projects everywhere

July 4, 2011 in campus ministry, dennis with 0 Comments

 

Right this second we have projects going on all over the world. I was a student in 1980 and I spent my summer on our project in Lake Tahoe, California. I just saw a report from that very project. It encouraged me and I thought you would enjoy it. Here is what Matt McComis (the staff development director) said,

Greetings from 6200 feet above sea level in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, California! The 71 students, plus 37 staff and student staff, are experiencing God, the mission, and roaming black bears while on the Lake Tahoe Summer Project!

More than one-third of the students gave their lives to the Lord this past year. Now, for the first time, many are experiencing biblical community and the joy of communicating what God has done in their lives. We’ve already seen students making drastic changes to their lives and taking huge steps of faith!

The best is yet to come with an ice cream slip and slide, the Fourth of July outreach and project turnover*. We’re dreaming that this summer would launch students on a new trajectory of serving the Lord for the next 50 years of their lives! Maybe some of these students will be on your team in the future!

[*project turnover is when the staff actually hand pick students to take over the leadership roles of the project and turn the project over to them]

We have more than 3,000 staff and students on projects. You can see some of the places we go at this link.

new content

June 22, 2011 in random with 2 Comments

I updated our pages on this site with new images and added video to the pages to give greater insight into our mission. Visit our Introduction, Family, Mission, and Join Us pages to see the new content.

a great work

June 21, 2011 in random with 0 Comments

I am enjoying hearing Keegan share more and more about his mission trip to the Dominican Republic. (DR) If I have heard him right he was part of a team that poured a concrete floor for a widow with children who lost her home in a hurricane. They also were able to paint the walls. Outstanding.

Looking through a worldly lens the work on the floor and the walls is insignificant (except for the widow of course) in light of other problems in the DR and it’s neighbor Hattie (still recovering from the earthquake.) Mix in the problems in the world and the significance becomes even smaller.

I am currently reflecting on Nehemiah (continuing to use 66 Love Letters by Larry Crabb to aid my study) and how he took charge of a work that in the Persian mind would have been insignificant. Rebuilding a wall in some far away place called Jerusalem–yawn. To them it was meaningless. However, Nehemiah saw it differently. When asked to stop what he was doing by other leaders in Nehemiah’s day,  Nehemiah basically says that what he was doing was too important to stop.

Nehemiah 6:3

The Message (MSG)

2-3 I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: “I’m doing a GREAT work; I can’t come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?” [emphasis mine]

God has something to say to us in Nehemiah’s story. Larry Crabb has shared that the entire letter is saying it. What God is saying is that any work that is connected with knowing Him and making Him known is a GREAT work.

The work that you and I do and will do if connected to knowing Him and making Him known is a GREAT work. You and I might be doing the work, praying for it, or funding it and the significance of our efforts are GREAT.

I want to make sure that is the kind of work I am doing, how about you?

 

he is back

June 18, 2011 in random with 1 Comment

Our boy is back. Keegan returned yesterday from a week long mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Stories of working with concrete and painting are being told, but what I loved was hearing Keegan say, “I am going again next year, but I am going to learn Spanish so I can make friends with the Dominicans.” I think he is beginning to get the picture as to what really lasts. The buildings they helped build will serve the people well, but what will last forever are the souls of the people.

Here are some departure and return shots. Departure shots are of Keegan in orange and return shots are of Keegan in blue. Click on the image to see the entire picture.

the word is…wait.

June 13, 2011 in dennis, family with 0 Comments

Waiting

We hoped hearing from our adoption agency would bring good news, but at last the word is that we will have to wait longer to bring Meseret and Kamise home.  The rainy season will begin shortly and the orphanage in which Meseret and Kamise are living needs a government official to come look at its processes more thoroughly. The roads become so treacherous that government work that requires that kind of travel ceases until October. The country capital is Addis Ababa and our girls are at an orphanage that is a 14 hour jeep ride away. So they are stuck and so are we.

We are saddened by this news and we are clinging to words like Paul wrote the Romans,

26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. The Message by Eugene Peterson

We are sad for the girls who were told that we were coming and now must wait. Even through this does not satisfy our desires we trust our Father. His way’s are perfect and so is his timing. The sunrise today will remind me of that.

radical: taking back your faith from the american dream

June 8, 2011 in dennis, random with 2 Comments

I have been reading Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. I keep thinking of Colossians 3 as I move through the book.

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4.

This feels like a powerful message. I have friends that live like this for which I am so grateful (you may be one of those friends), and I want to be one of them as well. Much easier to say than do. God help us.

Have you heard or read the book? Let me know.

 

mystery

June 3, 2011 in random with 6 Comments

Today our adoption agent let us know our court date of June 17th has been scratched. There are reasons beyond any of our control, which is just like this entire journey. The gift of powerlessless and surrender has brought with it immense ache. Thinking we were going to meet our girls face-to-face, now not knowing when we’ll be resubmitted to court. My little sister, Ash, texted in response to my news, “Oh bummer! What a roller coaster.”

I replied, “Look at me!!! No hands!!!”

As one who finds great comfort in holding on, the Father has thrust me into a surrender only the journey of adoption could bring.

Waiting in mystery.

Again…right where He wants me.

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