Life is like dominoes...

I haven't really blogged much in several days. I guess the internet has been a lot more spotty than I was hoping. I hope you've been praying anyway- even if you're not sure of exactly what's happening, I'm sure God will fill in the gaps.

I've been thinking about poor people today- there are a lot of them here in the city. Often, when I tell people that we work in Africa, southeast Asia, and Latin America, people will ask whether we serve the children. Especially the poor children. When I tell them that we don't, I often feel that I need to justify that. How could we POSSIBLY work in places like Africa without directly responding to the needs of millions of AIDS orphans, along with the millions of other children who are literally dying from the effects of poverty?

It's not that we don't care. I care deeply. On this trip, I've been reading, "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. I highly recommend it. Stearns powerfully communicates the needs of the world, along with the Bible's call to respond to those needs. If you've ever been in the developing world, you've faced the sights, sounds, smells- life-wrenching poverty up close.

So why don't we do something about it?

We just teach them to be better leaders. And we teach them about what it means to serve with the heart of Jesus. And how to teach the word of God. But we don't feed them....

We've discovered that funny things happen, though...those local leaders begin to BECOME the answer for the poor. They begin to compassionately care for those in poverty around them. They read God's call to care for the poor, and they begin to actually do it. They reach across divisions of tribe, religion, and geography. Soon, we see THEM become God's answer. As we encourage and support our "partner ministries", small answers begin to spread like wildfire.

Church leaders in southeast Asia learn about God's challenge to Jonah, and begin to respond to the needs of those different from them.

Our partners in Kenya form programs to care for children in areas where the infant mortality rate is more than 20%.

Tribes that have hated each other for centuries begin to work together, which means that food, water, and other essentials are more effectively produced and shared.

And there's more....

There are three of us "Americans" on the training team for this trip. We're not doing anything about poverty. But we're training a couple of dozen leaders, who are training hundreds of others. Some of those are training others...and so on....

The three aren't doing anything about the poor...but the hundreds are doing a thousand little things. One person influences the next...one domino knocks the next one over. The next thing you know, society is being transformed. So maybe we're really doing a LOT about the poor.

Just thinking out loud on that.

Today (Wednesday) is my last day of training. My partners will be here through Friday, but I'm boarding a plane back to Chicago early Friday morning (I have to be at the airport at 4 am....aacckkkk...). In a couple of days, I will have switched worlds, and I'll be telling a few hundred people about my trip at our annual banquet. Please pray that I'll finish strong.

Pray that I'll influence a domino or two today...

Religious Freedom

We've been doing our training in a church. From the American perspective, it's more of storefront, with the pastor living upstairs, and the church meeting in his "living room" downstairs. In this country, there are "registered churches"- they have agreed to be under government supervision. They still do some great work, but everything they do must be approved by the government. Even their pastors must be approved (or even appointed) by the government. By registering, the church gains some freedoms- they don't have to hide their activities, or worry about being suddenly shut down. But the registered church also loses something signficant- the freedom to operate with God as their government.

I've been trying to imagine what would happen if the US government tried to "register" the churches in this way. I know that there are certain restrictions already, and I'm aware that we sometimes worry about how that may become limiting. However, the church in America still enjoys an incredible amount of freedom. The contrast is striking.

Our training location is not registered. That means that they are much more able to follow their conscience, and to obey what they believe God is calling them to do- regardless of what the government's opinion might be. But it also means that we try to keep our comings and goings very discreet. Too much attention can be very dangerous. Many of these pastors have already served some jail time for their ministry.

Our trainers represent both the registered church and the illegal church. They work together well, and seem to have a healthy respect for the struggles that they each face. The Kingdom of God is apparently able to focus on their common calling, rather than judging each other for the difficult choices they have made. And I'm realizing that there may not be any "right" decision in this kind of situation.

I'm not worthy...

I don't know how many missionaries have ever quoted Wayne and Garth in their blog from southeast Asia, but "I'm not worthy". (If you don't understand that reference, you need to study up on mindless 90's movies. Maybe google "Wayne's World".)

As part of our training sessions, we "interview" the TNTers about the people that they are training. You see, we train fairly small groups. Usually around 10-15 people (TNTers). The small group allows us to really go deep, discussing, wrestling, and even disagreeing quite a bit. You can teach/learn a lot more in that kind of setting.

The real magic happens AFTER we leave- when the TNTers go all over the country, training others. Here in the capital city, things are fairly easy. It's a city of 12 million people, so no one really bothers with us. But when the TNTers pass it on to other leaders (who often pass it on to others...), things are harder. The settings are more difficult. The demands of travel into remote tribal areas are intense. And the persecution they encounter is REAL...

I'm not worthy...but God has given us the opportunity to pass along what we know.

The picture you see here is "James" and "Roland", training a group of church leaders and pastors. Groups like that are happening all over the world. How cool is THAT?

Fascinating things, everywhere I look.

We just finished our first full day of training. It went really well (more about that later), but I wanted to post this picture first.

This is a restaurant I saw today. You're probably wondering why I posted it. Well, the restaurant down the street serves chicken, and it has a chicken on the sign. This restaurant has a picture of...um...I guess that's a black lab. Draw your own conclusions. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

We had a full day of training pastor-trainers today. These men (and one woman) travel all over the country, training others. We're only working with a few, but they're impacting hundreds of others. And those hundreds impact thousands. I love the math.

The few (and the hundreds) are telling people all over the country about Jesus. They're starting churches in tribal areas where there are no churches. They're distributing food to starving widows. They're training leaders in the neighboring country, where the soldiers sometimes kill pastors just for being pastors. And all in a country where the church faces severe persecution. It's a privilege to be part of this.

I guess eating dog isn't the most interesting thing happening in this city. (And I didn't eat at that restaurant, by the way...)

I'm here...

It's Tuesday morning here, which means that it's early Monday evening in Chicago. Had a pretty tame 15 1/2 hour flight to Hong Kong, then a 2 1/2 hour flight to V. Got in last night about 10:00. Now I have to start being pretty careful about what I say- security reasons.

We start training today. A few of the guys can't make it until tomorrow, because a tropical storm went through the central part of the country yesterday, knocking out some rail lines and flooding some roads.

I'm leading two sessions today- material that I haven't taught before. Pray for clarity and effective translation.

I'm hoping to post a few pictures if I can make it work.

Persecution is "normal"

I'll be boarding a plane for southeast Asia in two days. Less than two days, actually. More than any other place I've been, I'm finding that people have a WIDE range of reactions to this trip. Top three reactions:

1) "I was over there during the war." This statement is either followed by "...and I never want to go back", or "...and I'd love to go back sometime". There's rarely any gray area between those two reactions. Regardless of history, I hope you'll be praying that God will work.

2) "Ewww....they're communists, aren't they?" It's true- the new visa in my passport says "Socialist Republic of ...". There are technically constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, but they're meaningless. The communists there (and the rest of the world) have never been very comfortable with Christianity. In some places, they have a "live and let live" attitude. In other places, Christianity has been outlawed and Christian leaders have become the target of violence and imprisonment. But communists need Jesus, too.

3) The logical followup to #2- "Is that safe?" I'm not quite sure how to answer that question. In a sense, we're not safe when we drive the roads of the United States. But I realize that I'll be in a nation that has the 6th highest persecution index in the world. The real danger isn't to us- they generally just kick Americans out if they don't like what we're doing. The greater risk is for the pastors/leaders we're training. They are consistently placing themselves in harm's way, as they faithfully serve. That's why you won't find the name of the country "- so this blog won't show up in random web searches. As I get ready to board my flight at O'Hare, I'm keenly aware that I'm dependent on God's protection and provision.

If your faith isn't global, you're missing out

The world is big.

OK, so that's not really news. If you've ever played w/ Google Earth, you've had some of those "big world" moments. If you've ever travelled internationally, you've probably wished the world was a little smaller (unless you can afford to fly first class- those seats look soo good when I walk by them).

God is bigger.

Again- not really news. But I think we often forget that. We tend to downsize God. Think about the God of the Bible- spoke the universe into existence, knows us in our mother's womb, works all things for good, etc. In Him we live and move and have our being. That's big.

Now compare that to the God we often experience day-to-day. It just seems that God might be a LITTLE BIT bigger than we've let him be.

If you'd like to expand your view of God, here's a thought: "The size of a person's perception of God is often directly related to the size of their faith-world" If your view of God is limited to small things, you'll experience him small. If your view of God is global...world-sized...transcendent...omniscient, you'll experience Him BIG. And yet, He'll still be in the small things as well.

That's one of the reasons to engage with what God is doing around the world. If you worship a God who is primarily active in your neighborhood, you'll have a neighborhood-sized God. But the God of the Bible is bigger than Peotone or Altoona or (insert the name of your town). Working with Leadership Resources, I've been privileged to see first-hand a GLOBAL God. He's working all over the world.

But he's not only working on a global scale. He's also working in Peotone...and Altoona ...and (insert the name of your town here). If you limit God to the small things of life, you miss His bigness. If you begin to discover His bigness, you DON'T lose the small things.

I challenge you to open your eyes to the world. Discover how God is working all over the place. The wider you open your eyes, the bigger your vision of God will become. And I don't know about you, but I want glimpses of that BIG God.