The Prodigal Father- Part 2

Luke 15:20: "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

We're looking at those 5 verbs: SAW, FILLED, RAN, THREW (EMBRACED), and KISSED.

My sermon was supposed to address "the Father-Heart of God" and while perusing this familiar passage I was drawn to these 5 verbs and incidentally, to their antonyms.  I know a lot of people "project" onto God the Father their own ideas and experiences with their earthly Father so I asked my young Ukrainian audience what they thought was the antonym, the opposite of, "FILLED with Compassion".

Let me say first of all that it's difficult to separate this verb, FILLED, with the object, ie, filled with what?  Filled with Compassion.  So I'll address both of these words a little bit as I did when I preached and when I asked my audience for help.

My friends suggested that the opposite of FILLED is simply EMPTY.  The opposite of Compassion drew several responses but one was Hatred.  EMPTY HATRED.

Others were "no mercy" and simply "no compassion".  Someone else suggested the opposite of FILLED with Compassion is "Filled with Resentment" and that's certainly the vibe we get from the older brother in the narrative.  Good thing it was the Father that was on the lookout for the young son rather than the elder brother!!

A few weeks ago when I was preparing to preach a picture came to my mind that I think illustrates this idea of "NO Compassion".  It's a picture I've seen with my own eyes in Cambodia.  In fact, I've seen the TREE that is depicted in this picture.

In the mid to late 1970's Dictator Pol Pot nearly annihilated all but the agrarian working class in Cambodia.  Entire families were slaughtered.  An artist who survived the ordeal captured on canvas the atrocities that he saw with his own eyes.  One such picture is of soldiers killing babies by holding them by their feet and slamming them head first into a tree.  They weren't even worth using a bullet.

If that's not a picture of "NO Compassion", then I don't know what is.  That is NO Compassion.  Zero Compassion.  A Complete and Utter Lack of Compassion.  Get the picture?

If you're reading this, then you are alive and if you are alive then you've probably never encountered anyone with NO Compassion.  You may not have had the best father or mother, but I bet you didn't have the worst!

But let's get back to the antonyms and go the other way!  If there's such a thing as ZERO COMPASSION, then the opposite must be MAXIMUM COMPASSION.

And MAXIMUM COMPASSION is who God the Father is!

Psalm 116:5 says: The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.

See that?  Our God is FULL of Compassion.  He is maxed-out on Compassion and He is OUR FATHER.

Are you beginning to understand why it's called "The Good News"?

Join me tomorrow when I write about RAN and how it is inextricably linked to Compassion.

The Prodigal Father- Part 1

Life here in Ukraine often throws me an unexpected curve ball.  For example, I'm the lead male vocalist for our Church's worship band.  How in the world is the American with a 2 year old's vocabulary and diction skills singing worship songs in Russian and Ukrainian?

Here's another: Last summer I was asked to speak about The Father Heart of God at Camp.  Ok, that's not a terrible stretch- He's my Heavenly Father and I've known Him now for 30 years.  But I've never been a "Dad".  Why am I the one talking about "Fathering"?

And here's another: I was asked to address the topic again this summer at camp.  Last year I drew heavily upon an old sermon (brochure) from Last Days' Ministries and John Dawson.  I remembered reading it many years ago and so I adapted it for use here.

A couple months ago when I was asked to speak about the Father Heart of God again, I knew almost instantly that I wanted to go with Luke 15- what most of us know as the story of The Prodigal Son.

Upon doing some internet research I discovered that Louie Giglio had preached a sermon about The Prodigal Father.  (Apparently the word, Prodigal, which we (I) have associated with wanton wastefulness can also simply mean, "lavishness").  Ie, the young son was "lavish" in wasting his time and money, but the Father was equally (moreso!) lavish is extending mercy and grace.

So anyway, as I prayed over and studied the familiar passage my eyes were drawn to verse 20.  You've had that happen before, right?  Where something you've read in the Bible a hundred times jumps out at you with newness that can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit?  Maybe it's the "language learner" in me that I find myself more attuned to sentence structure and such...but do you see what I see?

In the ESV it says: v 20- And he arose and came to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

See it?  Five Verbs in that second sentence... his father SAW him and FELT compassion, and RAN and EMBRACED him and KISSED him.

So I shared the narrative and I explained some of the background (going back to chapter 9 we see that Jesus has already "set his face" towards Jerusalem...that adds extra weight to everything he says and does thereafter) but then I came back to Verse 20 and camped-out.

The thought occurred to me during my study: What are the antonyms to those five verbs?  Many of us have good, Godly men to father us here on earth but certainly not everyone, not in America and not here in Ukraine.  Our personal experiences are often the opposite of good and Godly and how we experience our earthly father affects how we experience our Heavenly Father.

I asked my "audience" of young Ukrainians to help me out with those antonyms and here's what they came up with for the first verb- SAW.

The opposite is that no one is looking for you, no one sees you, the result is that you feel invisible. 

Unfortunately, a lot of people you and I know have felt that way before.  Maybe all of us have.  But to feel that from a father- or any parent-figure or loved one, obviously, is devastating.

That's not what the "prodigal son" felt when he returned home.  His father SAW him!  Not only did his father see him, he was LOOKING for him.  Do you remember the movie, Avatar (aka, Dances with Wolves in Outerspace)?  "I See You" was an important concept in the movie that meant something akin to, "I see the real you and I love you".

In Genesis 16:13 Hagar assigns the name El Roi to God meaning "The God who sees me".

That's our God- that's our Father!  He Sees Us.  We are never invisible to Him.  We are never lost to Him.

Tune in tomorrow for the verb FILLED (Filled with compassion in NIV, Felt Compassion in ESV).

Me preaching (with Christina translating) at the first Camp.

Yikes, it's way past time for a blog

Yeah, nearly 2 months since I last wrote something!  A lot has been happening.

I went to America for 2 weeks!  Talk about a quick trip.  But it was productive and I enjoyed my time to the fullest and I think I squeezed a lot out of it, including co-officiating the wedding of a dear friend.

When I returned to Ukraine I did so in the company of Tonya Teasely, a recent high school grad from my church back in Mississippi.  At 18, she's already logged 3 trips to Mexico and a trip to Costa Rica.  We were delayed getting into Ukraine by a couple days since it's also that time of year for me to renew my Visa/Temporary Residency.  We arrived in Budapest on Tuesday, June 18 with intentions of entering Ukraine the next day after I dropped off my new Visa Application at the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest.  When I did so, they informed me that it would be ready in just 2 days- on Friday, so it just made more sense to stay in Hungary until the Visa was ready than to go to Ukraine and then turn around and come right back.  So we stayed with long-time friends and IMB Missionaries, the Hathcocks, for a couple days.

Tonya and I finally arrived in Ukraine that Friday night and went to our first Summer Camp the next day!  It was a long 7 days of tent camping in chilly, rainy weather with about 20 middle schoolers.  The following week we did the stuff I usually do on a weekly basis- we visited the local children's hospital to hold abandoned babies, and we went with some friends to visit toddlers at our regional baby orphanage.  Aside from that we saw some local sights and visited Ukrainian friends while preparing for the next camp which just wrapped up this morning.  This time we had near perfect camping weather with about 50 high school kids.

I took one day off of camp to attend a meeting with the Regional Chief of Immigration (still working on getting my new Residency Permit).  The meeting was a success- my petition was approved and I think all that remains now is a 3 week wait while my internal passport/residency permit is prepared.

Tonya and I will enjoy Shashlik (sort of a cook-out) with the members of our worship band and some other friends tomorrow, she'll catch-up on some last minute souvenir shopping, and then first thing Sunday morning we'll head back to Budapest.  She'll catch her flight home early that morning and I'll try and catch a couple of summer blockbuster movies in English before returning to Ukraine.

Next week I'll be at one more camp and then a few days later I'll welcome another friend to Ukraine for the month of August to explore ministry options with our team here in Uzhgorod.

I feel like venting

This is a rant.  And also a prayer request.  (See how I got all spiritual there?).

It's time to renew my Temporary Residence Visa to live here in Ukraine.

Last month, you might recall, I left the country for a few days to visit Kyrgyzstan.  At that point, I had already begun the process of renewing my Visa by leaving my Temporary Residency Card with my Attorney.  Now...I took a picture of it so I'd have a copy, but guess what?  I accidentally deleted it.

So, upon trying to leave the country, the Ukrainian Border Guards claimed I had "overstayed" my Visa (the 90 Day Tourist Visa).  That was absolutely not true, of course- I just didn't have my Card with me indicating that I was good for a whole year.  You would think it would be as simple as typing my name and US Passport Number into a computer to realize that I was completely legal and had not overstayed my welcome!

That's what reasonable, normal people would do.  They weren't reasonable or normal.  They fined me $100 US and then let me leave the country without further ado.

Fastforward to ...yesterday.  My Attorney informed me that the Immigration Officials here pulled my "file" and saw that I had been "fined" and "charged" with overstaying my Visa last month.

Funny.  The computers don't work at the nations biggest airport to check my Immigration Status, but they work fine here in the hinterlands of Ukraine.

I was told by my Attorney that an unnamed government official indicated the situation could be expedited for a "fee".  I declined.

Furthermore, and this is mostly my fault, apparently there was an "appeal" procedure I could have taken to prove that the fine was bogus...but of course, I missed the deadline.

So there's my Attorney speaking with the "Director" of some Govt Agency...he's looking at my VISA which clearly shows that I was NOT in violation last month, he's looking at the "citation" that was bogus.  But because the deadline for appeal has passed he says he can't do anything about it.  Sounds like a "Director" that doesn't have the authority to "Direct" to me!

So we're are starting the process to receive a Visa all over again.  Just like last year.  I will have to go to the Embassy in Budapest all over again.  I'll have to spend all that time and money and energy all over again and this is a really bad time for me to be caught up in all of that.  I go back to the States in 2 weeks (for 2 weeks).  I'd like to get it all done before then.

Oh Ukraine.  You model of efficiency, you!

At least I can blog freely about it.  If I had written this in a letter home I would have to go to the Post Office and the clerk would have to record the purchase of the Stamp and the destination of my letter on three forms that require official stamps in duplicate.

A nice little excursion

This is my best little bud, Rostik.  Turns out he must be everyone's best little bud (among those of us who regularly visit the abandoned babies at the local children's hospital).

His story is a little unusual.  Babies end up here because they are out and out abandoned; sometimes they are given-up by a parent or parents that can't take care of them.  Sometimes the "State" removes them.  One kid had a single parent being treated for TB so they had the baby for the time being.  Little Rostik is caught in the middle of a custody dispute and so he's a Ward of the State until the issue is resolved.

He's not overly emphatic but then again a lot of the babies here are fairly lethargic, I think due to lack of stimulation, at least until they start to approach being about a year old at which point they ship them off.

Anyway, he was removed a couple weeks ago to everyone's dismay.  In the year or so I've been visiting the children's hospital, it's pretty much unheard of to know whatever happens to them when they leave, until now.  Apparently some of the girls have been questioning the hospital staff and they were sympathetic to our cause and told us how to go see him at the Regional Baby Orphanage (for kids up to 3 years old).  A church here in town also had some connections with the Orphanage and they put in a call on our behalf.

Yesterday my friend Anya called and invited me to go with her and some other girls today to try and see Rostik.  We left town at 8 am on public transportation to Svalyava, about an hour and a half away.

We had an amazing time.  It's a bear to get there and back, being almost 2 hours away, but worth every minute.  There are about 100 kids at the facility.  If you think holding babies is fun, try chasing a dozen toddlers!

I will say this: the toddlers LOVED the girls and took to them instantly.  No so much with me.  My guess is that they don't have too much interaction with men.  I don't know if I'll be able to visit often enough to change that, but I'd sure like to.

One kid in particular stuck out to me: Her name is Bogdana and she has a cleft palate.  I didn't get a chance to question any of the nurses about it.  I suspect it's something that be surgically corrected pretty reasonable over here plus I know at least one American Dr that might be able to point me in a direction.

Oh, and we didn't find Rostik.  They said he is in the Hospital in Mukachevo, so maybe we'll see what we can find out.

I didn't want to pull my camera out on my first visit, but one of the girls, Maria took a few pictures.

Here's Anya, one of the child-magnets that went with us.  She's the one that invited me to go.

This is the only one that seemed to really like me on the first visit.














Thanks Anya and Tonya, Maria and Katya for letting me tag along today!

Central Asia

This has been a BUSY month!

• April 2 I returned from a week in London (via Debrecen, Hungary).
• April 5 I was on a train headed to Kalush, Ukraine to coach our church for the weekend.
• April 7 I was on a bus to Lviv where I spent the night with new ministry friends.
• April 8 I was back on a train headed to Kyiv.
• April 10 Doug and I met a small team of Americans here for a Vision trip.
• April 11 we drove all day to Ternopol where we visited our ministry partner Ternopol Mission Institute.
• April 12 we drove all day to Uzhgorod- arriving about 10 pm.
• April 13 we toured areas of Uzhgorod where ITeams is engaged in a "Transformation" Project with our lead church.  Later that day we were back on the overnight train to Kyiv.
• April 15 we flew to the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan where we met with a multi-national team of Christian workers- many of them Ukrainians, most of them in their 20's. They are fantastic young people working in a beautiful but challenging environment.
• April 18 we flew back to Ukraine via an all day layover in Istanbul where I spent some time with some fellow Mississippians.
• April 20 Doug and I were back on the overnight train to Uzhgorod.

I have been sleeping and keeping a low profile ever since!

This weekend I'll preach at our Spring Regional Re:Fresh Youth/Youth Leaders Conference.

Next week a World Race team arrives for the month.

Some thoughts about our trip:  

One of my personal goals for coming to Ukraine was to assist Ukrainian believers carry out the Great Commission; ie, to help churches here catch and implement a vision for doing missions at home and abroad.   Actually, a lot of  workers here are working toward that end and that's the primary goal of International Teams-Ukraine (a separate but related entity- I work for ITeams-US).  In partnership with Ternopol Mission Institute, IT-Ukraine and TMI have sent about 80 Ukrainian believers to the Nations.  They are in Africa, India, Central Asia and here in Ukraine.  It's relatively unheard of!  No one else is sending Ukrainians abroad like TMI and most of them are supported by Ukrainians and not US dollars!

So while in Central Asia we met with some of those workers.  Most of them are Ukrainians but some are "native" workers from the various "Stans" that have come to TMI for training and then returned home.  At an average age of 25 years old, they are planting and pastoring fellowships and making disciples while living in often difficult settings.  They are constantly under spiritual attack and sometimes in danger of physical attack as well living in predominately Muslim areas.  They are heroes of the faith.  Pray for them and for the truth to be made known throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. And Marshrutkas, and Subways, and Taxis.

It is, as I write, 12:30 am on a Friday night.  I got home about 3 hours ago after being in a the backseat of a car all day.  I was in the backseat of a car all day yesterday, too.  The day before that I was on a train all day and the day before that on a bus/marshrutka where a woman in the aisle next to our seats threw-up about 45 minutes before we got off.  That was not pleasant.  I've been in the Kiev Metro (Subway) and in a taxi or two in the past week, too.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be back on a train for an overnight ride back to Kiev.  We'll arrive Sunday a few hours before a long church service then we'll walk miles touring the city.  Early Monday morning I'll be on a plane on the way to Istanbul  and then to Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

• I like traveling more than I like packing.
• I like planes more than trains and trains more than cars (unless it's my Jeep and I'm driving) and cars more than marshrutkas.  I'm more or less indifferent about taxis and subways; I've had good and bad experiences with both.
• I like eating in Kiev.  I had good Chinese food with even better friends last week.  I ate at KFC for crying out loud.  I ate a Domino's Pizza!!.
• I like to read and sleep and listen to music when I'm on the train.  It's not at all unusual to meet really nice and often very interesting people on the train...but I'd rather pull my invisible blanket around me and chill-out the whole way.
• I'm a little scared of what we might eat and drink in Kyrgyzstan.  Got Fermented Horse Milk?
• I'm thinking there might be a Starbucks in Istanbul?

I'll write a lot more about all this traveling next week.  This morning was awesome hearing testimonies from 5 recent graduates of the Mission Training School we partner with.  God is doing some cool things through some Ukrainian believers-on-mission!