Sunday, March 24, 2013
Generation Z
This is a great video that gives us a lot to consider in how we raise the next generation.
Saturday, March 09, 2013
iMonk: And Some Doubted
iMonk: And Some Doubted:
The Incredulity of St. Thomas (detail), SalviatiFrom a classic Michael Spencer post, March 2007
The Bible can be amazing.
We can say all the theologically correct things you can think of, but when the Bible surprises you, when it reaches across the centuries and touches you with a sentence or a phrase, there’s something very special that convinces you on a deeply human level that God speaks through this book because he knows you and your innermost struggles. Not just as it paints the portraits of Jesus or gives us the words of God, but when it speaks to my human experience so precisely you feel that God is speaking to you and you alone. God is saying “I know how it is. Don’t be ashamed. It will be OK.”
You see, doubt is a constant in my life. I’m not put together like a theological block of concrete. If you need a speaker to talk about his absolute and increasing certainties, I’m not your guy. If you need someone to give testimony to how all his doubts have vanished, knock on another door.
No, I wonder if God exists. I sometimes see the universe as an empty place. Oh, I frequently see it filled with the glory of God and singing his majesty with all its created energy. I’m often filled with the assurance of faith. But not all the time. Sometimes tragedy, emotion, age, disappointment, depression, dark moods….they visit me and I doubt. I wonder and question. This is my human experience. God gives me faith. My humanness still gives me doubt.
On her blog sidebar, Amy Welborn has this quote: “She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.” That’s my experience. I know a lot of feelings, but by the grace of God- and by that grace only- faith wins out. On some days, just barely.
This disqualifies me from ministry according to some in the blogosphere. In the theological weight rooms of the internet, it’s how much you can lift that makes you worth having as a minister of Jesus Christ. Being lifted, every moment, and some moments completely, is a story that gets little respect in some corners.
My experience with God’s people, however, is quite different. Whenever I share my doubts and fears, as well as my faith journey and experience, tears come to a lot of eyes. People wait to talk to me. They say “Thank you.” They recognize something they always thought you couldn’t admit without condemnation.
What does this have to do with the Bible, and those moments of personal encounter?
Sometime in the early 90′s, post seminary and post an awful lot of ministry, Bible teaching and reading, I was studying the Great Commission when a phrase came flying off the page at me.
“….but some doubted.”
If I need to locate this for you, it’s the mountaintop experience that closes Matthew’s gospel, which he likely borrowed from Mark’s lost ending. It’s the disciples, now witnesses of the resurrection. It’s the doubting Thomas’s. The disciples Jesus loved. The Peters, Jameses and Andrews. It’s the guys who John said saw the grave clothes lying there, who ate with the resurrected Jesus, inspected his wounds, heard his teaching, sat on the seashore and enjoyed fish and bread for breakfast.
There on the mountaintop, their theology included….”I’m just not sure….I’m don’t know…..It can’t be….but it is…..how? What? Oh Lord. I believe. Help my unbelief.” Amazing.
If you didn’t recognize that last line, it’s from an encounter in Mark 9 where a man who believes admits he also doesn’t believe. In a Gospel where fear and faith are constantly laid out for Christians to see, it’s frequently the case that believers don’t believe perfectly, or well, or with absolute certainty. It seems that Paul, who had been given kinds of certainty none of us can even comprehend, could still write that …“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”Certainty of an absolute sort awaited him and all of us, in the future.
The entire New Testament rings with the tension between doubt and belief. The church addressed in Hebrews stands in danger of shrinking back. The Johannine communities are tempted to reject the wonder of the incarnation. The persecuted Christians addressed in Mark’s Gospel stood between existential fear and risk-taking, suffering faith.
I don’t know of any creed that says I must confess certainty. They call on me to confess “I believe…” That’s really profound, and incredibly helpful. It’s torture to tear up the fragile assurance of weak believers or to reject the sola fide of those who are trusting a God who is less than an overwhelming certainty some of the time. Simple, childlike faith is a beautiful treasure, to be encouraged, built up and nurtured. But that won’t happen if we don’t accept “…but some doubted,” and still do. And always will.
The Incredulity of St. Thomas (detail), Salviati
The Bible can be amazing.
We can say all the theologically correct things you can think of, but when the Bible surprises you, when it reaches across the centuries and touches you with a sentence or a phrase, there’s something very special that convinces you on a deeply human level that God speaks through this book because he knows you and your innermost struggles. Not just as it paints the portraits of Jesus or gives us the words of God, but when it speaks to my human experience so precisely you feel that God is speaking to you and you alone. God is saying “I know how it is. Don’t be ashamed. It will be OK.”
You see, doubt is a constant in my life. I’m not put together like a theological block of concrete. If you need a speaker to talk about his absolute and increasing certainties, I’m not your guy. If you need someone to give testimony to how all his doubts have vanished, knock on another door.
No, I wonder if God exists. I sometimes see the universe as an empty place. Oh, I frequently see it filled with the glory of God and singing his majesty with all its created energy. I’m often filled with the assurance of faith. But not all the time. Sometimes tragedy, emotion, age, disappointment, depression, dark moods….they visit me and I doubt. I wonder and question. This is my human experience. God gives me faith. My humanness still gives me doubt.
On her blog sidebar, Amy Welborn has this quote: “She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.” That’s my experience. I know a lot of feelings, but by the grace of God- and by that grace only- faith wins out. On some days, just barely.
This disqualifies me from ministry according to some in the blogosphere. In the theological weight rooms of the internet, it’s how much you can lift that makes you worth having as a minister of Jesus Christ. Being lifted, every moment, and some moments completely, is a story that gets little respect in some corners.
My experience with God’s people, however, is quite different. Whenever I share my doubts and fears, as well as my faith journey and experience, tears come to a lot of eyes. People wait to talk to me. They say “Thank you.” They recognize something they always thought you couldn’t admit without condemnation.
What does this have to do with the Bible, and those moments of personal encounter?
Sometime in the early 90′s, post seminary and post an awful lot of ministry, Bible teaching and reading, I was studying the Great Commission when a phrase came flying off the page at me.
“….but some doubted.”
***silence***
That phrase exploded like a bomb in the midst of my pretense and phoniness in ministry. It was such a window into the reality of my life that I never tire of pointing it out to anyone who struggles. What a gift! “…but some doubted.”If I need to locate this for you, it’s the mountaintop experience that closes Matthew’s gospel, which he likely borrowed from Mark’s lost ending. It’s the disciples, now witnesses of the resurrection. It’s the doubting Thomas’s. The disciples Jesus loved. The Peters, Jameses and Andrews. It’s the guys who John said saw the grave clothes lying there, who ate with the resurrected Jesus, inspected his wounds, heard his teaching, sat on the seashore and enjoyed fish and bread for breakfast.There on the mountaintop, their theology included….”I’m just not sure….I’m don’t know…..It can’t be….but it is…..how? What? Oh Lord. I believe. Help my unbelief.” Amazing.
If you didn’t recognize that last line, it’s from an encounter in Mark 9 where a man who believes admits he also doesn’t believe. In a Gospel where fear and faith are constantly laid out for Christians to see, it’s frequently the case that believers don’t believe perfectly, or well, or with absolute certainty. It seems that Paul, who had been given kinds of certainty none of us can even comprehend, could still write that …“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”Certainty of an absolute sort awaited him and all of us, in the future.
The entire New Testament rings with the tension between doubt and belief. The church addressed in Hebrews stands in danger of shrinking back. The Johannine communities are tempted to reject the wonder of the incarnation. The persecuted Christians addressed in Mark’s Gospel stood between existential fear and risk-taking, suffering faith.
I don’t know of any creed that says I must confess certainty. They call on me to confess “I believe…” That’s really profound, and incredibly helpful. It’s torture to tear up the fragile assurance of weak believers or to reject the sola fide of those who are trusting a God who is less than an overwhelming certainty some of the time. Simple, childlike faith is a beautiful treasure, to be encouraged, built up and nurtured. But that won’t happen if we don’t accept “…but some doubted,” and still do. And always will.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Washington DC #4
Thursday, July 26
Well, Doug and I switched back to our original groups. We started the day out a few minutes early with me running down to get the van so that I could take the teens to the 7-11 right across the street so that they could buy some drinks for the day. The weather report was warning us that it was going to be a very, very hot day. So I wanted to get a head start and make sure the teens had drinks. Unfortunately, our fearless leader caught our attempt to get drinks and said we didn't have time. I grumbled inside my head but did not want to challenge him in front of the kids. So we pressed on! Ironically, we got to our mission site early and had to sit around until the kids started coming. Grumble, grumble.
We headed across town to a ministry call Brighter Day Ministries. It is a kind of day camp / summer school for lower income kids. Now if there was one thing I was beginning to feel as a result of these mission trips, it was that kids are much more challenging to me than working with teens. I am in my element when I am working with teens. I ended up in a room with our leader Brad. He and I tried to entertain a group of kids who were probably 5th-6th graders. They were a very lively bunch. Especially since any of the regular adults running the ministry seemed to disappear for a while as we played games with them. After some time, Brad needed to leave and some other adults at the church came to be with the kids. I took this as an opportunity to go to the other rooms to see how my teenagers were doing with the other age groups. I found one group watching a movie so I settled in and enjoyed about 2 minutes of the movie before I was asleep on the floor. When I finally woke up, I visited some other classrooms. Jennifer was talking with one little boy and invited me over. Once there, she told the kid to speak to me. He looked me square in the eyes and said, "You an oooooold man!". I casually smiled at him and said, "And you're a little punk!" I got a great facial expression out of him because he clearly did not expect that. But I told him I am just teasing him back and moved on!
Many of the kids had an awards banquet the night before. So technically their schooling was done. So there really was not much structure to their time. As a result things started getting a little bonkers. A small fight broke out between some of the older kids and I got to witness first hand how the teachers took care of it. It was real tough love, guilt trip kind of stuff. The kids at fault ended up apologizing to each other and the class so it seemed to end well just as we were getting ready to leave.
For lunch, we stopped at a little Jamaican restaurant. We had a lot of fun eating some spicy chicken.
Now after lunch, we had some time to kill until our next ministry site. So we headed over to the museums and as quick as we could, we took in some of the sights. First, we ran into the National Archives to see all the important documents. But since there was a line and I was with impatient teens, we saw then from across the room over the crowd in line and took off for a gander at some other things. Second, we stopped for about 45 minutes at the National Museum of Natural History. There was so much to see that it just did not do justice to rush through it all. But the few things I was able to stop and look at were amazing. Next we hiked it over to the Air and Space Museum. I got to see the actual Apollo 11. I could not believe how tiny it was. Talk about claustrophobia!
After that, we headed off to our ministry site for the evening. We went to the DC Central Kitchen. This was an amazing ministry. Many restaurants in the area donate leftover food to this mission site. They then take all their donations and make tons of meals out of it. They are a main source of food for many soup kitchens throughout the city. The organization of this place was amazing. For the majority of the time that we were there, we cleaned, pealing and cut collared greens. We had a lot of fun. One of the guys who worked there was wonderful with us. He told us his story of being a well paid cook but not feeling very content with his job. He wanted to do something else that he knew would help people. So he ended up taking on the job here at the DC Central Kitchen. He said as a result, he feels more fulfilled knowing that he is helping to feed the hungry and teach and train them in how to be cooks.
We ended up eating dinner at this site. As we were waiting to eat, our teens broke out into a wonder rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. I wish I could have tapped it and put it on YouTube. It was priceless. Then we sang the Benediction as our prayer for our meal. The workers there were loving the attitude and spirit of our teens. We then headed back to our home base.
Friday, July 27
Of course being our last day of ministry, we had to wake up extremely early for our morning site! I had to be up at 5AM! I remember the alarm going off, feeling quite groggy. And then noticing the shape of something on the floor that did not seem right. As I cleared the sleep out of my eyes, I began to notice a very large cockroach staring back at me as if to greet me as the first one up! I tried to move fast with a deathblow, but I did not move quick enough. The roach darted quickly right to my luggage! Ooooooh great! What a way to start the day!
We headed off to an Episcopal Church that has a ministry called Charlie's Place. This was an early morning ministry in which they provide a warm meal and clothes to anyone that needs it. We were right by DuPont Circle which is a popular destination for the homeless. Our teens did a great, great, great job with this ministry also. They dove right in to help serve the meal, give out clothes, and also sitting down and talking with just about all the guests. At this point, I am not even needing to nudge the teens at all. They are attacking the opportunity to minister however they can. It was inspiring to watch.
From there, we had a few minutes between sites so we headed over to the Fredrick Douglass National Memorial Site. We saw a brief film on the life of Frederick Douglass. And we got to hang out at his house. He had a great view from his front porch overlooking all of DC. Austin demonstrated just how steep his front yard was by rolling down the lawn. This was a very funny thing to see as he was going much faster than he expected, with arms and legs flailing.
Our final site was at the Children of Mine Youth Center. We helped with some cleaning in the kitchen, a bunch of weeding in the gardens, and clearing out the tall grass and vines along the perimeter of the fence around the property. The teens did well despite the fact that we were all tired. The lady who runs this mission was very inspirational and passionate about all that happens at Children of Mine. She was enjoyable to just listen to her tell stories and to hear her vision for the future of this mission site.
For dinner we met up with our other team and all ate together at the Old City Cafe of Jerusalem. We ate some of the best Middle Eastern food shoved into a pita. Some of the teens did not like it but I ate it up! We also celebrated Kerri's birthday right after dinner.
For our debrief time, we all headed over to the Washington National Cathedral. It was closed so we did not get to see the inside of it. But the architecture of the outside of the building was breathtaking. As I gawked at the intricacies of the building, our teens started a lively game of Ninja in the yard. After a while of fun, we had a long time to debrief as we spent some time talking about what we were taking home as a result of this mission trip. All of the teens responded very positively. When we got back to our home base, some of us ran down to Rita's for our last shot at the most delicious frozen ice ever!
Saturday, July 28
Well we got up bright and early with every intention of getting back to Loveland at a reasonable time in the late afternoon. But before we hit the road, we had to make a few more stops in DC. All of the teens insisted rather emphatically that the very first stop had to be Starbucks. I tried to convince them that McDonald's coffee is just as good and so much less expensive. But they would not listen to my sage advice. To Starbucks we went.
Then we began the Monument March of Death! I took them on a quick tour of some of the big monuments that happened to be relatively close to each other. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the World War 2 Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. At the WW2 Memorial we were able to take a picture with a veteran and thank him for his service. All of these monuments were amazing and very touching. I was especially moved at the WW2 Memorial. There was a lot of emotion that you could feel in the air at just about all of these sites. And now that the teens are really good and tired, it was time to zoom home!
But part way into the trip, we realized it was going to take longer than we had hoped. We realized that one of the tires on the van was vibrating heavily. So we pulled off into a small town in the middle of nowhere. We found an auto parts store. The guy at the counter recommended a local mechanic that would see us even though all the garages were closed for the weekend. We showed up at his house and over the next couple of hours, he spent time fixing the tire while we ate lunch at the local Sheetz. It ended up being a good place to chill for a while.
Once the tire was fixed we headed off. It took a while, but we finally arrived back in Loveland close to midnight! Although the ride home did not end like I had hoped, overall this entire trip was amazing. Once again, our teens rocked and were not only an inspiration to anyone they came in contact with, but they continue to be an inspiration to me as well. Doug, Ally and Hannah all did a tremendous job helping out as leaders. It was a very memorable trip with teens who were just excited to do mission work together.
Thanks again for the opportunity to serve you and your families. It is an honor to create and share experiences that, for them, hopefully will shape their spiritual lives forever and help them develop into the men and women that God is calling them to be.
Well, Doug and I switched back to our original groups. We started the day out a few minutes early with me running down to get the van so that I could take the teens to the 7-11 right across the street so that they could buy some drinks for the day. The weather report was warning us that it was going to be a very, very hot day. So I wanted to get a head start and make sure the teens had drinks. Unfortunately, our fearless leader caught our attempt to get drinks and said we didn't have time. I grumbled inside my head but did not want to challenge him in front of the kids. So we pressed on! Ironically, we got to our mission site early and had to sit around until the kids started coming. Grumble, grumble.
We headed across town to a ministry call Brighter Day Ministries. It is a kind of day camp / summer school for lower income kids. Now if there was one thing I was beginning to feel as a result of these mission trips, it was that kids are much more challenging to me than working with teens. I am in my element when I am working with teens. I ended up in a room with our leader Brad. He and I tried to entertain a group of kids who were probably 5th-6th graders. They were a very lively bunch. Especially since any of the regular adults running the ministry seemed to disappear for a while as we played games with them. After some time, Brad needed to leave and some other adults at the church came to be with the kids. I took this as an opportunity to go to the other rooms to see how my teenagers were doing with the other age groups. I found one group watching a movie so I settled in and enjoyed about 2 minutes of the movie before I was asleep on the floor. When I finally woke up, I visited some other classrooms. Jennifer was talking with one little boy and invited me over. Once there, she told the kid to speak to me. He looked me square in the eyes and said, "You an oooooold man!". I casually smiled at him and said, "And you're a little punk!" I got a great facial expression out of him because he clearly did not expect that. But I told him I am just teasing him back and moved on!
Many of the kids had an awards banquet the night before. So technically their schooling was done. So there really was not much structure to their time. As a result things started getting a little bonkers. A small fight broke out between some of the older kids and I got to witness first hand how the teachers took care of it. It was real tough love, guilt trip kind of stuff. The kids at fault ended up apologizing to each other and the class so it seemed to end well just as we were getting ready to leave.
For lunch, we stopped at a little Jamaican restaurant. We had a lot of fun eating some spicy chicken.
Now after lunch, we had some time to kill until our next ministry site. So we headed over to the museums and as quick as we could, we took in some of the sights. First, we ran into the National Archives to see all the important documents. But since there was a line and I was with impatient teens, we saw then from across the room over the crowd in line and took off for a gander at some other things. Second, we stopped for about 45 minutes at the National Museum of Natural History. There was so much to see that it just did not do justice to rush through it all. But the few things I was able to stop and look at were amazing. Next we hiked it over to the Air and Space Museum. I got to see the actual Apollo 11. I could not believe how tiny it was. Talk about claustrophobia!
After that, we headed off to our ministry site for the evening. We went to the DC Central Kitchen. This was an amazing ministry. Many restaurants in the area donate leftover food to this mission site. They then take all their donations and make tons of meals out of it. They are a main source of food for many soup kitchens throughout the city. The organization of this place was amazing. For the majority of the time that we were there, we cleaned, pealing and cut collared greens. We had a lot of fun. One of the guys who worked there was wonderful with us. He told us his story of being a well paid cook but not feeling very content with his job. He wanted to do something else that he knew would help people. So he ended up taking on the job here at the DC Central Kitchen. He said as a result, he feels more fulfilled knowing that he is helping to feed the hungry and teach and train them in how to be cooks.
We ended up eating dinner at this site. As we were waiting to eat, our teens broke out into a wonder rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. I wish I could have tapped it and put it on YouTube. It was priceless. Then we sang the Benediction as our prayer for our meal. The workers there were loving the attitude and spirit of our teens. We then headed back to our home base.
Friday, July 27
Of course being our last day of ministry, we had to wake up extremely early for our morning site! I had to be up at 5AM! I remember the alarm going off, feeling quite groggy. And then noticing the shape of something on the floor that did not seem right. As I cleared the sleep out of my eyes, I began to notice a very large cockroach staring back at me as if to greet me as the first one up! I tried to move fast with a deathblow, but I did not move quick enough. The roach darted quickly right to my luggage! Ooooooh great! What a way to start the day!
We headed off to an Episcopal Church that has a ministry called Charlie's Place. This was an early morning ministry in which they provide a warm meal and clothes to anyone that needs it. We were right by DuPont Circle which is a popular destination for the homeless. Our teens did a great, great, great job with this ministry also. They dove right in to help serve the meal, give out clothes, and also sitting down and talking with just about all the guests. At this point, I am not even needing to nudge the teens at all. They are attacking the opportunity to minister however they can. It was inspiring to watch.
From there, we had a few minutes between sites so we headed over to the Fredrick Douglass National Memorial Site. We saw a brief film on the life of Frederick Douglass. And we got to hang out at his house. He had a great view from his front porch overlooking all of DC. Austin demonstrated just how steep his front yard was by rolling down the lawn. This was a very funny thing to see as he was going much faster than he expected, with arms and legs flailing.
Our final site was at the Children of Mine Youth Center. We helped with some cleaning in the kitchen, a bunch of weeding in the gardens, and clearing out the tall grass and vines along the perimeter of the fence around the property. The teens did well despite the fact that we were all tired. The lady who runs this mission was very inspirational and passionate about all that happens at Children of Mine. She was enjoyable to just listen to her tell stories and to hear her vision for the future of this mission site.
For dinner we met up with our other team and all ate together at the Old City Cafe of Jerusalem. We ate some of the best Middle Eastern food shoved into a pita. Some of the teens did not like it but I ate it up! We also celebrated Kerri's birthday right after dinner.
For our debrief time, we all headed over to the Washington National Cathedral. It was closed so we did not get to see the inside of it. But the architecture of the outside of the building was breathtaking. As I gawked at the intricacies of the building, our teens started a lively game of Ninja in the yard. After a while of fun, we had a long time to debrief as we spent some time talking about what we were taking home as a result of this mission trip. All of the teens responded very positively. When we got back to our home base, some of us ran down to Rita's for our last shot at the most delicious frozen ice ever!
Saturday, July 28
Well we got up bright and early with every intention of getting back to Loveland at a reasonable time in the late afternoon. But before we hit the road, we had to make a few more stops in DC. All of the teens insisted rather emphatically that the very first stop had to be Starbucks. I tried to convince them that McDonald's coffee is just as good and so much less expensive. But they would not listen to my sage advice. To Starbucks we went.
Then we began the Monument March of Death! I took them on a quick tour of some of the big monuments that happened to be relatively close to each other. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the World War 2 Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. At the WW2 Memorial we were able to take a picture with a veteran and thank him for his service. All of these monuments were amazing and very touching. I was especially moved at the WW2 Memorial. There was a lot of emotion that you could feel in the air at just about all of these sites. And now that the teens are really good and tired, it was time to zoom home!
But part way into the trip, we realized it was going to take longer than we had hoped. We realized that one of the tires on the van was vibrating heavily. So we pulled off into a small town in the middle of nowhere. We found an auto parts store. The guy at the counter recommended a local mechanic that would see us even though all the garages were closed for the weekend. We showed up at his house and over the next couple of hours, he spent time fixing the tire while we ate lunch at the local Sheetz. It ended up being a good place to chill for a while.
Once the tire was fixed we headed off. It took a while, but we finally arrived back in Loveland close to midnight! Although the ride home did not end like I had hoped, overall this entire trip was amazing. Once again, our teens rocked and were not only an inspiration to anyone they came in contact with, but they continue to be an inspiration to me as well. Doug, Ally and Hannah all did a tremendous job helping out as leaders. It was a very memorable trip with teens who were just excited to do mission work together.
Thanks again for the opportunity to serve you and your families. It is an honor to create and share experiences that, for them, hopefully will shape their spiritual lives forever and help them develop into the men and women that God is calling them to be.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Washington DC #3
Tuesday, July 24th
Well today Doug and I switched teams so that we could each get some time with the other teens. So today I was with Zach, Henry, Brian, Kerri, Shayna, Carley, Katie and Aerin. Our first stop was at a ministry that I have already been to with the other group, S.O.M.E. (So Others May Eat.). I had a much different experience this time though. The guy that got on Ryan's case the day before seemed to focus all his attention on me. I got hauled back to the kitchen and had to do dishes. Not the plates and cups stuff, but the big serving containers and all the cooking stuff. Once I would get caught up I would go out into the serving area to cool off and check in with the kids. But the kitchen boss man did not like that. He seemed to find me immediately and order me back to the kitchen. The teens, on the other hand, rocked as they helped to serve breakfast to hundreds of people. Apparently there was a teen from another volunteer group that was serving right along with our teens and she clearly despised our teens. It was humorous to hear our group talk about it afterwards. With the personalities that we have it was good that they did not get confrontational!
For lunch we went to the National Arboretum. This was a beautiful outdoor area. There was also a pond full of what seemed like thousands of fish. Just by throwing in a tiny bit of fish food, the water would disappear under a flood of fish all flopping over themselves trying to get to the food.
Then in the afternoon we had our "Urban Plunge". We broke up the teens into 4 groups of 5 each. Then each team was given an assignment to go into the city and go to a location in which they would try to find out what it is like to be homeless. They needed to find out what a homeless person would do for clothes, food, health care, shelter and such. We also were given 2 dollars each ($10 total for the group) and with that money we had to find diner for ourselves and also share it with someone. If we could get them to talk with us that was a bonus. So my team headed off to Dupont Circle. We began by asking the first person standing outside of the church how to get to the bus we were supposed to take. As is typical with me, that is when the adventure began. He felt that with were we needed to go that was the wrong bus so he took us on a very brisk walk for over a mile to a much better bus stop. He talked our ears off about DC. Once we got to the spot he recommended, as he walked off, a lady overhearing our conversation redirected us to a bus on the other side of the street that she thought would be much faster. So we did that. Once we were on the but though, something did not feel right. Another really nice lady on the bus explained to us we were going the wrong direction so we should take the bus to the end of the route since we were almost there anyhow, and take the train into Dupont Circle. So that is what we did. We navigated the subway system to get to where we needed to go.
Once we were at our park we scoped it out and began talking to people. There was an area that had a bunch of people playing checkers and chess. This provided the opportunity that helped the teens to enter into conversations with others. One older guy in particular, took a liking to our teens and spent some time with them teaching them different levels of checkers. Through those conversations we learned about homelessness and how the city takes care of those who are down and out. This gentleman was not homeless. He was retired. He used to work for the government back in the Kennedy presidency. After that he worked for the US Postal Office until he retired. He also is an elder in a Pentecostal church. He was a really nice guy who enjoyed spending time down at the park as many of the others seemed to know him really well.
For dinner, we finally decided to go to Panera's. We bought a half dozen bagels and a bottled water. We were able to give away the water and one of the bagels but the guy we gave it to did not seem interested in conversation.
We met up with all of the other groups in a grassy area just to the west of the US Capitol. There we heard everyone's stories of what they experienced and learned as a result of their urban plunge.
Wednesday, July 25
Today Doug and I staid with the groups that we had on Tuesday. My group's theme for the day clearly was in caring for the elderly. We started out our morning by going to Model Cities Senior Wellness Center. This was not a residential place. Instead it was kind of like a YMCA for the area Seniors. It was very nice. All our teens jumped right in and mingled with all of the people there. We participated in an aerobics class, some played pool with others, some went to the social hall and had some great conversations with the Seniors hanging out in there. At one point I noticed that there were some from my team that I have not seen in a while. As I wandered the building to see where they landed I found them in the choir room. They were singing songs with some of the people in there. I sat in and just listened. Once they were done, I kindly recommended that they get Zachary in there to sing a solo. Of course, the people were thrilled at the suggestion and so was Austin! Austin went to go get him. At first Zach acted like a deer in the headlights, but then with Austin helping him, they ended up singing a duet and the people loved it! We had a great time here.
For lunch we stopped at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It had so much art all throughout the building from architecture to paintings to sculptures to stained glass to murals, etc. etc. etc. The very building commanded a respect and sense of awe as you walked through it and looked at its beauty.
Our afternoon ministry site was at St. Thomas More Medical Center. In the building that we were in many of the residents were undergoing dialysis. There were 5 floors of people. It was our job to go from floor to floor and seek out anyone who would like a visitor. If they said yes, then we would spend some time talking and praying with them. I could tell that this was uncomfortable for our teens. But with a little coaching and prompting, they did really well in approaching people and entering into conversation with them, then concluding their time with prayer. I was able to see at least a few who were deeply touched by our teens. It was a much different experience from our morning site. Here many were suffering and dealing with major health issues. Some felt very isolated or alone. We were able to interact with many of them on a positive level. We concluded our time with our debrief time in Lincoln Park.
We had the evening to ourselves so we took all the teens down to Union Station for dinner. Doug ended up meeting some relatives and I connected with my sister and her family for dinner. Most of us ended up at the Uno Pizzeria. It was nice to catch up with family and allow the teens to have some downtime to hang out and eat some familiar food! Once everyone was done, we met back up and walked down to the U.S. Capitol. The band from the U.S. Marines was playing a concert and we got to hear the tail end of it. It was a great night to hear the music and enjoy our surroundings. After that, we tried to make a quick dash to the Lincoln Memorial but we just couldn't make it happen. Maybe on the day we leave we will try again!
Overall, things have been going really, really well with all of the teens! We are having a great time!
Well today Doug and I switched teams so that we could each get some time with the other teens. So today I was with Zach, Henry, Brian, Kerri, Shayna, Carley, Katie and Aerin. Our first stop was at a ministry that I have already been to with the other group, S.O.M.E. (So Others May Eat.). I had a much different experience this time though. The guy that got on Ryan's case the day before seemed to focus all his attention on me. I got hauled back to the kitchen and had to do dishes. Not the plates and cups stuff, but the big serving containers and all the cooking stuff. Once I would get caught up I would go out into the serving area to cool off and check in with the kids. But the kitchen boss man did not like that. He seemed to find me immediately and order me back to the kitchen. The teens, on the other hand, rocked as they helped to serve breakfast to hundreds of people. Apparently there was a teen from another volunteer group that was serving right along with our teens and she clearly despised our teens. It was humorous to hear our group talk about it afterwards. With the personalities that we have it was good that they did not get confrontational!
For lunch we went to the National Arboretum. This was a beautiful outdoor area. There was also a pond full of what seemed like thousands of fish. Just by throwing in a tiny bit of fish food, the water would disappear under a flood of fish all flopping over themselves trying to get to the food.
Then in the afternoon we had our "Urban Plunge". We broke up the teens into 4 groups of 5 each. Then each team was given an assignment to go into the city and go to a location in which they would try to find out what it is like to be homeless. They needed to find out what a homeless person would do for clothes, food, health care, shelter and such. We also were given 2 dollars each ($10 total for the group) and with that money we had to find diner for ourselves and also share it with someone. If we could get them to talk with us that was a bonus. So my team headed off to Dupont Circle. We began by asking the first person standing outside of the church how to get to the bus we were supposed to take. As is typical with me, that is when the adventure began. He felt that with were we needed to go that was the wrong bus so he took us on a very brisk walk for over a mile to a much better bus stop. He talked our ears off about DC. Once we got to the spot he recommended, as he walked off, a lady overhearing our conversation redirected us to a bus on the other side of the street that she thought would be much faster. So we did that. Once we were on the but though, something did not feel right. Another really nice lady on the bus explained to us we were going the wrong direction so we should take the bus to the end of the route since we were almost there anyhow, and take the train into Dupont Circle. So that is what we did. We navigated the subway system to get to where we needed to go.
Once we were at our park we scoped it out and began talking to people. There was an area that had a bunch of people playing checkers and chess. This provided the opportunity that helped the teens to enter into conversations with others. One older guy in particular, took a liking to our teens and spent some time with them teaching them different levels of checkers. Through those conversations we learned about homelessness and how the city takes care of those who are down and out. This gentleman was not homeless. He was retired. He used to work for the government back in the Kennedy presidency. After that he worked for the US Postal Office until he retired. He also is an elder in a Pentecostal church. He was a really nice guy who enjoyed spending time down at the park as many of the others seemed to know him really well.
For dinner, we finally decided to go to Panera's. We bought a half dozen bagels and a bottled water. We were able to give away the water and one of the bagels but the guy we gave it to did not seem interested in conversation.
We met up with all of the other groups in a grassy area just to the west of the US Capitol. There we heard everyone's stories of what they experienced and learned as a result of their urban plunge.
Wednesday, July 25
Today Doug and I staid with the groups that we had on Tuesday. My group's theme for the day clearly was in caring for the elderly. We started out our morning by going to Model Cities Senior Wellness Center. This was not a residential place. Instead it was kind of like a YMCA for the area Seniors. It was very nice. All our teens jumped right in and mingled with all of the people there. We participated in an aerobics class, some played pool with others, some went to the social hall and had some great conversations with the Seniors hanging out in there. At one point I noticed that there were some from my team that I have not seen in a while. As I wandered the building to see where they landed I found them in the choir room. They were singing songs with some of the people in there. I sat in and just listened. Once they were done, I kindly recommended that they get Zachary in there to sing a solo. Of course, the people were thrilled at the suggestion and so was Austin! Austin went to go get him. At first Zach acted like a deer in the headlights, but then with Austin helping him, they ended up singing a duet and the people loved it! We had a great time here.
For lunch we stopped at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It had so much art all throughout the building from architecture to paintings to sculptures to stained glass to murals, etc. etc. etc. The very building commanded a respect and sense of awe as you walked through it and looked at its beauty.
Our afternoon ministry site was at St. Thomas More Medical Center. In the building that we were in many of the residents were undergoing dialysis. There were 5 floors of people. It was our job to go from floor to floor and seek out anyone who would like a visitor. If they said yes, then we would spend some time talking and praying with them. I could tell that this was uncomfortable for our teens. But with a little coaching and prompting, they did really well in approaching people and entering into conversation with them, then concluding their time with prayer. I was able to see at least a few who were deeply touched by our teens. It was a much different experience from our morning site. Here many were suffering and dealing with major health issues. Some felt very isolated or alone. We were able to interact with many of them on a positive level. We concluded our time with our debrief time in Lincoln Park.
We had the evening to ourselves so we took all the teens down to Union Station for dinner. Doug ended up meeting some relatives and I connected with my sister and her family for dinner. Most of us ended up at the Uno Pizzeria. It was nice to catch up with family and allow the teens to have some downtime to hang out and eat some familiar food! Once everyone was done, we met back up and walked down to the U.S. Capitol. The band from the U.S. Marines was playing a concert and we got to hear the tail end of it. It was a great night to hear the music and enjoy our surroundings. After that, we tried to make a quick dash to the Lincoln Memorial but we just couldn't make it happen. Maybe on the day we leave we will try again!
Overall, things have been going really, really well with all of the teens! We are having a great time!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Washington DC Trip #2
Sunday, July 22
The long drive to DC was peasant and peaceful. If you ever have to do a road trip I highly, highly, highly recommend trail mix with a Starbucks Double Shot Vanilla Energy Drink. That combination will keep you very awake and alert for HOURS!
Once we got here we met our fearless leaders. We immediately took off to go pick up Ryan who flew in the day before and was staying at Erin Randall's place. Then we all went out to dinner at a Salvadorian restaurant. It was great! The teens chowed down.
We then hopped in our vans and went on a prayer tour of the DC area. We stopped at several sites that represented the powerful all the way down to the powerless. We prayed over the city in many different spots as well as learning a lot about the history of the DC area and the struggles that this area has had to deal with over the years.
Then it was time to go back and go to bed. We are in very, very tight quarters as far as the bedding situation goes. What is interesting is that I am right up against a tarp that separates the guys area from the girls. This may not seem like a big deal but I have discovered that I have direct access to the "girl talk". This actually scares me. I am not sure I want to accidentally over hear their conversations. I am intentionally loud so that they remember I am right there!
Monday, July 23
Our group got split up into 2 teams. So Doug and I are going to switch off every day so that we can get some time with each one of the teams. Today I had the team that was heading out very, very early. The team consists of Jennifer, Kaitlin, Maria, Hannah, Kristen, Olivia, Ryan and Austin. We had to be up at breakfast at 5:45AM! Then we headed off to a mission site that serves meals to people. We obviously were helping out with breakfast. The mission site was called SOME (So Others May Eat). It was a very well organized mission that does a lot for the community with helping them with any needs they may have in order to restore them to be able to care for themselves. It was quite impressive. Our teens did a great job working hard as we served pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
Now the big story of the day goes to Ryan. Apparently, Ryan tried to lob just one small cherry in the general direction of Austin and one of the more intense kitchen workers just happened to see it and really leaned into him. Unfortunately, I did not happen to be present at just that moment to see Ryan get the hammer. I was bummed. Ryan is such a good boy I just can't imagine him ever getting into any kind of trouble so this was quite unprecedented.
We then came back to our home base. From here we did a prayer walk around the neighborhood. We made some observations of this neighborhood in comparison and contrast to the ones we live in. We also saw a lot of services that help those who are down and out. We ended the walk by being able to pray at the World Vision headquarters. And then we met up with our leader at Ebeneezer's Coffee House. This is a coffee house that was the site of Mark Batterson's first church here in DC. Goggle him if you have not heard of him before. He is a big pastor in the DC area doing a lot of great ministries and missions for this whole area. He has come out with some books that I hear are pretty good as well.
We had a little bit of down time after that so we rested up a little bit and ate our lunches at the church we are living in for the week.
For the afternoon we went to a site called Children of Mine Youth Center. The story goes that the lady who is running it had a tragic situation happen to one of her kids in this neighborhood so instead of it destroying her, she built a youth center that gives them all kinds of stuff to grow: meals, books, clothes, garden, playground, etc. It was amazing to see how she could turn a bad situation into something so good for the community. At first we did not know how to help because she had another whole team of volunteers from another mission that was already helping. So we hung out for a little bit and slowly found areas that we could all pitch in and help with. I noticed that her ceiling fans were not blowing the right way so it was stuffy and muggy in the dining hall. So after switching them all over you could feel the circulation of the cool air in the room so much better. Some of the girls got to help in the kitchen as they prepared dinner for the kids who were coming that evening. Some did yard work. There was plenty of grass to be mowed and weeds to be dealt with.
For dinner we ended up at a Thai restaurant. Needless to say we walked out of there stuffed with all kinds of excellent food in our bellies. We went down to the Jefferson Memorial for a time to gander and then do our debrief for the day. The teens got A LOT out of today. They had a lot of fun but also have already shown a sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is teaching them as a result of all our experiences from the day.
Tomorrow I will be with the other team and we get to sleep in a little bit longer than today so I am going to go take a shower to peal off about 20 layers of sweat that has covered me and sleep well tonight!
The long drive to DC was peasant and peaceful. If you ever have to do a road trip I highly, highly, highly recommend trail mix with a Starbucks Double Shot Vanilla Energy Drink. That combination will keep you very awake and alert for HOURS!
Once we got here we met our fearless leaders. We immediately took off to go pick up Ryan who flew in the day before and was staying at Erin Randall's place. Then we all went out to dinner at a Salvadorian restaurant. It was great! The teens chowed down.
We then hopped in our vans and went on a prayer tour of the DC area. We stopped at several sites that represented the powerful all the way down to the powerless. We prayed over the city in many different spots as well as learning a lot about the history of the DC area and the struggles that this area has had to deal with over the years.
Then it was time to go back and go to bed. We are in very, very tight quarters as far as the bedding situation goes. What is interesting is that I am right up against a tarp that separates the guys area from the girls. This may not seem like a big deal but I have discovered that I have direct access to the "girl talk". This actually scares me. I am not sure I want to accidentally over hear their conversations. I am intentionally loud so that they remember I am right there!
Monday, July 23
Our group got split up into 2 teams. So Doug and I are going to switch off every day so that we can get some time with each one of the teams. Today I had the team that was heading out very, very early. The team consists of Jennifer, Kaitlin, Maria, Hannah, Kristen, Olivia, Ryan and Austin. We had to be up at breakfast at 5:45AM! Then we headed off to a mission site that serves meals to people. We obviously were helping out with breakfast. The mission site was called SOME (So Others May Eat). It was a very well organized mission that does a lot for the community with helping them with any needs they may have in order to restore them to be able to care for themselves. It was quite impressive. Our teens did a great job working hard as we served pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
Now the big story of the day goes to Ryan. Apparently, Ryan tried to lob just one small cherry in the general direction of Austin and one of the more intense kitchen workers just happened to see it and really leaned into him. Unfortunately, I did not happen to be present at just that moment to see Ryan get the hammer. I was bummed. Ryan is such a good boy I just can't imagine him ever getting into any kind of trouble so this was quite unprecedented.
We then came back to our home base. From here we did a prayer walk around the neighborhood. We made some observations of this neighborhood in comparison and contrast to the ones we live in. We also saw a lot of services that help those who are down and out. We ended the walk by being able to pray at the World Vision headquarters. And then we met up with our leader at Ebeneezer's Coffee House. This is a coffee house that was the site of Mark Batterson's first church here in DC. Goggle him if you have not heard of him before. He is a big pastor in the DC area doing a lot of great ministries and missions for this whole area. He has come out with some books that I hear are pretty good as well.
We had a little bit of down time after that so we rested up a little bit and ate our lunches at the church we are living in for the week.
For the afternoon we went to a site called Children of Mine Youth Center. The story goes that the lady who is running it had a tragic situation happen to one of her kids in this neighborhood so instead of it destroying her, she built a youth center that gives them all kinds of stuff to grow: meals, books, clothes, garden, playground, etc. It was amazing to see how she could turn a bad situation into something so good for the community. At first we did not know how to help because she had another whole team of volunteers from another mission that was already helping. So we hung out for a little bit and slowly found areas that we could all pitch in and help with. I noticed that her ceiling fans were not blowing the right way so it was stuffy and muggy in the dining hall. So after switching them all over you could feel the circulation of the cool air in the room so much better. Some of the girls got to help in the kitchen as they prepared dinner for the kids who were coming that evening. Some did yard work. There was plenty of grass to be mowed and weeds to be dealt with.
For dinner we ended up at a Thai restaurant. Needless to say we walked out of there stuffed with all kinds of excellent food in our bellies. We went down to the Jefferson Memorial for a time to gander and then do our debrief for the day. The teens got A LOT out of today. They had a lot of fun but also have already shown a sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is teaching them as a result of all our experiences from the day.
Tomorrow I will be with the other team and we get to sleep in a little bit longer than today so I am going to go take a shower to peal off about 20 layers of sweat that has covered me and sleep well tonight!
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Washington DC Trip #1
Well, it is almost time for our next and final great adventure for the Summer. The Senior Highers are taking off to Washington DC to do a mission trip with the Center for Student Missions. We have worked with this organization on other trips (New York, Chicago and Nashville). They always have done a great job organizing mission trips and giving all of the teens a great experience. I am excited because I have never been to Washington DC before. And on top of that, we have a really, really great team of teens and adults going. I have high expectations that they will all have a phenomenal time together.
So, some things to pray about:
1. Safe travels. Long distances are never fun. I wish teleportation was invented by now but it is not. At least, not yet!
2. Spiritual experiences. Pray that the teens deepen their faith and enrich their relationship with Christ through everything we do.
3. Bonding. Pray that all of the team deepens in their relationships with each other.
4. Processing. As always, I want them to apply all that they learn to their regular life: home, school, youth group. Pray that this trip will impact those areas so that this next school year will be even better as the youth group and their families continues to help shape them spiritually!
5. Sharpness! Pray that I and my leaders stay mentally and spiritually sharp all throughout this trip. Already Doug Ransom has been great with helping to make sure we are remembering everything we need before we go!
6. Weather. Pray that we have good weather. I know it is inevitable that it will be hot. It is the end of July. I just hope it is not horribly hot and muggy! But even if it is, that God gives us strength and patience to accomplish all we need to do!
Thanks!
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