The Unclean Woman in the 21st Century (Luke 8:43-48)

In 2010, I wrote a couple of Mother's Day messages on Luke 8:43-48.  It's the story of the woman with the unceasing blood flow who touches Jesus in a crowd and is healed.  In these two messages, which I post here and in the next post, I looked at those healed.  This Sunday (January 22, 2017), I will again look at Luke 8.  This time, the focus is on what we learn about God.  Here is the first of those messages.

The Unclean Woman in the 21^st Century (Luke 8:43-48)

Sunday, May 9, 2010, Mother’s Day

          Imagine this.  You are a 14-year-old girl.  You’ve never been to school.  You were married to a man at age 13, and became pregnant 6 months later.  Now you are in labor.  Labor has already lasted three days.  At midday, on the fourth day of labor, you pass a still-born child.  Relieved, you think the madness and torture is over.  But on the fifth day, you discover to your horror that you have no control over your bodily functions.  No matter how much you wash, no matter why you try, you have no control.  You cannot get rid of the odor.

          Your husband is disgusted.  He cannot stand you.  Your presence is unendurable.  You were supposed to become the mother of his firstborn son.  Instead, this has happened.  It must be some punishment for something you have done.  So, he throws you out of the house. 

          Your parents take you in, but they can’t stand the sight or smell of you any more than he could.  They make you stay in a shack at the edge of the family compound.  Your condition does not improve.  With no control over your body, you always reek.  You are put out again, this time to fend for yourself. 

You are 14.  You illiterate and have no skills.  You just want to die.[i] 

Here’s what the girl in that unbelievably desperate situation doesn’t know.  There are approximately 3 to 4 million women who deal with the condition she has and the condition has a name - obstetric fistula.  “A fistula is simply a hole between an internal organ and the outside world that should not exist.  There are two primary causes of fistula in women in developing countries:  childbirth, causing obstetric fistula and sexual violence, causing traumatic fistula.”[ii]  This impoverished girl thinks her life is over and quite possibly it is her fault.  The problem is unique to her and so she bears the agony of being punished for some unknown sin.  In truth, for only a few hundred dollars, a surgical operation could repair the injury and restore her life.

Instead, she has been kicked to the curb, and herself believes that the curb, the gutter, the waste heap is where she belongs.  Lewis Wall is the professor of obstetrics/gynecology in the School of Medicine and professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.  He’s also on the board of directors of the World Wide Fistual Fund, http://www.worldwidefistulafund.org/fistulafund/index.jsp.  That website gives loads of information about fistula, about what women go through, and it gives ways concerned Christ-followers can pray and help. 

Another website with even more information is the site of the Fistula Foundation http://www.fistulafoundation.org/index.html.  There, Asosa, an 18-year-old young woman from Southern Ethiopia shares her story.

I studied in school until 7th grade. I helped my mother at home with housework, but I didn't have to carry too many heavy things.

I got married when I was 15. I met my husband for the first time on my wedding day. My parents chose him for me. I felt sad that I had to quit my education, but otherwise I liked my husband. He was a good man.

I got pregnant one year later. My pregnancy was fine. My labor started at three in the afternoon and my husband and my mother were with me. A traditional doctor told me to go to the hospital. I got a free letter from my kebele. I went to Asosa Hospital and they operated to take out the baby, but it was dead.

After the baby died, I went back to my village and two months later my husband married another woman. My friends were there to help me in the village. I lived with my mother. When I came to Fistula Hospital, I was very happy. I knew this was the place where I would get cured. It has been 15 days since my operation and now I am dry.

I have made friends here. We have fun together and we talk about our health and our operations. We ask each other, what will you do when you are cured?

When I am cured, I want to go back home and continue my education. I want to study and I want to become a doctor like the doctors here and help girls like me who have this problem.

When I go back to my village, I will tell other women to go immediately to a hospital so that they won't have a problem with their labor. Most people don't know that a hospital can help them, but if they knew, they'd go.[iii]

         

          The pains of those who deal with fistula are real, but isolated.  It’s easy for someone in the United States to not know and not care.  Obviously men don’t need to be concerned about it.  And women who live in industrialized nations and have access to modern medicine don’t have to worry either.  Obstetric fistula is a third world problem and there are so many third world problems. 

How can we care for them all? 

Jesus cares for them, and we – His church – are his body.  We make up the body of Christ.  What burdens His heart is to burden ours.

I had never heard of fistula until I read the wonderful book Hospital By the River.  It’s the story of two Australian Christians, doctors Reginald and Catherine Hamlin.  They answered the call of God to go to the mission field, specifically Ethiopia.  There, they treated numerous problems, but their specialty was care for women who had suffered fistula.  These women, and sometimes their parents (rarely their husbands), spent all the money they had to travel from remote villages to the capital, Addis Ababa, so they could be seen and treated by the Hamlins. 

When they were cured through the routine surgery, it was like a miracle had taken place.  These women Catherine Hamlin describes thought their lives were done, and then they had life again.  Over and over, women praised the Lord, and saw life with new eyes.  Many stayed and worked as nurses and administrative assistants in the hospital.  Their lives in the villages they left behind were over anyway.  Husbands rejected them, parents saw them as burdens, a shame on the family.  They didn’t contribute anything and so were often relegated to the status of unproductive animals.  Not all husbands and parents were so calloused and cruel, but many were.  No one gave these women much hope. 

That complete rejection is what caught my eye as I thought about the Gospel, and as I thought about preaching on Mother’s Day.   

Luke 8:43-48 says,

As he went, the crowds pressed in on him. ⁴³Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. ⁴⁴She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. ⁴⁵Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.” ⁴⁶But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” ⁴⁷When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

          The connecting point for the woman came when Jesus called her “daughter.”  It says in verse 44, “immediately, here hemorrhage stopped.”  At that point, she was anonymous.  The crowd was so dense they did not notice her steal into the midst of them and touch Jesus.  Her bleeding condition rendered her ritualistically unclean.  By law she was cut off from society.  She couldn’t be in normal relationships because if anyone touched her, they too would become unclean.  She couldn’t go to temple or synagogue.  She was a “reject” in every way describable. 

          Yet, her gamble worked.  Violating law and convention, she made her way unnoticed through the crowd and touched Jesus.  Upon grasping his clothes, she was healed.  She could then wash up and present herself to the priest.  She’d be a part of society once again. 

          But Jesus didn’t leave it at a simple healing.  No healing is complete in his eyes until the broken spirit is healed.  She needed more than just her ailment corrected.  She needed to know that though everyone around her treated her like she was a piece of nasty garbage, God loved her.  In shame and despair, God saw her, was with her, and was for her. 

That point is driven home the moment Jesus calls her “daughter.”  The most legalistically minded among the Pharisees would have called her a lawbreaker.  Jesus called her daughter and commended her faith.  He also bid her “peace.” 

Peace in the Jewish sense is so much more than a simple absence of conflict.  It is wholeness, shalom.  The idea of shalom is that all right between a person and her neighbors and a person and her God.  Jesus called this troubled soul “daughter,” and he bid her “peace.”

This is what Jesus does for all people; you, me, everyone.  The Biblical lesson about an afflicted person and Jesus meeting her in her pain, at her lowest, most desperate point speaks into our lives because Jesus does the same for us.  When we seek him, force our way through obstacles to touch him, and have faith in him, he responds with love and grace.  And our lives change forever.

The woman didn’t suddenly have an easy life because she was healed.  Dr. Wall says of modern fistula sufferers who do not have access to treatment, “They are seen as hopeless, drifting to the margins of society where they live lives of misery, isolation, worsening poverty and malnutrition, unloved, unwanted, and alone.”[iv]  If a Christian ministry, reaching out in the name of Jesus identifies these women and helps them get treatment, they don’t pop right onto their feet and live meaningful, self-sufficient lives the day after the surgery.  The healed woman didn’t have an easy street the moment she heard the Master call her “daughter.” 

She did though have peace of mind because she knew without a doubt that God was on her side.  She did have a reason to live a purposeful life – she had been blessed by Jesus.  She would, from that point going forward, need a new community of people of faith to embrace and welcome her.  She most likely joined the ranks of Jesus’ women disciples (see “daughters of Jerusalem,” Luke 23:27-28).  Those who followed him would be a group on the fringes of society, but though they along with the male disciples were marginalized, it was they the Holy Spirit filled at Pentecost.

Similarly, the women healed of fistula will often need the church to help them find employment, and maybe a place to live.  Many will need the church to become their family, a source of friendship and emotional and social support.  It’s true of any group or individual today rescued from the brink of destruction by Jesus working through his body, the church. 

We help the alcoholic put the bottle down.  We must then help him get on his feet and discover God’s purpose in his life.  We help the person struggling with depression find joy and a loving community.  We then need to help that one move into a productive, sustainable joy that lasts throughout life.  We help each other through times of crisis and provide community and family as brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are there for one another in good times and in bad.  And, the church is always open, ready to enthusiastically welcome whomever we would deem to be the lowly, the outcast, the bleeding woman.  Just as the hurting soul can find hope in hearing Jesus call him “son” or her “daughter, he or she can find that hope in God’s people, the church. 

The connecting point for us is we are as broken as anyone.  The Wall Street banker and the starving child in a poor country have this in common: both are lost without Jesus.  But, both are saved when they recognize their own condition (of being lost apart from God), and turn to Jesus in repentance and in faith.  He welcomes and saves both.  AMEN

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[i] Wall, L. Lewis, “Jesus and the Unclean Woman,” Christianity Today, January 2010, p.48-52.

[ii] The Fistula Foundation website, http://www.fistulafoundation.org/aboutfistula/

[iii] http://www.fistulafoundation.org/aboutfistula/ows.html

[iv] Wall, Christianity Today, p.52.

Gospel Expansion (Acts 8:26-40)

Sunday, May 3, 2015

            The Angel of the Lord told Philip, “Get up and go.”  And he did.  And we do.

            We are a few weeks removed from Easter Sunday, but we always Easter people.  Every day of the year, we are resurrection people. 

            This means many things.  This year, our focus has been on the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 and how these words shape our understanding of who God is calling us to be.  “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

            The statement is loaded. First, it is an imperative.  Jesus is not making a suggestion, but rather an assertion.  You will receive power.  You will be witnesses.  If we wonder where he gets the authority to say such things, well, he’s been resurrected. He was dead, buried, and now he stands alive, never to die again.

            Second, his words contain a promise, and what a promise!  We’re going to receive power from the Holy Spirit!! What does that look like in our lives? 

            Third, Jesus is specific.  We are to be witnesses.  Witnesses testify.  As resurrection people, it is inherent.  We are people who tell about Jesus, about His kingdom, and about how each person who comes to faith in Him has life in His name.  With the power of the Holy Spirit of God, through actions, through words, and through the approach we take to people, we testify to the Gospel – salvation in Jesus Christ.

            Fourth, the statement the risen Lord makes in Acts 1:8 is expansive.  He tells the disciples, you’ll be witnesses in Jerusalem.  This occurs in that season of Passover and then Pentecost.  It’s a time of year when Jews from all over travel to Jerusalem to worship.  Even though they are all Jews, they are not all from Jerusalem.  Many don’t even speak Aramaic or read Hebrew as their everyday language.  In Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fills this diverse crowd and then Peter preaches, it is a fulfillment of the command of Jesus in chapter 1.  It is also a first step in the spread of the Gospel.

            Then throughout the rest of Acts, the movement is seen – Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  In Acts 3 – 5 the gospel is preached in the city.  In Acts chapters 6-7, a conflict occurs between Aramaic speaking Jewish Christ-followers and Greek-speaking Jewish Christ-followers.  Such a dispute might threaten a young movement, but the church is the gathering of people who worship Jesus and have their life in Him.  The Holy Spirit leads the leaders to find a solution that not only preserves the life of the community but actually grows it.

            They appoint the first deacons – Greek speakers.  And these deacons, starting with Stephen join in the work of bearing witness, telling the story of life in Christ. 

            The beginning portion of Acts chapter 9 shows another boundary crossed.  This time the gospel expands not to another people group or a new language or across an ethnic divide.  In Acts 9, the story of Jesus breaks through to a Jew – the Pharisee who had been leading the persecution of Christians, Saul.  He meets the risen Lord in a flash of light.  Saul the Pharisee and Christian-killer becomes Paul the Apostle.  He does not ever stop being Jewish.  He simply understands every bit of life in the light of Christ. We’re all called to do this.  We don’t just become new creations in Christ.  We interpret our history based on who we are in Him.  Paul went from enemy to witness.

            Acts 10-11 give the story of Peter first sharing the good news with Gentiles, specifically the Roman centurion Cornelius.  A voice from Heaven pointedly tells Peter it is a new day and in this new day even those who are not of Israel can benefit from Israel’s Messiah because he is the Lord of all creation.  Even non-Jews can come to life in Jesus.

            So we see the statement and hear the word of Jesus.  “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  We follow through the chapters of Acts and we see it happening – Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the earth.  The Kingdom of God expands as the story of Jesus is told and people come to faith in Him.  But, you notice we have skipped over Acts chapter 8.  There we see the Gospel expansion by way of a less-known witness in a direction not frequently considered.

            Acts 8 begins with one of those Hellenists ordained in Acts 6.  This is not Philip of the 12 disciples.  This is the deacon Philip.  He gives his witness in Samaria.  Samaritans and Jews did not like each other.  They were ethnically related, but as often happens with half-brothers and cousins, the closeness bred enmity.  Jesus touches on this when he makes the hero of a parable a Samaritan instead of a denizen of Jerusalem.  Part of Jesus’ point is that his way is so radically transforming that former enemies, like Jews and Samaritans, become brothers who love each other when they are his followers.

            Philip preaches Christ in Samaria and many believe including a magician named Simon.  So many barriers are broken down in a simple story.  A Greek-speaking Jews, Philip, share Jesus with Samaritan, a Samaritan practitioner of black magic, and that person becomes a believer.  The Gospel expands even beyond what the first believers would have imagined.  But the Holy Spirit does more than that.  In the latter part of Acts 8, the Gospel expands beyond what the first Christ-followers even considered.

            Then as now, Africa is often overlooked, forgotten.  But it is an enormous continent of millions of people made in the image of God.  Every African was on Jesus mind as he went to the cross.  Acts 8:26-40 is a Biblical reminder that this wonderful place and the people there are so important to the Lord, the story of the Gospel could not be told without mention of them.

            The angel of the Lord addresses Philip directly.  Philip is sent to a wilderness road, a remote, dangerous place.  There he sees an Ethiopian, a court official.  This man is in charge of the treasury of the royal house of Ethiopia.  His position gives him enormous power.  But, he is also a eunuch.  Deuteronomy 23:1 severely limits the participation of eunuchs in Israelite worship.  Provisions would have been made to allow some level of involvement.  But in the Jerusalem temple, this man of royal power would be a second class citizen.  He was gentile.  And he was a eunuch.  Why was he interested in Jewish religion in the first place? 

            I don’t know, but he clearly had a very strong attraction to Jewish religious practice.  He had traveled to Jerusalem to participate in Passover and Pentecost.  Now, as he rode southward in his royal procession, headed home, he continued reading scripture.  The Holy Spirit essentially put Philip there so he could bear witness to this “other.”  The Spirit sent the disciple to a gentile and one who could not carry on the normal sexual life of a healthy male.  He was asexual. 

            To him, Philip “proclaimed the good news about Jesus.”  This is the center of this story.  Philip told the Ethiopian court official about Jesus.  This is the core idea of the books Acts.  Philip bore his witness.  It is to this that we are called; Jesus makes us his witnesses. 

            We are also called to be that Ethiopian eunuch.  We are most ready to receive the good news of Jesus when we recognize how removed from God we are.  This gentile, this mutilated man – he had no trouble seeing himself as one who desperately needed God.  When Philip helped him see that the scriptures point to Jesus, he was thrilled.  When they came to a stream, he stopped the entire procession so Philip could baptize him. 

            And then, the Holy Spirit snatched Philip away.  What did the Ethiopian think at that point?  He was so fully open to God, he was too happy to be surprised.  Acts 8:39 says he went on his way rejoicing.  It was a natural as anything he could imagine.  God’s Spirit sent him a man to help him see salvation and once he got it, then God’s spirit whooshed that man away to bear witness somewhere else.  Of course!

            Christianity in Ethiopia is ancient.  I have often imagined that the eunuch went back home and told everyone about his new life in Christ.  Upon hearing him bear witness, I imagine the royal court becoming Christian.  I have searched for documents that tie the Ethiopian church back to this story, and I have not found any connections.  The earliest documentation of Christianity in that country is from the 4^th century AD.  Ethiopian Christianity is different than any of the threads of the faith you might know: Catholicism; Eastern Orthodoxy; Protestantism.  It does not fit in any of these categories.  Nor is there an easy connection to Philip and that eunuch.

            Still, I believe that’s where faith in Jesus was born in that place, on that Wilderness Road.  Philip the deacon testified, the Ethiopian Courtier believed and received Jesus, and there was a baptism and a new birth in Christ.  It all came about because of Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8.

            Today, the expansion of the Gospel continues as the church continues to bear witness.  Have you received salvation with the innocent joy that the Ethiopian had?  If you have not, today would you open your heart and ask Jesus in?  Would you give Him all your sin and let today be the day of your rejoicing as everything else fades from view and all you can see if Him and all you can feel is the love he has for you?

            If you have received Christ, then today, would you make yourself available so the Spirit can carry you as Philip was carried and place you?  And once the Spirit has placed you, will you testify there as Philip did, whether it is Samaria or a wilderness road or the street where you live.  What is at the heart of your story or my story?

            Jesus tells us the heart of our stories is power and testimony.  To us says, “You will be my witnesses.”  We are his witnesses.  We have a story to tell – the story of the Kingdom of God.  When we leave today, may we go ready to give testimony that will point the world to Him.

AMEN  

By the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:5-14)

Sunday, April 26, 2015

            Who are we?

            On the trips our church takes to Ethiopia, people from there see our group.  They hear us speak English.  They see us emerge from a guest house that is foreigners.  They watch us buy things designed to be sold to tourists.  They may not know our affiliation or that we are there to work with poor children.  But one thing is clear.  We are Americans.

            I travel back to Roanoke and spend time with old high school friends.  We reminisce about good times we spent as kids and a lot of those memories happened in the home where my parents still live.  Whatever else I am, in those moments, I am of the Tennant family.

            Who are we?

            Heather and I and other pastors gather, and it is clear, we are of HillSong Church.  Sometimes in an ecumenical gathering, I am the Baptist in the group.

            American; Tennant; HillSong; Baptist; who am I?  Who are you?  On what do we stand?  What is it that undergirds who we are, how we think and act, and all that we do? 

            It was a key moment for the apostles John and Peter.  Just before they entered the temple, a handicapped man asked for a hand-out.  He had been disabled from birth.  His entire life’s identity was built upon begging.  On what did he stand?  Nothing.  His role in society, his very identity, was that of one who could not stand and could only survive by the generosity of others. 

            Then Peter said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk.”  In the name of Jesus Christ; and this man who have never walked, stood and jumped and leaped and praised God.  Heather discussed this last week in her sermon from Acts 3.  Right there in the temple, Peter preached an impromptu sermon in which he accused the leaders of killing Jesus (3:15) and then invited them to come to faith (3:19, 26).

            On what do we stand?  What authority authorizes the way we live our lives? 

            The leaders in Jerusalem stood on shaky ground according to Peter.  They heard him clearly affix responsibility for the death of Jesus to them.  They saw clearly that Peter and John healed a man everyone knew – a full-grown adult who have never in his life walked.  They felt the movement of history as the crowds flocked to the disciples to hear them talk about salvation in Jesus.  The leaders in the temple needed to cut this off, before it got away from them. 

            The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them “much annoyed” says Acts 4:2.  These officials of government and religion did not like the claim that in Jesus we have resurrection – his and ours when we put our trust in him.  No, they did not like any of this.  These officials stood on their own unique understanding of scripture, a perspective that assured them of power. 

            Do we dare confess a faith that upsets the conventions of our time?  Tolerance of all religions, which means saying all religions are okay and basically teach the same thing; this sentiment rules in our time.  Do we dare oppose this by saying Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him? 

An individual person’s individual rights are sacred and not to be threatened in our culture.  We believe in the autonomy of the individual.  At least, that is what we claim to live by.  Do followers of Jesus dare say, no, my rights are not as important fully submitting myself to Jesus as my Lord and my King?

The priests and Sadducees stood on their privilege as leaders.  They expected all in Jerusalem to live by this foundation, so they were furious that the disciples of an already crucified man would continue defying their authority.  But they could not deny what everyone witnessed.  The man with useless legs was now completely healed and jumping around praising God.   

How could they maintain power?  Who were they?  Those in leadership positions in the temple may not have consciously wondered that, but the actions of Peter and John created a crisis for them.  They who understood themselves to be the ones in control now had to face forces beyond their reach.  Verses 14-15 say, “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that [these] were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.  When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them [Peter and John], they [the officials] had nothing to say in opposition.”

All they could do was pose the question.  Their last gasp, their final lurch for control was to name this thing that was happening.  “By what power or by what name did you do this” (4:7)?

On what do we stand? 

What authority authorizes the way we live our lives?

Who are we?  Americans?  Tennants or Asbills, Johnsons or Bakers, Folliards or Sits?  Baptists?  Who or what makes us, drives and defines our actions and attitude, our thoughts, deeds, and words?

All the priests and Sadducees could do was throw the question out into the crowd, into the air, out where all gathered would hear and consider.  All Peter and John could do was give one answer – the only answer they had, the only answer that is true.  “Let it be known that this man is standing in good health by the name of Jesus Christ whom you crucified, whom God raised from the Dead” (4:10).

A few years ago I watched a film produced by an independent Christian film maker.[i]  It was about a couple professors at a Christian college in the late 1800’s.  They were debating morals.  Is it enough to speak and truth and do good works or must our truth and our deed of help and benevolence be done in Jesus’ name.  One professor said as long as good is done; it does not matter if it is in Jesus’ name or simply in the cause of doing what’s right.  His colleague disagreed.  He insisted that unless deeds were done in Jesus’ name, they could not be considered really true or truly good.

The film involves a time machine and caricatures that lack verisimilitude.  I found it silly.  But the debate between these fictional Christian college professors from the 19^th century is fascinating and is timeless.  In any context, we could ask, is a deed good in and of itself?  Simply speaking, yes.  It is good to give food to hungry people.  It is good to provide education to impoverished students so they can develop their minds, reach their potential, get good jobs and climb out of poverty.  These are a few of thousands of examples in which I see non-Christians contributing.  I have seen people who say, “I am not Christian,” contributing to the good of humanity.  Sometimes non-Christians outdo Christ-followers in generosity. 

Yet at a much deeper level, I side with the view that it is not enough to simply do good things.  At some point, after people have been healed, fed, clothed, educated, and given shelter, they gain power.  When they gain power, those who had been holding all of it will feel threatened and a confrontation occurs. 

“By what power or by what name are you doing this?”  The question is inevitable.  When it comes, we need more than groundless claims that love is self-evident and charity is self-evident and compassion is self-evident.  Where do these values come from?  Who are we that we dare stand on these things, and standing on these values, what gives us the gumption to help people? 

Unless we are in Christ, we are speechless.  If we are in Christ, our lives have purpose and we do not lack for words.  His Holy Spirit provides them.  “By what power?”  We answer, “We heal and we feed and we travel and we work and we love and we help in the name of Jesus.  He was crucified by sin, yours and ours.  He was raised by God.”  And we say as Peter said, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under given among human beings by which we might be saved” (4:12). 

I do not say any of this to reject the good things unbelievers do to help people in the world.  We have sponsors who support children in Kombolcha, Ethiopia who are not Christian.  We gladly receive their non-Christian sponsorship dollars and I affirm that what they do is helpful and is good. 

I find here in this story, in Peter’s word when the question is put to him that the intent of the Holy Spirit of God and the driving force in Peter’s actions not only heals crippled men at the temple gate and feeds hungry Ethiopian kids.  The driving force also transforms the giver of the gift.  The temple leaders, the Sadducees, some of the most lettered intellectuals of the day were silenced by uneducated fishermen from backwater Galilee.

How could that be?  Peter and John and everyone who acts in the name of Jesus by the name of Jesus speaks and works with power that is beyond what any human possesses. 

On what do we stand?  We stand on the name of Jesus. 

Who are we?  We are a community of followers of the risen, Jesus Christ, the King.  He is our testimony.  He gives meaning to what we do – transcendent, eternal meaning.  He binds us together as a family with God as our Father.  Under His banner, our acts, both the work in our day-to-day lives and the works we do that are explicitly Christian are part of a greater story – the story of the emergence of God’s eternal kingdom.  This included the work of home, vocation (our jobs), and the work of relationships, family, friendships, acquaintances, neighbors, and unexpected encounters.  In all works in every part of life, He is Lord and we speak, act, and think by His name. 

This week, you and I won’t be dragged before officials who want to know why we performed as miracle healing on a handicapped man who has never walked.  The world is different.  We will have opportunities to help people and do good things.  Right now we as a church body are invited to pray that God would ready us, so when those opportunities come, we’ll respond by His name in His power sharing His love.  Fueled by the Holy Spirit we will not only be inclined to do good and helpful things; we will also be ready to respond to anyone who wonders about us by pointing them to Jesus.

Please join me in silent prayer as we, the church, join our hearts together in asking God to fill us, empower us, and ready us to be His witnesses.

Now please join me in this responsive prayer.

Leader: Lord Jesus.

Congregation: You are the risen one.

Leader: Fill us with the hope and the power of the resurrection

Congregation: Help us to speak and act in Your Name.

Leader: Lead us, Lord Jesus.

Congregation: We commit ourselves to you.

AMEN

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[i] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295725/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_9

Thinking about ... Golf??

I'll start with this - Our church is hosting a Golf tournament.  Here is the link - 

http://hole4one.com/

OK, why, besides the fact that millions of people love golf, are we hosting a golf tournament?  The intent is to raise money for our mission trips to Ethiopia.  We go every Spring, and this year we're also going in October.  We always visit the same place - the Children's Hope Chest care point in the city of Kombolcha (http://www.hopechest.org/). There are 170-200 children who come to this care point.  They receive funds for education, school uniforms and supplies.  They also receive a meal.  And most importantly, they are taught the Gospel.  Our trips are intended to build an in-person relationship with the children and also with the adults (all Ethiopians) who tend to the daily care of these kids.  We think if we do this annually for a decade, we will see tangible results.  Children will come to faith in Christ.  Children will be educated and learn English and gain employment opportunities.  Maybe, this generation will grow up and become parents who do not need American sponsors to help them care for their children. Maybe we are making a contribution that can break the cycle of generational poverty.

Awesome.

What does any of this have to do with golf?

It is expensive to travel to Ethiopia.  Many of those from our church who go on the trips are university students.  They need financial help.  And those who go come back saying, "I want to sponsor a kid."  "I want to raise money to get new facilities at the care point."  "I want to dedicate my life to helping people know Jesus and climb out of the pit of malnutrition and material need."  

Some of the funds raised in the golf tournament will help people go on the trip.  Some of the funds will go to the care point, to help with the many needs at the facility.  I have seen some nasty toilets in my life.  I have not seen many worse than the one at the care point.  The leaders of the Meseret Kristo Church (the Care Point is an Evangelical Mennonite Church) know how insufficient their facilities are.  They just don't have the money for upgrades.  The Care Point would benefit from improved kitchen facilities.  These are examples of the needs.  

So ... Golf!

We want people to play in our golf tournament (click on link at the top).  We want companies to sponsor holes in our golf tournament.  We want God to bless this effort and multiply the money that will be used for our mission in Kombolcha, which as I said we hope will be ongoing for at least the next decade.  We are also praying about adding another site, probably somewhere in the Western Hemispheres, in 2015.  This would be in addition to, not in place of, the work in Ethiopia.

Readers of my blog, I ask you to pray about this effort.  Pray for Children's Hope Chest.  Pray for the One Child Campaign (http://onechildcampaign.showitsite.com/).  That group, led by Caleb David, plans the details of our trips.  Caleb or his brother Josh go with us and act as guides for us.  If you have a mission trip you are planning, contact Caleb.  He might be able to help you pull it off.  Especially call him if international missions are new to you.  Pray for Hope Chest, for One Child, for our church, for the kids in Kombolcha.

And, my faithful readers, pray for our golf tournament.  I am even going to play.  I have never broken 100 (probably never even broken 115 if I honestly count all my strokes).  I am going to play because it is fun.  No, that's not why I am playing.  For me golf is a lot of fun, but when we became parents in 2005, I happily gave it up.  No, I am blowing the dust off my clubs because I believe in this project.  If you can, please sign up to play.  Spread the word.  Tell your friends.  Play golf and pray that God will help us carry out this mission of Christian love in Ethiopia.  

One other thing; if you are moved by the tragedy of orphans and economically vulnerable kids, consider joining us in our work in Ethiopia.  Sponsor a child.  Travel with us.  The trip is March 8-18.  Actually we need a physician or physician's assistant for our trip in October, October 12-21.  If you know a doctor, physician's assistant or nurse practitioner who might go in October, please pass the word along.

Play Golf.  Share the good news.  Love as Jesus loves.  

http://hole4one.com/

NCAA Basketball Championship, Ethiopia, and What Matters Most

I am an avid fan of the University of Michigan's men's basketball team.  Go Wolverines!  Naturally with them in the national championship game, I am very excited.  To get to that point, they had to win last night, and they did, a 61-56 victory over Syracuse.  People at my church, a UNC hotbed, know how much I love the Wolverines.  Many wanted to talk basketball with me this morning and we did.

But then the worship service happened.  And by the time it was over, I had no interest in talking basketball at all.  As people were leaving, some, bearing big smiles, were ready to pick up the basketball talk again, and I just couldn't.

Recall my blog of almost three weeks ago - http://honesttalkwithgod.blogspot.com/2013/03/following-ncaa-tournament-from-africa.html.  We had just returned from our mission trip to Ethiopia and Holy Week was about to start.  My focus was on God and on the materially impoverished but spiritually rich children we had spent a week loving.  I call them "spiritually rich" because they know how needy they are and they know the best thing they can receive from me is a smile and a hug and a kiss.  And they can offer that to me in as much abundance as I can give it.  Their knowledge of their own need and their ability to openly, shamelessly love makes them spiritually rich.

Thinking about them, I did not care too much about basketball even though I thought Michigan had a great shot to win the whole thing.  Now, Michigan is in the championship game and I have loved the ride.  It has been fun.  But this morning in church our team reported on the Ethiopia trip.  Every member shared their perspective and it was brilliant.  Emily Bailey did a magnificent job making a slide-show of images that filled my heart with joy and raw emotion.  The awareness of need the children have was conveyed to me.  As we told the church about the trip, I longed to love them and receive love from them.  And in that  reality, I couldn't care less if Michigan wins or loses.

Tomorrow night of course, I will watch every minute of the game.  I will be overjoyed with a Wolverine victory and grumpy if the lose.  But I am thankful that really, it his just basketball.   I am thankful I know how important it is.  I am thankful God has shown me what is truly important.  I am thankful I get to travel to Ethiopia and to love children.  I immensely thankful.  Hearing my teammates - Sarah, Matthew, Les, Brett, Heidi, and Emily - inspired me.  

Some things truly matter.  I want my life to be about what truly matters.

I recently heard a story of someone who retired wealthy and has now bought a yacht.  His plan is to spend his retirement sailing around the Caribbean.  It sounds fun and maybe exciting and maybe wonderful.  I want no part of it - ever.  OK, I'd enjoy a week or so on a yacht as a little vacation.  But for my life, I want to be involved in things that matter; things that matter to God.  Whether it is in Ethiopia or North Carolina, loving children matters to God.  Helping people who are materially poor get food and get education so they can jobs and be independent and help others - doing that matters to God.  Taking a group of Christians out of their comfort zone so they can discover who Jesus is; that matters to God.  Friendships that develop in the midst of mission work; that matters to God.  I have not achieved any of this.  God has graciously allowed me a role.  I am thankful.

Rethinking Your Gospel - Sustainable Short-term Missions

I am going to talk about “Re-thinking Your Gospel.”  This notion covers a a range of topics in which Christians in America in 2012 try to regain an understanding of the Good News we have in Jesus Christ.  I will not, in this talk, attempt to define “rethink your Gospel.”  Rather, I will demonstrate a model which promotes a renewed and deeper understanding of rethinking and reconnecting with the Gospel.  This model, at is core, is about doing ministry with children who are materially poor but exceedingly rich in Spirit and discovering in that ministry that all participants are poor and when it is done right, all get fed.

            I begin by recommending to you the book The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons.  Lyons was invited to the office of a movie producer who wanted to tap into the Christian market.  She asked him to make sense of the 21^st century American Christian (p.29).  Haley, the producer was not herself a Christian, but she was very interested in Christians as consumers – in this case as movie-ticket buyers.

            Lyons explained that his research on the book he co-authored with Greg Kinnaman, UnChristian, led him to several groupings.  There is not just one prototype Christian, but a variety of types.

            He begins with a group he calls the Separatist Christians.  First among these are the “insiders.”  They listen to Christian radio, drink coffee from Christian mugs, send their kids to Christian schools, and watch Christian films.  They don’t smoke, cuss, drink or chew, and they don’t go with boys or girls who do.

            Lyons’ second group among the separatists he refers to as Culture Warriors.  They want the 10 Commandments displayed on the courthouse walls, abortion to be illegal, and marriage to be between a man and a woman and no other arrangements are acceptable as far as marriage goes.  These Christians are determined that America will be a Christian nation.  And they’re willing to fight for that.

            I should say as an aside, I agree with the position taken by culture warriors on many topics.  I am pro-life.  And, like the insiders, I wear witness wear clothing and I drink Jesus-coffee from Spiritually inspired mugs.  In each of the categories Lyons presents, I see some good things.  But their emphasis and their methods are sometimes different than mine, sometimes very different. 

            A third category of separatist Christian according to Lyons is the evangelizer.  These folks want to win souls for Christ no matter the cost.  To illustrate, Lyons tells of a zealous evangelizer who moves into a new neighborhood not knowing that neighborhood’s strong sense of unity and fellowship at Halloween.  Without learning that community’s value system, he hands out gospel tracts to trick-or-treaters.  His intention is to share Jesus with his neighbors.  But those neighbors were completely turned off.  In his zeal, he alienated those he wanted to see saved.  It was because of his method. 

            Insiders, Culture Warriors, and Evangelizers are all what Lyons describes as separatist Christians.  A second category Lyons has observed are cultural Christians.  The first category in this group is made up of what he calls blenders.  As their name indicates, they want to follow Jesus, but they want to do it in a way that will allow them to be the same as everyone else.  Lyons writes, “Complete with a Starbucks style coffee shop, Disney-like children’s programming, and a worship experience that rivals a Coldplay concert,” they want to do church in this culture’s language.

            Besides blenders, in this second category, the Cultural Christians, Lyons lists philanthropists.  Their main concern is to make the world a better place by doing good things and giving money to worthwhile causes.  They tend to say very little about the salvation we have in Christ, the importance of the cross and resurrection.  They kind of live in the Sermon on the Mount.  Their favorite verse might “when you do unto the least of these, you do for me.” It is in these parts of the gospel that the philanthropists find their drive.

            Again, let me reiterate, I agree with much of what the blenders and philanthropists say.  We should translate the gospel so that it is intelligible in our culture.  We must give to good causes.  And, we must also remember these five categories come from Gabe Lyons.  I happen to like his writing a lot, but he’s a guy like us.  He’s reading the Bible and the world around him and trying to make sense of it.  We can be inspired by his ideas and we can challenge at the same time.

            The reason I begin with his observations is I do think he does a good job of showing where these approaches to following Jesus are flawed.  His sixth category, obviously the one he is promoting, is the Restorer.  He says,

“Restorers exhibit the mindset, humility, and commitment that seem destined to rejuvenate the momentum of the faith. … Telling others about Jesus is important to them, but conversion isn’t their only motive.  Their mission is to infuse the world with beauty, grace, justice, and love. … Restorers seek to mend the earth’s brokenness.  They recognize that the world will not be completely healed until Christ’s return, but they believe that the process begins now as we partner with God.

 

            This idea that restorers are, as the book is titled, The Next Christians, or more specifically, the Christians who will do the most good for the faith in the world in this new century is an idea that appeals to teens and 20 and 30-somethings.  Can we find holes in Lyons’ book?  Probably.  But whether or not what he says is completely right, I think a lot of young people either in the faith or open to Christ think the way Lyons thinks.  They won’t be argued into the faith by a talented apologist.  They won’t be attracted by a tearful emotional appeal.  They won’t be follow Jesus just because their parents were church goers.  But they do want to be part of something meaningful.  I think what I share this morning is one example of the type of meaningful activity that will (1) attract talented, energetic people to Jesus and His work, and (2) will by the grace of God and leadership of the Spirit accomplish much for the Kingdom.

 

            Keeping the view of restoration in mind, I turn to another book, this one written around 65 AD.  I am talking about the Gospel of Mark.

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  ¹⁸Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.  ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’”  ²⁰He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”  ²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  ²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

 

 

 

 

 

            The man who ran and kneeled before Jesus asked a basic question that most people asked.  How can I live forever?  We might frame it differently, coming from a worldview so shaped by medieval thought.  How do I go to Heaven when I die?  However it is asked, the basic notion is the afterlife.  Is this life all there is?  Is there more?  Is that “more” whatever it might be, better than this?  If it is better, how can I be sure I’ll get it?

            Jesus’ interlocutor felt pretty confident.  “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” 

            “No sweat, Jesus.  I have got it covered.”  He’s thinking his own righteousness is secure.  His eternal life is a slam-dunk.  The Jesus delivers the pop he didn’t see coming.    The man is feeling pretty good, but Jesus says, not so fast, my friend.  “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  At this point Mark says, the man went away grieving.  Why?  He had many possessions.  He was a rich man.  He wanted eternal life but not at the expense of his possessions.

            Please note, the primary lesson here is not that we should give all our possessions to the poor and follow Jesus.  Anyone who would qualify as middle class in the United States qualifies as wealthy in most countries in the world.  This is not a talk damning the wealthy.  In this passage from Mark, Jesus does not damn the wealthy.  In fact, he loves the man and he sees that it is the man’s wealth that is preventing him from having the riches God offers all of us.  Giving his possessions to the poor would have been a freeing act.  Once that wealth was out of the way, the man would be freed to follow Jesus. 

            What Jesus calls each of us to do is to remove the stuff in our lives that blocks the path between us and him.  For a lot of Americans, that stuff is our material stuff – our money and our possessions.  All of it should be used for God’s glory and for expanding the kingdom.  If my possession don’t have the potential to be used by God and if they, and I include money in this, occupy God’s place in my life, then it all has to go.

            What did Jesus say the man was to do after he gave all his stuff away?  He was to come and follow Jesus.  He ran up all desperate to know the secret to getting into Heaven or the key to eternal life; Jesus said forget that.  Follow me.  That is the essence of Christianity and the only hope for any kind of life.  We must follow Jesus.  And we must get rid of anything and everything that prevent us from following Jesus.

 

            To review – we have Gabe Lyons telling us that 21^st century Christians, especially those who are under 35 (rough estimate), are going to be restorers who try to partner with God and mend the earth’s brokenness.  We have Jesus telling us in Mark’s gospel we need to follow him and remove anything that impedes our efforts to follow him; and I suggest for a lot of Americans the materialism that defines a middle class life is a major impediment.  Where are we then?  How do we get rid of the stuff that blocks our path to discipleship and once that’s removed, how do we partner with Jesus to mend the earth?

            That question is key when we imagine what it is, “it” meaning the Gospel.  We cannot understand “Gospel” until all the junk that impeded our path to following Jesus is cleared away.

 

            The model I will propose can play a major role in clearing away the junk that clogs the way to discipleship.   It is a model that I know you can repeat in your church. 

Before I get to that, though, I have to talk about mission trips.  I have always liked the idea of going on a mission trip.  When I was in college, I heard about people in youth ministries and campus ministries going all kinds of places – places I had not been.  And somehow I got it in my mind that my Christianity was not robust enough and radical enough unless I went on mission trips.  To be a really super Christian I needed to go on several.  I was born in Germany moved from there when I was just 6 months old.  My dad was in the U.S. army and was stationed there and that’s why Frankfurt is my birth city. 

My family’s from Michigan.  I lived there from 6 months to 12 years old, with one year in Texas, again because of the army.  At 12, we moved to Roanoke, Virginia where my parents still live.  So, when I was in college and heard about all kinds of wild mission trips, I was a novice traveler.  I had been to exotic places like Ohio and West Virginia.  I even went to Atlanta once.  Wow!

I had to go on some trips, man!  I did that.  With the Virginia Baptists and with my seminary, I traveled.  I spent a week preaching in Mexico City.  I spent a month shadowing a missionary in Bolivia.  During this time and the decade that followed, I learned to think critically.  I read a lot about Christian missions.  And I came to a conclusion I am sure many of you have heard and realized.  The amount of money it takes to send an American overseas for one week could go a lot farther if it were sent directly to Christians in Mexico or China or wherever.

Additionally, what good can someone do if they know nothing of a culture?  When I went to Mexico, I had never been outside an English-speaking country.  I had no experience preaching.  The Virginia Baptists sent me down there to preach 6 revival sermons.  I can only assume the pastor they had for the trip had to cancel last minute and they had to send someone and I was willing.  Years later, as these questions rolled around in my mind, I had to wonder if short-term mission trips have any value at all?

Then I read one of the most important books I have ever read besides the Bible.  It is called When Helping Hurts by Corbett and Fikkert.  First off, this book confirmed my worst fears.  Many short term Christian mission trips do more harm than good, and I had been on trips like that.  With the best of intentions and desire to die to self and follow Jesus, I have in my life participated in trips that at least from a structural perspective did not do much good.  In the same way that God speaks even through lousy sermons, I suspect God accomplished something on those trips, but in spite of me.  So were my days of missions trips over?

A second benefit from When Helping Hurts is the definition of poverty.  The authors write, “Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.  Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings.”  By this definition, the rich man in Mark 10 is poor – suffering from poverty of relationship and poverty of values.  You and I are poor when we objectify our neighbor who is Libyan.  He must be an Islamic extremist who longs for the death of Americans.  We are poor when we generalize about Chinese Communists.  They all desire to dominate the world economically and they’re all Hell-bound atheists.  We are poor when we demonize those who support one political candidate: he’s trying to make America a socialist nation.  Or the other: he’s an elitist who doesn’t care about the poor. 

When we understand that poverty is defined by broken relationships and all are hurt, our approach changes.  I am not a wealthy American trying to give my money to help a starving African so he can have money and have wealthy American life.  I am a broken sinner and I am seeking God’s healing and I know I’ll understand it as I love my African brother.  Part of my salvation story comes in me loving him.  Part of his salvation story comes in him loving me.  That relationship-building: that’s where God is at work.

“Salvation story,” sounds odd, doesn’t it?  Don’t American evangelicals think of salvation as a moment?  If “salvation” refers to the moment I realize Jesus died for my sins and in that realization I put my faith in him and thus assure myself of a Heavenly eternity, then, yes, salvation might thought of as a moment.  But Jesus sent his disciples out to help other people become disciples.  We are not on a mission to get people into Heaven.  We’re on a disciple-making mission.  Following Jesus does not happen in a moment.  It is a lifetime, a story.  I am proposing that a major part of that story demands that Christ followers leave their comfort zones and familiar environs and head out into the world to meet Jesus in places that had previously visited.

But this demands more than just heading out into the world.  There has to be purpose and direction.  Once Corbett and Fikkert establish that poverty is about broken relationships and is a result of sin, they identify three forms of poverty alleviation: relief, rehabilitation, and development.  One of the biggest reasons so many mission efforts fail is they provide relief when development is needed.  Those they are helping never grow independent or even have the chance.  The system of help renders the poor dependent and they don’t develop.  So, they stay poor.  Offering relief when what is needed is development leads to helping that hurts those who are helped.

The good news from this book, for me, is I knew what to look for: ministries of development.  I didn’t know if this would ever mean overseas trips for me, but I started down a path that has landed me in place where I go to Ethiopia every year.  And I firmly believe what we are doing truly helps and has long-term potential.

This path began when I got married to an extremely mission-minded woman.  From the start I was impressed by my wife Candy’s dogged determination to help poor children.  I was also grateful for her amazing attention to detail.  We were in our 30’s when we married and when a child did not come that first year, we decided adoption was the way to go.  In 2005, we adopted I__ from Russia using the America World Adoption Agency.  Through same organization, we adopted H__ from Ethiopia in 2009 and M__ from Ethiopia in 2011. 

International adoption is a great thing, but it is another talk for another day.  It helps – that one kid.  It does not change the community or the broken systems that landed that child in an orphanage.  However, international adoption did lead me to learn about Children’s Hope Chest.

This group is a smaller version of World Vision and Compassion International.  Hope Chest provides child sponsorship.  A financially able person contributes $34/a month.  That money goes to provide a child with a school uniform and supplies and also a meal each day.  For many kids in the program it is their only meal of the day.  When you’re a sponsor, the very minimum participation is your monthly contribution of $34.  You want to do more than the minimum.  So, you write letters and people in Russia and Ethiopia and Uganda and wherever translate those letters into the native language so they can be read to the child you sponsor.  As that child advances in school, he learns to read your letters himself.  As he advances more, he learns English and eventually, he writes to you in his own hand, without aid of translator. 

Your participation is letter-writing.  You send your money.  You send care packages with simple gifts.  You pray. Oh, you pray for your child.  And the benefit of this not just for your child but also for his community and country is he stays there.  He is in school, because of money you send, he gets educated, and after 12 years, he’s ready for college.  He is equipped to stay right there and be an agent of positive change in his little Asian of African town or village. 

What I wondered is this.  How could our participation go deeper than just the financial contribution, the prayer, and the letter-writing?  In 2009, my wife went with a group on a Hope Chest trip.  They visited a dozen care points in Ethiopia.  When she came home we prayed about our church “adopting one of those carepoints.”  In early 2010, someone who was from one of those care points, someone who converted to Christianity there and was disciples by a man who had come out of Isalm to be a Christ-follower was in the United States and we had him speak in our church. 

That day that he spoke, 50 people in our church signed up to sponsors.  All the sponsors were connected to children in the same care point – one Candy had visited.  I had the vision.  We would go beyond the contributions, the letters, the prayer.  We would travel to Ethiopia and spend a week with these children.  We would spend a week laughing with them, loving them, and providing support and encouragement for the adults who cared for them.  Those Ethiopians were all evangelical Christians.  The care point is called Grace Baptist Church.  We could connect with them and we could come back and visit every year. 

Would it work?  When Candy and I adopted M__ in 2011, we visited the site.  We asked the pastor of Grace Baptist and the leadership team who cares for the kids – “Do you want us to come?”  This is a crucial question.  We Americans should not assume our presence makes things better.  I tried to ask this question of Pastor Tefera in as clear terms as possible.  He emphatically said, “Yes, come, spend a week with us and these kids.”  OK, so, we’ll come, but what will we do for a week?  I came up with a simple plan of a Bible school.  We’d have games, crafts, and a Bible lesson.  We would buy some sheep and slaughter them and give the kids a feast.  Pastor Tefera, “Is this plan OK?”  He is the leader.  When we all get on the metal bird and fly back to America, he’s the one who is with those 160 hungry kids every day.  He has to be the leader through and through.  We come to serve, love, and support him as he serves, loves, and supports these kids.  “Pastor, is this plan OK?”  Yes, it is OK.  Come. 

We have now done it once, April of 2012.  The trip was amazing.  And for me the confirmation that we’re on the right track came when I met our sponsor child Zeyiba.  My wife Candy handles most of the letter writing.  She sends Zeyiba letters and photos.  Immediately, Zeyiba showed me a picture Candy had sent, pointed to Candy, and said her name.  I have done sponsorship for years through Compassion International.  I have at times wondered, does this make any difference at all?  Does my money really go to help this kid in Rwanda or Kenya or wherever?  When I stood there in Kombolcha, Ethiopia with Zeyiba, and she held a picture my wife had sent and she knew Candy’s name, I knew we were on the right track.

My dream is to go back every year and stay with it and stay with Zeyiba until she graduates from college.  Over the course of that time, she and I will help each other recover from our poverty of relationships.   Together, we will learn what it means to follow Jesus.  She will help remove some of the stuff that blocks my discipleship path.  I will make sure she stays in school. 

My dream is to take a group from my church back to same spot to be with same kids every year.  When I addressed the children during our week there, I asked them, “Am I looking at the future president of Ethiopia somewhere in this crowd?” 

I firmly believe this model of a group of people in one church sponsoring a group of kids in the same care point and visiting those kids each year for a 10-15  year period is a repeatable model.  It is a model that can be copied by churches large and small.  It is a model that participates in evangelism.  Many in our care point are from Muslim families, and they come to Christ.  It is a model with the potential for long-term good in that it provides not only evangelization but also education.  It is a model that puts the power where it belongs; in God’s hands working through indigenous leaders with American visitors in a servant’s role.  It is a model that if you participate in it will expand your view of who Jesus is.  He is a lot bigger than what we can see looking through our small North Carolina window.  Our window is not a bad view of Him, not bad at all.  But, I want to see more of Jesus.  And sometimes doing that means spending significant time with people very different from me. 

I recommend this model wholeheartedly.  In it or a mission like it, we meet God in new places.  We follow Jesus where he leads instead of fitting him into our lives.  And we learn the Gospel in dramatic new ways.