August 30th
I begin this journal with mixed emotion over this endeavor. I've also been awake for nearly a full day (as I only slept for 4 hours the previous night in hopes to sleep on the planes), and now mid-way through our travels to India... Tiredness is the overarching feeling right now! But I'm excited and anticipate some incredible experiences, emotional ebbs and flows from meeting (and leaving) new friends, encountering poverty interwoven with wealth, teaching and living in a vastly different culture, and the thrill of gaining insight from Stuart and Jill Briscoe, Dick Robinson, my team, and the Indian people! A priceless opportunity.
International airports are really sweet - especially European airports - because they're a melting pot of cultures from around the globe. Passing through corridors, one can hear multiple languages being spoken by people of all shapes and sizes, with colorful, exotic dress (no, I don't mean strippers...well, that I know of!), and all wearing the same look of "I need to catch my next flight." - an expression that no cultural or language barrier can hide!
We left Chicago at around 4:00pm and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 7:00am - an 8.5 hour flight (Germany is 7 hours ahead of us). I slept all of 30 minutes so far. It's now about 9:30am here; about 2:30am at home. Our connecting flight leaves at 11:00am here, for another 8.5 hour flight into Hyderabad, India. This will put us at a grand total of 17 hours flying time, and we will have crossed over approximately 9,000 miles! We should arrive in India at about 11:00pm their time; 12:30pm at home.
It is a trek, but I don't mind it at all - especially considering the exhilaration of traveling abroad and experiencing new places around the world! Most of all though, being able to see what God's up to away from home...
Our flight arrived at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 11:15pm; 12:45pm at home. Operartion Mobilization (O.M.) representatives were there to pick us up. We found out that the training center was about 1.5 hours outside Hyderabad. We reached the campus at about 1:30am. For this first week, I am roomies with Mike Noel, one of Elmbrook Church's elders/leaders; and Phil Brooks, one of the video/media techs. on the team. Our room is a small dorm with a bathroom inside... with a flushing toilet! (a huge plus in foreign contexts). We also have a "shower"... AKA a bucket and cup to dump water over our heads! It was a humid 80 degrees as we went to bed, but luckily our ceiling fan rules and cools!
On the way to the headquarters, we drove through and around Hyderabad. People were out and about (working mostly), even for as late as it was. It seems like they were busy doing random things - talking with friends, cleaning the streets, hauling various materials on flat-beads, etc. There were a lot of homeless people too. Many were sleeping on sidewalks, under awnings in case of rain. Some had blankets, others didn't.
- It was heartbreaking. -
Dick Robinson, one of the Associate Pastors at Elmbrook and our team's leader, noticed our dismay, turned around from his seat on the bus, and explained that India has experienced political, economic, and social unrest for 1000's of years, (not to mention having more than 1.3 Billion people living in very tight vicinity) and to remember that we are coming to support and serve O.M. - a ministry that is working to alleviate physical and spiritual poverty, provide affordable, high-quality Christian education to the poor and oppressed, and bring civil rights to outcasts of the caste system - the Dalits (Dah-leet) - in India. In other words, our team can't expect to come in and change the plight of these people in 2 weeks time, no matter how hard it is to understand - how ridiculous and (potentially) arrogant anyway! We are coming as learners and supporters of O.M.'s work and ministry.
Looking ahead:
Our team will stay on O.M.'s headquarters just outside Hyderabad, in Secunderabad ("Second City") for one week. We will be a part of a pastor's conference, highlighting Stuart and Jill Briscoe (Ministers at Large - World-traveling Preachers) from Elmbrook, and Dick Robinson, as the keynote speakers. Building relationships with the pastors and leaders here and listening to their stories, doing interviews with some of them, and possibly teaching at the Good Shepherd School and/or Church on the campus, will be our primary focus this week. (The G.S. grade schools and churches have been established through O.M. all over India). I'll explain more about the G.S. schools and churches once I've learned more about them.
One of the keys to remember on trips like these is that we often don't know what will be expected of us entirely in terms of work. (Our hosts decide what the major projects will be for the team as they know the immediate needs that can be met, or at least, given some attention to during the time we are there). Remaining flexible and "ready" is not just appreciated, it's imperative. We're kept on the edge or our seats at all times!
Well, I'm at the edge of exhaustion, and our first full day starts at 7:00am - time to crash...for 4 hours!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Relevant
Here are some notes from Relevant magazine (issue #33), intermingled with some notes from "Unchristian", by David Kinnaman and the Barna Group.
Transparency disarms an image-is-everything generation.
Perception (by those outside the Christian faith):
Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting people.
New Perception (action steps for Jesus followers):
Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God.
Homosexuality
Perception:
Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.
New Perception:
Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of lifestyle.
- It's about what people do with Jesus, not what they do or don't do with their lifestyle.
Sheltered
Perception:
Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
New Perception:
Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face.
- We are responsible for engaging the world. (Matt. 5:13)
- Be fearless. (1Jn. 4:18)
- Don't be offended. (Jn. 16:33)
- Help the desperate.
- Be prepared. (Dan. 1:4)
- Keep a balance. (Jn. 17:14-18)
Too Political
Perception:
Christians are primarily motivated by a right-winged agenda.
New Perception:
Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblically, and finding solutions to complex issues.
Judgmental
Perception:
Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others.
New Perception:
Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.
- Be motivated by love.
- Be gracious.
- Be respectful and empathetic - "mutual perception".
- Be humble.
- Embrace, don't abandon.
What now? Moving from unchristian to Christian...
Respond with Christ's perspective.
Connect with people and build relationships.
Be creative in communicating the faith, and remain down-to-earth so others can connect.
Serve people.
Be compassionate.
Practice the fasting of:
Freeing the wrongly imprisoned.
Lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Set the oppressed free.
Remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry.
Give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those that need them
Do not hide from those who need your help
(Check out Isaiah 58:1-4, 6-12)
LOVE OTHERS!
Transparency disarms an image-is-everything generation.
Perception (by those outside the Christian faith):
Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting people.
New Perception (action steps for Jesus followers):
Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God.
Homosexuality
Perception:
Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.
New Perception:
Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of lifestyle.
- It's about what people do with Jesus, not what they do or don't do with their lifestyle.
Sheltered
Perception:
Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
New Perception:
Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face.
- We are responsible for engaging the world. (Matt. 5:13)
- Be fearless. (1Jn. 4:18)
- Don't be offended. (Jn. 16:33)
- Help the desperate.
- Be prepared. (Dan. 1:4)
- Keep a balance. (Jn. 17:14-18)
Too Political
Perception:
Christians are primarily motivated by a right-winged agenda.
New Perception:
Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblically, and finding solutions to complex issues.
Judgmental
Perception:
Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others.
New Perception:
Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.
- Be motivated by love.
- Be gracious.
- Be respectful and empathetic - "mutual perception".
- Be humble.
- Embrace, don't abandon.
What now? Moving from unchristian to Christian...
Respond with Christ's perspective.
Connect with people and build relationships.
Be creative in communicating the faith, and remain down-to-earth so others can connect.
Serve people.
Be compassionate.
Practice the fasting of:
Freeing the wrongly imprisoned.
Lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Set the oppressed free.
Remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry.
Give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those that need them
Do not hide from those who need your help
(Check out Isaiah 58:1-4, 6-12)
LOVE OTHERS!
unchristian
"Christianity has an image problem."
We have a responsibility to have a sober, reasonable understanding of the perspectives of our families and friends.
"Outsiders" view the church as infatuated with itself.
"Outsiders" perceive that Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be.
It is popular to be different, under the radar, and independent - Christianity doesn't feel like that.
*Our task is to be effective agents of spiritual transformation in people's lives, whatever the cost in time, comfort, or image.
Relationships are the driving force.
The young generation is in a constant search for fresh experiences and sources of motivation.
We [Christians] have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.
3 Common Perceptions of Christians:
- Antihomosexual
- Judgmental
- Hypocritical
We are more concerned about being "right" than listening...
*How can people love God, whom they can't see, if those of us who claim to represent him don't respond to outsiders with love?
Jesus was concerned about the reputation of his Father in heaven - Your life shows other people what God is like! What others see from Christians creates their ideas about the reality and authenticity of following Christ. Transparency disarms an image-is-everything generation.
(Notes taken from "Unchristian", by David Kinnaman and the Barna Group)
We have a responsibility to have a sober, reasonable understanding of the perspectives of our families and friends.
"Outsiders" view the church as infatuated with itself.
"Outsiders" perceive that Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be.
It is popular to be different, under the radar, and independent - Christianity doesn't feel like that.
*Our task is to be effective agents of spiritual transformation in people's lives, whatever the cost in time, comfort, or image.
Relationships are the driving force.
The young generation is in a constant search for fresh experiences and sources of motivation.
We [Christians] have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.
3 Common Perceptions of Christians:
- Antihomosexual
- Judgmental
- Hypocritical
We are more concerned about being "right" than listening...
*How can people love God, whom they can't see, if those of us who claim to represent him don't respond to outsiders with love?
Jesus was concerned about the reputation of his Father in heaven - Your life shows other people what God is like! What others see from Christians creates their ideas about the reality and authenticity of following Christ. Transparency disarms an image-is-everything generation.
(Notes taken from "Unchristian", by David Kinnaman and the Barna Group)
Youth Culture Today
The following post is a gathering of notes prepared for a presentation in India:
"They long to be meaningfully connected to life."
This is the underlying theme of today's youth culture.
- The church must listen to this!
Young people are finding it increasingly difficult to make sense of the world and their place in it. God's design is to use families and the larger body of Christ to point young people to their divine purpose.
Young people have little experience in how to effectively communicate what's on their mind, but are painfully aware when we fail to hear what they have to say.
- They want to be certain about how to live and to understand why things happen as they do, and the popular arts help them navigate through life. Pop culture gives them purpose.
They desire to fit in and belong.
3 Steps for the leaders:
- Know the unchanging Word
- Know young people and their rapidly changing world
- Take the Word to them
Worldview - The sum total of our beliefs about the world, and the 'big picture' that directs our daily decisions. Otherwise put: The one thing everyone has, but most people don't know what it is!
Young people use feelings not reason.
"They hear with their eyes and think with their feelings." - Ravi Zacharias
Emotions are the final judge of what makes something good, true and right, for young people. The self is the source of truth and reality. They want to experience community and connectedness that offer them peace, love, unity, and respect. "Spirituality" is becoming more widely accepted.
Many young people are not turned off by Jesus, rather those that call themselves "Jesus followers", yet don't act like it.
Marks of this young generation:
- Without a moral compass
- Culturally diverse
- Tolerance
- Broken relationships
- Media saturated
- Experience and feeling-driven
- Suspicious of truth
- Overwhelming options
- Violent examples
- Pushed and Hurried
- Materialistic
- Concerned with appearance
- Crying out for redemption
Culture
- What we believe, do, and how we live day to day
- The measuring stick of how we define and live in God's world
- A collection of ideals and beliefs, values, and assumptions, that makes up an overall plan for living and interpreting life
- It is universal, learned, shared integrated whole, and not static
Questions to consider:
1) How does culture shape our youth?
2) How is it forming their worldview?
*Teach young people that coming to faith in Christ is not just about going to heaven, but about living the kingdom of God here on earth and integrating that faith consistently into every area of life.
*We must look closely at how Jesus teaches us to live as his followers and to be his hands and feet to them (AKA - "Incarnational living")
*Keep our hearts and minds on Christ. Jesus teaches:
- "To be the salt of the earth." (Matt. 5:13)
- "To be the light of the world." (Matt. 5:14)
- "To be sheep among wolves." (Matt 10:16)
- He is always with us. (Jn. 10:1-18)
The Great Commission:
"Go and make disciples of all nations..."
LOVE without conditions or limits!
(Notes primarily from "Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture", by Walt Mueller)
"They long to be meaningfully connected to life."
This is the underlying theme of today's youth culture.
- The church must listen to this!
Young people are finding it increasingly difficult to make sense of the world and their place in it. God's design is to use families and the larger body of Christ to point young people to their divine purpose.
Young people have little experience in how to effectively communicate what's on their mind, but are painfully aware when we fail to hear what they have to say.
- They want to be certain about how to live and to understand why things happen as they do, and the popular arts help them navigate through life. Pop culture gives them purpose.
They desire to fit in and belong.
3 Steps for the leaders:
- Know the unchanging Word
- Know young people and their rapidly changing world
- Take the Word to them
Worldview - The sum total of our beliefs about the world, and the 'big picture' that directs our daily decisions. Otherwise put: The one thing everyone has, but most people don't know what it is!
Young people use feelings not reason.
"They hear with their eyes and think with their feelings." - Ravi Zacharias
Emotions are the final judge of what makes something good, true and right, for young people. The self is the source of truth and reality. They want to experience community and connectedness that offer them peace, love, unity, and respect. "Spirituality" is becoming more widely accepted.
Many young people are not turned off by Jesus, rather those that call themselves "Jesus followers", yet don't act like it.
Marks of this young generation:
- Without a moral compass
- Culturally diverse
- Tolerance
- Broken relationships
- Media saturated
- Experience and feeling-driven
- Suspicious of truth
- Overwhelming options
- Violent examples
- Pushed and Hurried
- Materialistic
- Concerned with appearance
- Crying out for redemption
Culture
- What we believe, do, and how we live day to day
- The measuring stick of how we define and live in God's world
- A collection of ideals and beliefs, values, and assumptions, that makes up an overall plan for living and interpreting life
- It is universal, learned, shared integrated whole, and not static
Questions to consider:
1) How does culture shape our youth?
2) How is it forming their worldview?
*Teach young people that coming to faith in Christ is not just about going to heaven, but about living the kingdom of God here on earth and integrating that faith consistently into every area of life.
*We must look closely at how Jesus teaches us to live as his followers and to be his hands and feet to them (AKA - "Incarnational living")
*Keep our hearts and minds on Christ. Jesus teaches:
- "To be the salt of the earth." (Matt. 5:13)
- "To be the light of the world." (Matt. 5:14)
- "To be sheep among wolves." (Matt 10:16)
- He is always with us. (Jn. 10:1-18)
The Great Commission:
"Go and make disciples of all nations..."
LOVE without conditions or limits!
(Notes primarily from "Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture", by Walt Mueller)
Isaiah 61
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion -
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called mighty oaks,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the Lord has blessed.
I delight in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations."
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion -
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called mighty oaks,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the Lord has blessed.
I delight in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations."
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