Leech Lake - Monday

Today was our first actual day of serving the people of Leech Lake. Due to how things work around here our days look a little different from other trips, we work with Kids first thing in the morning and do our regular morning routine at 2:30 in the afternoon for one. We also were able to have a cultural experience with a woman who married into the Ojibwe tribe (and now has a master's degree on Native American culture), so the students had a very full day of learning and processing. But, I'll let them get into that. Here are some stories straight from them, enjoy!

After working with the kids at the sports camp, Troy took our group to see the homes of the kids we would be working with all week. Quite honestly I had no real idea what to expect, but as we pulled in to what was the neighborhood, I was very much humbled. Seeing all of these rather small houses and tall grass and just very not well kept areas I began to feel very emotional for the kids themselves. I just felt angry and frustrated that these kids, and there were a lot of them, had to live in conditions such as these and have to grow up in a place where they may not know when the next meal is coming or if they will see their parents that day. To me it just seems unfair that these kids have to go through these sorts of things because after all, they are just kids. Which is why during our camp today, just playing basketball, which I am terrible at, and seeing these kids smile and laugh when I missed a shot or when this girl, Mia, just lit up when I offered to take her on a marathon race as she was on my back just makes me feel God’s presence in them and in me. Even though it is only for a short time, we can allow these kids to forget about any struggles they are going through and just let them be kids. These simple laughs and smiles really are the epitome of God’s love for me. –Zane

Spending my first day on the mission trip as a freshman has been a whirlwind. I spent my day with kids climbing on my back non-stop. I spent my day with kids telling me about their home life and how their day has been going. It has just been crazy but the one thing that stuck out most to me was the fact that there is so much we don’t realize about the Native American culture. The history that we learned today is just something I could’ve never imagined. I think there’s so many concepts about their history that has just been hidden and unspoken that needs to be more recognized all throughout our culture. Their way of life is different. The rules, expectations, and limits are different. I really liked that one of their main focuses in their everyday life is respect. Respect the land. Respect your people. Respect property, animals, people’s feelings, and so many more things. I also think that it’s amazing that the people around here appreciate silence and take it as a sign of respect and it’s something they look for which is different than our culture at home. It’s sometimes classified as awkward or sometimes disrespectful if you can’t think of something to talk about and keep a conversation going. The way that the Native people live is something I wish we had in Indy. The culture is different and something I envy. Especially res. time! ;)  -Lindsay

["Res. Time" is a loving nickname for the pace of life on an Indian Reservation. The people here are more concerned about being with people/family and spending quality time with them, but this causes many things to move at their own pace. People may be late to an event but the culture sees that as okay because everyone knows it is because they were busy with something more important, community.]

Today was the first day of my first ever mission trip, so it’s safe to say I was pretty nervous. I wasn’t sure how God was going to use my skills in this trip, but those worries were quickly answered when it was decided I would be a part of the ‘storytelling team’ working with kids. One of said children quickly decided I would be her new best friend for the few days I’m here, and even made me a friendship bracelet during craft time. She was really sweet, though a short attention span. But hearing about some of the situations their families were in made me appreciate mine a lot more, and really sparked a desire to give these kids some happy summer memories, if nothing else. Learning about their culture has also been very interesting, and I look forward to learning more and getting to know the kids even better in the days to come.  -Sabrina

Leech Lake - Sunday

Hey everyone, we arrived safe and sound. We have had dinner (wild rice farmed by the people here), gone through orientation and learned a little more about the people we will be serving with this week. We are one of 5 churches, so there's a lot of people ready to show the love of Jesus.

Each night we will be sharing stories from our students on where they saw Jesus today, what they did, how they experienced God's love, etc. So for tonight, here are a few first impressions. Enjoy!

We’re finally here! It was a very long trip, but we made pretty good time I think. It was definitely good that it was not hot outside today, because that made the bus ride much more bearable. We didn’t have any vehicle issues like flat tires either, which was great! Now that we are here, it is very interesting to see what the other churches are like. Most of them are very small, and we learned that we will not be in groups with them as much as we normally are. This may make it harder to connect with the other churches, but we will definitely still try to talk to them and get to know them! We also learned a little about the community we are going to be serving in, and it sounds like it is going to be a very interesting and new experience. I am very excited to begin serving tomorrow! -Megan

After what seemed like forever, we are finally here. My legs are probably going to be sore for the next few days but I’m excited to be here. I’m very glad that the school we are staying at is nice and that there are showers on site. We got to play a few games with the other churches when we first arrived and all the people seem to be very friendly and easy to get along with. I’m going to keep an open mind about everything this week and I am very excited to get to work and share God’s love with this community! -Scott

After a full day in the bus we have finally arrived in Minnesota. The trip down thankfully wasn’t too bad. We had no vehicle issues and luckily most people got some rest in during the drive (I would not be on that list though). Also I may have found my new favorite thing already on this mission trip. It’s called a trailer. The use of the beautiful invention made the bus extremely pleasant as I was in it all day long and was actually cold. When we got to the school that we are staying at we were greeted with a big smile from the Youthworks staff and then were able to talk to people from the other churches. After talking with other churches it has become very clear that most of them have never gotten to go a mission trip and I’m hoping that I can help them to have a good time and want to come out and serve God more! I’m excited to start working tomorrow and see what God has in store for me. Please pray for us, the other churches, and the Youthworks staff that we can just go out and show Gods love. -Kaili

TED Talks For Jesus?

I'm currently reading the new book from the TED talks, their official guide to public speaking. Obviously they have had many amazing (and not so amazing) speakers over the years and I was hoping to learn a few things.

But today I was reading the four types of speech to avoid:
The Sales Pitch: What can I get from you in this speech.
The Ramble: I have nothing to say so I just keep talking.
The Org Bore: This is how my office works.
The Inspiration Performance: Look at me, I'm a great speaker.

And I started wondering, how often to we share Christ like these? Here's what Christ/the Church can do for you if you get in with me. I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to Jesus but I'll just keep talking. This is how my church works so this is how you need to believe. I'm more concerned with getting my quota of talking to people about Jesus than actually talking with you about Jesus.

You know what the best speeches are? Honest. Personal stories. From the heart. What if instead of memorizing the Romans Road we just told people why we believe in Jesus and want to know Him more?

Of course, there's a catch to this: Are we a disciple of Jesus? Do we actually believe it (or even do we know what we believe)? Do we really want to know Him more?

T

Happy Independence Day

I'll keep it short and sweet today. This day in America is all about freedom. But why are we free?

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. ~ Gal. 5:13 (MSG)

Be free today, but not a selfish free. Be truly free.

T

Jesus Will Offend You

I saw a video recently from a man I greatly admire.



Here's the reason I love this video, it's spot on. For some reason we have started to believe that we deserve not to be offended or have our feelings hurt. The problem is, if someone then offends us we want them to change or we ignore/get rid of the part of them that we deem offensive.

And you can't do that to Jesus.

Jesus was offensive. Jesus is offensive. He had no problem pointing out a sinful condition in a person, going so far as to call His closest follower and future leader of His church "satan". He asked questions that were uncomfortable and hurt going as far as referring to an entire group of people as dogs. He asked people and still asks us to do things that are not easy and may actually make us seem offensive.

And He's still 100% God and 100% love.

If you really want to know Jesus you will be offended. It's impossible not to be. You will have to struggle with Him and who He is and who you are. The only alternative is a safe Jesus kept at a safe distance.

Have you ever kept someone who made you uncomfortable at a safe distance away? How strong was that relationship...?

T

God Makes Things Fit

In my reading lately I've been thinking about how God likes to make things fit. In Joshua when the tribes of Israel were to make an altar they were not to use cut stones, they had to fit all the stones together. Later when God instructs Israel to build the Temple they were not to use any nails, all the wooden beams had to fit together perfectly.

It has gotten me thinking if God still works this way. Does God still like to take things that are not necessarily perfect and have them fit together for His will? Does He do this with people, not waiting for us to be perfect but instead allowing us to fit together in our imperfections to do amazing things for Him?

Maybe we should spend less time trying to make ourselves perfect and more time trying to fit into God's plan with the other rocks...

T

"Wow"

This is our daughter's word of choice right now. A few weeks ago we went to Disney World and it made sense and was fun to watch.

"Look at the castle." "Wow!"
"Hold on, it's a fun ride." "Wow!"
"It's Mickey Mouse!" "Wow!"

What's interesting is we've been home a few weeks now and it hasn't subsided. Everything is still a wow.

I took her to the pet store. "Wow!"
Playing with water in the backyard last night. "Wow!"
Seeing a mosquito this morning. "Wow!"

Somehow we managed to open her sense of wonder. Everything, and I mean everything right now is a wow. It's all amazing and new and exciting. She managed to be excited by the amazing at Disney but that has allowed her to see that same amazing in our everyday world at home.

It got me thinking, do we still do the same thing? I should be wowed by what she is looking at, but I'm not. I've been losing my sense of wonder. Do I need to reevaluate and look at what she's looking at through a toddler's eyes again? Do I need to see the "wow"?

Do I do the same thing in my faith? Do I need to read the stories, say the prayers, serve people with a new sense of "wow"?

T

Coming Home

So apparently my blogs that were supposed to be posted every week all came out in one day. Sorry about that.

But it's hard coming home to that. It's nice to go away and have everything taken care of for you, someone else cooks the meals, cleans your room, maybe even drives you around. And then you come back to reality and you have to do everything yourself again. It's hard, but it needs to be done.

Here's my request, do the same thing with your faith. It's nice to go to church or a retreat or a mission trip and have someone else schedule your time with God, tell you what to pray, lead you in song, read the Bible to you and explain it. But at some point you have to come home. You have to do these things for yourself.

If I only ate meals when they were prepared by someone else on vacation I wouldn't eat very much. Don't let your spiritual meals be the same way.

T

The Whole Picture

The other day I was listening to classical music while driving (it keeps me calm). Anyway, I was listening to a piece and could hear all sorts of noise followed by bursts of laughter during the performance. It was odd, but whatever.

It wasn't until later I realized I didn't have the whole story.

I was only listening to the piece. If I had been watching it I would have seen something completely different. You can see what I mean here. The entire orchestra leaves the stage one by one until there are only two musicians remaining.

But that's still not the whole picture. The story makes the difference. This piece has been performed this way for over 200 years with the orchestra leaving the stage. This is the Farewell symphony by Haydn. Haydn was a hired conductor for Prince Esterhazy in the late 1700's. And his orchestra was hired too, but they usually got the summers off to go home and visit their family. The Prince was keeping them a little later than Haydn wanted so he wrote this piece as a hint to his boss "hey, it's time to go home, we're all leaving."

Too often we only see a little piece and think we know it all. Sometimes we only know a piece of what's going on. Many times we only know pieces of who God is. We need to take a step back and realize we don't know the whole story, or even better, put in the time and effort to learn the whole story.

*silently leaves his chair*

T

Once Upon A Time

The other night we were watching the television show "Once Upon A Time" (we're a little behind, we need a good bingewatching session). In the middle of one of the episodes was a line I quickly wrote down.

It's hard to be a savior when no one wants you to save them.

That is so true. I remember having a discussion with students about serving years ago and more than one said they like to serve if someone needs help. If the person doesn't look like they need help or don't acknowledge they need help the students said they were likely to do nothing.

Thankfully Jesus doesn't operate this way. He recognizes our need for Him and seeks us out even before we know we need Him.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  ~ I John 4:9-10 (NLT)

We can't wait for people to want a savior. Sometimes we have to help people even when they won't acknowledge they need help.

Don't wait. Shine your light.

T

Faith From Mom

Many people have heard the verse that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a self-discipline. It's a great verse, makes you feel good. No fear but love from God. Awesome. But do you know what prompted this statement?

I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. ~ II Timothy 1:5-7 (NLT)

This verse came out of a reminder of where Timothy's faith came from, his mother and grandmother. Those women taught Tim who God was and His love for their son/grandson.

One of my biggest frustrations as a student minister is hearing parents say they don't want to force their faith on their child so they don't take them to church or tell them about Jesus. How is sharing the truth of your Savior "forcing" your faith? It's sharing your faith. If anything, how can someone (even a child) make an informed decision about God if they never hear about Him, especially from those close to them who love them?

Live your faith. Share your faith.

T

Who Lifts This Arm?

This quote from Moby Dick has been in my head today.

Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea!

It's asking a very simple question. Am I able to do even the simplest task or is God behind it all?

In many ways, the real answer is not what defines us. The answer we perceive can be way more important. It will determine how we live.

Is God behind everything, every breath I take?

T 

The Cost of Serving Jesus

The other day I was reading a story I've read and heard at least a hundred times thanks to growing up in church. It's a pretty popular one, Jesus is teaching and some guys bring their friend to be healed. But the crowd is so big they can't get into the house to see Jesus so the friends make a hole in the roof and lower their buddy in front of Jesus Who forgives his sin and heals him. A nice, feel-good type of a story.

But for the first time I noticed something:

Soon the house where he (Jesus) was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room... (Mark 2:2a, NLT)

Jesus wasn't at some random person's house, He was at a friend's house, the house He was staying at while in town. Think about that for a second, this poor guy said he'd help Jesus out as the traveling preacher. And what did it cost him? To give Him a bed probably didn't cost anything (other than space), but what about food? What about all these other people, were they fed too? The traffic of crowds and wear on the house? And now, the roof? And how did all this effect not just the guy who said Jesus could stay but his wife and children, what was this costing them? What probably started out as a simple "here's the spare room" to help Jesus out turned into so much more. Their lives would have stopped because of it, and now their lives and home were being broken.

There was a huge cost to having Jesus stay with them.

Here's the real question: Does it still cost to invite Jesus to stay with you? And if so, what?

T

The Bible Order

This has been something weighing on my mind for a while. Is there significance to the order of the Bible
Some are obvious and talked about. Letters and books of prophecy are arranged by size or author. That makes sense. But what about something bigger?

For instance, have you ever noticed there are always stories before instruction? Before you have the rules given to Moses by God you have the stories of creation, God choosing His people and the Exodus from Egypt. You have the historical stories before the books of prophecy. The stories of Jesus and the church precede the rules on "how to be a good Christian." Maybe we need to teach things that way...

But the one that is in my mind is Ecclesiastes. A book that seems very dark and "woe is me", everything is futile and meaningless. And it is followed immediately by Song of Solomon, a book that speaks of the intimate love of God for us. Why would God place those books that seem like polar opposites right next to each other?

Maybe it means we can't have one without the other, there will always be tension in our relationships and we need to love beyond that. When things seem futile we love anyway and love conquers all. Maybe it means if we are in a state where everything is meaningless we need to take our focus off of what is around us and put it back on our One True Love. The way out of the darkness is to ignore the darkness and focus on the light.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I have a hard time believing there is any little coincidences when it comes to God...

T

Sherlock

My wife is now obsessed with this show. It took me weeks to convince her to give it a try, now the second our daughter's in bed she's priming the TV getting us ready to continue whatever episode we are on.

But I have always loved Sherlock Holmes. I've read some of the books (I wish I could say all but there are quite a few and I didn't have them all). The idea of being able to see what others don't amazes me. Especially since for so long I sucked at it. I still remember someone damaging the front wheel of their bicycle and it took me three tries to see the dent (which was huge).

So one of the things I love about the show is their pull back to the books. The episodes are almost like remakes of the originals in today's world (which if you've read my book, I like that idea). The Study in Scarlett becomes the Study in Pink. Holmes and Moriarty's meeting at Reichenbach Falls becomes an episode called The Reichenbach Fall. The other day we watched an episode entitled "The Scandal in Belgravia" which was an omage to the story "A Scandal in Bohemia" and they included one of the lines directly from the book:

You see, but you do not observe.

For me, this is one of the reasons why so many people miss Jesus, or at least don't have a complete view of Him. God is all around us. There are miracles happening every second of every day. His love is in action constantly. But so many people miss it. Why? Because they haven't been taught to read the clues like Sherlock Holmes. We see dirt, he sees a footprint telling us the person's height, weight, shoe size and gate. Some see coincidence, others see God's divine providence at work.

May our eyes be opened that we may see Jesus.

T

Star of the Sea

Years ago before GPS and smartphones there were limited resources in finding your route, or worse, where you happened to be. The most obvious one was landmarks.

(This annoyed me when I moved to Fishers because everyone gave me directions based on landmarks that no longer exist. "Turn right at the old Lowe's." How do I know where that is if it's gone now?)

But sailors had a more difficult time. There are no landmarks. Just open water. So to find their location and their direction they would use the stars. Points in the sky that are consistent and act as an interstaller map. The most obvious being Polaris, the north star. Find it and you know that direction is north.

A few months ago in my reading I discovered that the name Mary means "Star of the Sea." Some believe this was done on purpose, the Son of God was given to a woman with this name because He would be the star of the sea for all mankind, Someone who they can look to and find direction.

In what seems to be a season of chaos in our world right now, do you know to look to the Star of the Sea for direction...?

T

"Yesterday's Amazing is Today's Ordinary"

Our daughter has become slightly obsessed with the movie "Charlotte's Web" where this line is from. I've heard it about five times in the last three days. But although it is about a fictitious spider's spelling it really does still hold true in our world.

Think about all the things that were amazing, even imaginary, a century ago. Household electricity, running water, flight, internet, wifi, phones everywhere, foods from around the world. All these things were at one point amazing. Now, if we drop a call or a flight is delayed we get annoyed. Why? Because it's ordinary, it should happen. We expect it.

That's the challenge for this weekend. The story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection are amazing, but have we heard it so often that it is now ordinary?

Make sure to take some time this week to think about it... and make it amazing again...

T

Moving God

The other night I was reading the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers. It's always a fun story, who doesn't love a talking donkey...

But I started looking at the next part of the story. The reason Balaam's donkey talked to him was King Balak wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites and God didn't Balaam to (obviously). So the story goes that King Balak takes Balaam up on a hill so he can see the Israelites and asks for a curse, but instead Balaam blesses them, because that's what God told him to say.

Here's where it got interesting for me. King Balak, not happy about this of course. So what he does next is take Balaam to another hill with a different view of the Israelites and asks him to do a curse again. When that doesn't work, they move to another viewpoint and he tries again.

It makes me think of some people I know, they don't like being told "no", so if they ask you a question and you say "no" they ask it again worded slightly different.

"Can I have a bagel with cream cheese?"

"Sorry, we're out of cream cheese."

"What if I just had a bagel and you put some cream cheese on it?"

I wonder how often we do that with God. He doesn't respond right away of give us the response we want so instead we ask in another way. Maybe we even go to another church, God will give me the answer I want there.

Does it really change the answer...?

T

New Book "Twenty-First Century Parables"

Sorry, but today is shameless self-promotion.

Most people don't know it, but I have been working on a book for a few years retelling the parables of Jesus for a new audience. It's $0.99 and only available as an ebook. I hope you like it and share it with others! You can find it at:

iBooks

Amazon Kindle

Barnes and Noble Nook

Kobo

Copia

Or just Google it, some of the results are funny...

T

An Extra Day

It's finally here, the 29th of February. The extra day in our calendar. It took four years and it's finally here.

What would you do with an extra day? Would you go have fun? Read a book? Spend more time with someone? Sleep?

It seems so often we have wonderful plans for good things like spending time with God or serving others when "I have extra time". But you will never have "extra" time. Even on this leap day it really isn't anything extra, we're going to do all the same things today we'd do on any other Monday.

You have to find time. Make choices to spend your time wisely. Make sure you delegate time for what's important.

Otherwise, it will be four years before you have this day again...

T