travel. I don’t know, but you probably have to honk a lot since there are tons of people riding scooters over there. Wonder if they have a safety motto? Maybe it would be “Save a life! Honk twice!”

There’s another new sound that Jake and Maggie are hearing nearly all day, every day. It’s the call to prayer. The mournful sound is blasted across the area from more than a dozen houses of worship. People all around them are being called to prayer to an unhearing god. One who cannot answer. This would qualify not only as an unhappy sound for me, but deeply heartbreaking. It is even more so for Jake and Maggie, as their hearts have already been filled with a passion for their neighbors.

The other day, Jake noticed something interesting. He found a way to turn down the noise of the call to prayer. When he takes time to listen to God, somehow all the background noise fades. As we seek to hear from the One True God, our ears are tuned to a quieter frequency, full of His whispers and slim on noise. This is what Jake and Maggie are experiencing.

Here’s what they hope. They hope you’ll join them in praying for the ears of their neighbors. Pray that God will break through the noise to whisper to their hearts. It’s God who stirs each of us. His call is never blasted over loudspeakers. He has more right than anyone to claim our complete, undivided attention. Instead, He employs that still, small voice to speak to our hearts. What is He speaking to yours today? Have you made time to listen? Hopefully, you can hear Him calling you to lift up Jake and Maggie’s neighbors.

Open their ears, Oh Lord. Please open their ears.

Prayer Points:

• Daily devotions to be rich, and insightful to remind them Who’s ultimately in control.
• The darts of the enemy are flying. Pray for protection each day, especially in their relationship to each other.
• Language learning is physically and mentally exhausting. May they have quickness in learning and make progress at an encouraging pace.
• Physical adaptation to a new climate, food, and water.
• Driving safety as they learn a new normal for driving

Three Souls on a Scooter

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.] To Him be glory forever! Amen (so be it).

Romans 11:36 (Amplified Bible [AMP])

            The more time I spend getting to know God, the more I enjoy learning the nuances of His heart. It will take an eternity to learn them all, so I never have to worry that the joyful pursuit will end. Something that intrigues me is the way He seems to use small, ordinary things and situations to show His deep love and unfathomable power.

I’m sure you can think of times when He’s done this in your own life. You’re running late, and the parking spot closest to the door suddenly opens up. You run out of the main ingredient for the casserole which forces you into a more creative (and delicious!) plan B. Or maybe you’ve just been in a place of gray discouragement. Somehow a picture of beauty (a rainbow, soaring eagle, laughter of a child…) appears right at the moment you need it.

Weird, huh?

I don’t know this for a fact, but sometimes I think God likes the little miracles as much as the big ones. Especially when our grateful hearts give Him the credit for them. He’s so full of goodness and grace and beauty and power and, and, and. It’s as if everything He is constantly spills out of Him, uncontainable. He can’t help Himself.

Our friends have experienced several mini-miracles since arriving in their new home. One such miracles has to do with the laundry. Really, can things get any more ordinary than that? Here’s what happened.

“Today I had a funny experience. My neighbor is real friendly, so I decided to ask her for help in finding a place to do our laundry. I didn’t want it to sound like I was asking her to do it, so our helper went to try and explain. Our neighbor speaks some English, and we finally understood one another. I thought it was close enough to walk, but it wasn’t. Before I knew it, our neighbor was on her scooter with her 4 year old son and wanted me to hop on the back with a big bundle of laundry. It’s been years since I was on a scooter! So of course I hopped on in my flip flops with no helmet for an adventure. Turns out the laundry is only about a half mile away. Our neighbor was a fine driver and will be a fine friend. In fact, she came over afterwards and spent a long time giving me new vocab words at her initiative. It was a good day.”

So, this obviously was about more than the laundry. God provided for their immediate needs (clean clothes!), but more importantly their emotional needs: a new friend. Not only that, but without having to ask, their new friend offered new vocabulary words to help them in the new and difficult task of learning the local language.

There He goes again. Spilling His love and grace out by answering not one, but three needs at once. All while, sending the wind flowing through hair on an ordinary scooter ride.

Prayer Points:

• Grace to settle into their new home.
• Able to abide in Christ even through the chaos of getting settled.
• Divine opportunities to connect with their new culture/people to take place as soon as they arrive.

* P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog, so you’ll get the latest updates sent straight to your email!

Just the Essentials

I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase.

Diane von Furstenberg

            I think we’ve all done it before. We’ve prepared and planned for a trip, possibly by making endless lists, only to realize (after you’ve reached the point of no turning back) that you’ve forgotten something essential.

I did it this past weekend. I went on a weekend retreat, and the night before I left my mother reminded me to not forget my cell phone charger. You know, of course, that meant the cell phone charger was the only thing I ended up leaving at home. Great.

The strange thing, however, was the fact that my cell phone battery lasted the entire weekend. Even when I forgot to ask others if I could borrow a charger, it wasn’t a problem. My battery lasted until I got home.

Besides the fact that this was a miracle, it made me think about what is truly essential. Obviously, that charger was not necessary. It wasn’t needed even once, so I guess I was wrong in thinking it was crucial.

I find that I do this a lot in my spiritual life. I gather a lot of spiritual “clutter” rather than boiling things down to the true essentials. It seems my idea of what’s essential and God’s idea is not always the same. He always knows exactly what I need, and He doesn’t need to rely on lists scribbled out on legal pads.

This past week, Jake and Maggie crammed their entire lives into four suitcases. Personally, I think this feat deserves a round of applause. I mean, just look around your own house and try not to have a panic attack thinking about eliminating everything but four suitcases worth of stuff. How do you weed through so many good and important things to choose the non-negotiables?

Jake and Maggie have spent lots of time pruning away everything that’s not really important in their lives and their hearts, but only God can help them survey a sea of good and pluck out a couple of the best things.

What is most important to hold onto when traveling across the globe? What memories, disciplines, and words do you need in order to buoy your faith? It’s a whole new life for them. New culture, lifestyle, friends, everything. How can they possibly prepare spiritually? What if they forget their spiritual cell charger?

The great thing is that God knows precisely what they need. The things they believe will charge them spiritually may not be the things God choses to use to refresh them on their journey. We can trust, though, that God has planned for their needs. He’s not forgotten a single item on His list.

This week, as we pray for Jake and Maggie, let’s remember to thank God for knowing all of their needs. Ask Him to continue to provide for each of their spiritual, physical, and emotional needs as they begin to get acquainted with their new home.

Prayer Points:

• Grace to settle into their new home.
• Able to abide in Christ even through the chaos of getting settled.
• Divine opportunities to connect with their new culture/people to take place as soon as they arrive.

* P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog, so you’ll get the latest updates sent straight to your email!

Launch Pad

When you launch in a rocket, you’re not really flying that rocket. You’re just sort of hanging on.

~Michael P. Anderson

            There’s nothing quite like the launch of thousands of pounds of a propellant-packed, 200 foot rocket into the sky. My favorite are night launches. Looking across the river towards the darkened eastern horizon, you wait until there’s a sudden light that spills across the sky.

It takes a moment before the rocket comes into view, but, once your eye catches it, you can’t let go. The flickering spark rises higher and higher into the sky. Next, it announces its presence. The rumble is so loud that your rib cage vibrates. You watch until you can’t see it any more, entranced by the magic of it.

That’s what’s happening this week for Jake and Maggie. When I thought about them today, I couldn’t help but compare them to a mission-ready rocket sitting on the launch pad. Tomorrow, they will be commissioned for the journey. They’ll receive prayers and blessings, filling their fuel tanks, in preparation for their launch.

To me, as enthralling as a night launch is, Jake and Maggie’s launch into ministry will be even more so. Such beautiful, arduous plans God has primed for them. It is critical for us, as a church family, to bombard heaven’s gates with prayers for this couple as moving day draws closer and closer.

There are so many details that needs to be on point in order for the launch to be successful. We need to make these things a priority in our prayers. They’ve worked through the details, finished school, spent time with friends and family, and labored in prayer.

How can we help fill their fuel tanks with propellant? We need to make a habit of lifting them up in prayer. Daily. Weekly. Once a rocket launches, Mission Control monitors the progress and supports the mission. We’re Mission Control; Jake and Maggie are the rocket. Let’s not forget the mission once they’re in orbit.

Prayer Points:

• Praise the Lord their travel documents are ready to go!
• Please continue to pray that Maggie’s broken hand will heal quickly and well.
• God would ease their transition, especially when it comes to leaving much-loved family and friends behind.
• God would give them health and strength, physical and spiritual, as they assimilate to their new home.

* P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog, so you’ll get the latest updates sent straight to your email!

Dance with Me

He will rejoice over you with great gladness; he will love you and not accuse you. Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord himself exulting over you in happy song.

Zephaniah 3:18 (Living Bible)

            One, two, three, one, two, three. One, two, three, one two, three. Can you catch the rhythm? Do you hear the song? It’s the waltz, and you are in the center of the dance floor. Everyone else hovers at the edges, eyes eager. They want to join the dance, but it’s your turn. He reaches a hand to you, as if no one else is there.

He seems thrilled, but you feel terrified. What if you trip and make a fool of yourself in front of this crowd? He’d definitely regret asking you. Wouldn’t he wish he had coaxed someone else out on the floor? You take his hand, biting your lip, and hope for the best.

This isn’t a jewel of a fiction. Not a Cinderella fairy tale. This is your life. Our lives with Christ. He’s chosen to smother us with His grace. He’s chosen to pour out his unquenchable love on us. What higher privilege than to waltz with the King of the Universe?

He’s the power of the universe. The beauty of truth. The grandeur of nature. Yet, for all of that unexplainable, unknowable power, He is easier to access than our highest paid celebrities or most charismatic politicians. He’s just a breath, a prayer away.

He wants to be in relationship with us. He sings and dances over us as His much beloved children, and we have the divine privilege of enjoying Him and delighting in Him. So take His hand, forget about everyone on the outskirts. Just dance. Follow His lead and trust Him to help you keep your footing. He won’t let you trip, but He will spin you around the floor. Enjoy it.

Let’s remember to lift Jake and Maggie up in prayer as they begin their dance very soon. We know that, as they let God take the lead, He won’t let them fall.

Prayer Points:

• God would give them grace to know what to pack and peace about leaving so much behind.
• God would ease their transition, especially when it comes to leaving much-loved family and friends behind.
• God would give them health and strength as they assimilate to a new culture. Please continue to pray that Maggie’s broken hand will heal quickly and well.

* P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog, so you’ll get the latest updates sent straight to your email!

Homeless

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Matthew 8:20 New International Version (NIV)

            Sometimes we are a bit particular in the vision we have for our lives. We know ourselves (we foolishly believe), so we know best what lifestyle will work for us. Married or Unmarried. Kids or No Kids. Settled or Transient. Ice cream or Cake (okay…AND might be a better word here).

            Our lives are decorated with purpose. We can see into the future, and we have appropriate adornments prearranged for when the time comes. Every choice from the friends we’ll have to the activities we’ll enjoy to the paint (or wallpaper?) on the walls has been deliberately considered. It’s all under control.

            Hmmm….Or maybe not.

            We all say we want to trust God implicitly, but, if you’re like me, you spend way too much time making plans for your future. We’re basically wasting our time, because whenever I try to plan my future (for the record, I don’t have bad plans!) God ALWAYS does something else. No, I’m not exaggerating. It is always.

            My thoughts are a dull piece of dust compared to the explosion of beauty that is His universe. No wonder we’re not on the same page. What is so interesting, though, is that as His outrageous plan is worked out in my life I find myself experiencing a drastic change of opinion. Many times when I yield to His plan, He lets me see what I was missing in its beautiful unfolding.

            A great example of this is the way Jake and Maggie have prepared to leave everything to go to SE Asia. There has been such a wild shift in their perspectives that they even embrace the insecurity of homelessness. They told me about a conversation they had with another man at their school. The three of them realized that they were essentially homeless.

            They garage sale-d, Goodwill-ed, or dumped most of their stuff. Most people would feel sad about losing so many of their things. Not these guys. Their friend said it best.

            “I’ve never been happier in my life.”

            Tell me that’s not a crazy shift in perspective. I don’t know how Jake and Maggie saw their lives playing out when they were younger, but I would be stunned if this is what they planned for themselves. As wonderful as their plans may have been, they seem thrilled to be following God’s blueprint.

            It’s a phenomenon that makes me scratch my head. When I let God set the agenda, my plans are wadded up and tossed in the trash, and I’m delighted. Sure, there can be some time between when God ends our plans and when we get happy about it. Maybe more time than we’d like. But if we yield to His plan, our hands raised in surrender become hands raised in praise.

 

Prayer Points:

• They would have divine appointments in this time before they leave for SE Asia.
• They would pick up new tasks and understand them quickly once they join their SE Asia team.
• They would quickly learn to communicate in every way necessary, including an understanding of the culture and customs.

* P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog, so you’ll get the latest updates sent straight to your email!