squatter camp(out): of awareness and action

Awareness is a seductive drug. It is powerful in the right hands but completely worthless in practical terms.

Awareness cannot cure, help, or comfort. Awareness does not win wars or topple evil. It does not do... It simply is...

On the same token, awareness can rouse the warriors to charge up a hill to fight for justice. Awareness can inspire greatness in medicine and art. Awareness can open eyes and hearts and the floodgates of heaven.

So what if I offered you some awareness...? What if I invited you to live like the world's poor for one night...? What if I invited you to a Squatter Camp(out)...?

faith: of rubber chickens and internal emptiness

I am sure that faith is real.

I just don't always know if our faith is real.

I mean, we have so many culturally established ways of displaying faith that one wonders whether it remains faith at all. I wonder if our faith hasn't shifted from actual faith to cultural faith. Like, "If I am faithful to this culture, it will reward me with ease and comfort and acceptance."

So that's still faith, but not in some higher power or creative Source. That's faith in the collective swings and trends of humanity.

This Sunday night at Amplify, I'll start a series of services/sermons called Rubber Chicken Theology. I hope we'll find out whether we're living as followers of Christ or just looking like followers of Christ. Because, like a $4 rubber chicken, you can look the part and fool a few folks...but inside of us a very different story is being told.

the mission: go

From February 7, 2010...

The Mission - Go from Grace Point Church on Vimeo.

that moment of transcendence: of memories and something larger

Scan your memory for a minute and consider those times in life where you've really experienced transcendence, where you've truly been part of something larger than yourself.

Maybe you were volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity project and the standing of a completed wall brought a rush of adrenaline that was beyond what should have been there for the simple application of hammers to nails.

Maybe you were in a delivery room and you saw the orchestral movements of nurses and doctors and husbands and mothers. You remember the beyond-words magic of a crying baby and a life unveiled.

I remember my own moments. I remember moments in a sports arena, cheering on modern-day gladiators with thousands of others, getting swept up in the metaphor of an us-versus-them battle that represents such a larger reality.

I remember being in a hotel in Naivasha, Kenya singing of the kindness of a savior in the darkness of an African night, disparate souls tied with a common experience and a common yearning to be led to repentance.

I remember the embrace of men in a hospital hallway before being wheeled into surgery, the weight of their hands pressing their faith into my weary body.

I remember the feeling of my new wife's hands in mine as we explored Seattle on our honeymoon. Alone in a charming, bustling metropolis, we were at once in our own world and yet connected with the larger Love that bound us.

I remember the last time my daughter squeezed my neck, knowing that such deep joy could not come from such an arbitrary embrace apart from a transcendent Source being represented in that moment.

I remember...

What do you remember?

South Africa Update #8

The team is on their way home.

They sould be on the ground in San Antonio around lunchtime on Monday!!

South Africa Update #7

The rains are falling in Johannesburg. And when the rain comes in Africa, it often comes in buckets.

Sure enough, the team had to put one ministry on hold due to the rain - they were to collect street children for a little mercy ministry project. The idea was to bring the street children to the church, feed them, give them a place to shower, and then send them on with new clothes and full bellies. That will wait for tomorrow, which will be here soon enough.

Instead of helping the children, the team again hit the prisons hard, ministering to juveniles who were awaiting trial. The response was great and the team is sleeping well tonight in anticipation of a HUGE day tomorrow that will start at 4:45am.

Tomorrow, the team will tackle two prisons (including a female prison). In addition to their work behind bars, they will be feeding and handing out soccer balls, ice pops, and jump ropes at the local squatter camp. If that weren't enough, they'll then be running a Youth service for 100 high school age kids at Mayfair Baptist. Somewhere in between all of that, they still aim to find and feed the street children.

Their reward? Time on Saturday to visit a lion park outside of Johannesburg.

Keep praying that they would finish well. They are headed into the last days of ministry and they will need all of the strength they can muster to finish strong.

And keep praying for Ryan, that he would transition into his role as a full-time missionary with grace and that God would steal away those hurdles to his being obedient and effective.

-KB

South Africa Update #6

Just a joyful report that as the team went to sleep Wednesday night, they were in great health and great spirits. No signs of upset stomachs and plenty of full bellies.

They had an African BBQ (known as "braai") with the Africans they are staying with and, of course, Pastor Willie. A Burundian war-refugee played a solo "concert" for them and a young Zulu showed off some traditional African dancing.

Those times of fellowship and relationship are lasting memories that the team will cherish. After long days of pouring out oneself in ministry, it is often the laughs around a fire that sustains the missionary.

Praise God for His provision and for a SAFE first half of the trip!!!

-KB