Exciting weekend coming up

I'm leaving at 9 am on the slow bus (8 hours by bus for a 4 hour car trip) to Kalush where I'll coach, alone, my first church in our Jesus Focused Youth Ministry Strategy.

It's not my first gig but it's my first gig alone...and this church will be "my" church.  The other churches I've helped coach were at various stages in their process already and I was pitching-in to learn the ropes.

So I'll be talking through a translator for about 8-10 hours tomorrow night and Saturday; pray for my translator!  Poor guy!

I'll be sharing an overview of our Coaching Strategy and helping their Pastor, Youth Leader and Leadership evaluate where they are right now.  Then I'll spend about an hour on each of the main elements of our strategy which are: Prayer, the Lordship of Christ, Building a leadership team, Discipling students, Penetrating Youth Culture, and creating Evangelistic outreaches.

I'll leave them with materials their Leadership Team can use to begin going deeper with Christ themselves and with the assignment to create a Prayer Strategy within their youth ministry with the goal of having all their youth workers, parents, and teenagers partnered with others for regular prayer each week.  

World Race: Part ...I lost count.

Once again The World Race was in Ukraine.  I wasn't sure it would work out this time.  Their logistics people were a little behind the 8 ball in contacting me this time, giving me only about 10 days' notice and then once I agreed to take a team they upped the ante to 2 teams!

At the end of July looking at August I didn't think I could take even one team for the month.  Four or five weeks ago I anticipated having a lot of time off in August.  Boy was I wrong about that!

So I contacted my friends at Nehemiah International and fortunately they were able and willing to take both World Race teams.  Not only did they need the teams to help with their ongoing Day Camps, but they were willing to house and feed them as well.

So for the month one team worked everyday at the Day Camp (which in August included not only the Day Camp, but a week-long residential camp for Foster Familes).  The other team did a wide variety of work that included cleaning a flooded church basement, working with a couple different Roma (gypsy) outreach ministries, working at an Orphan Camp, speaking in some churches and holding abandoned babies!

The month didn't work out quite like I thought it would.  I figured the two teams would sort of "blend" and the folks that craved "routine" would work at the camp and the ones that wanted variety would do all the other stuff.  Instead, they maintained their "team" structure and one team had routine and the other didn't.  I suspect there was some frustration in both teams because of that.

Since I basically handed them off to Nehemiah shortly after their arrival I didn't spend as much time with either team as I would have liked to but I sure enjoyed the time I did have.  They were both "2nd Month" teams from H Squad, having just launched in Ireland the month before.  It was fun to observe such "fresh" Racers!

I'm happy to report that I think they all enjoyed their time here in Ukraine and in Uzhgorod.  I especially enjoyed seeing them build relationships with our translators and spending time with them outside of "work".  That's one of the values of having teams here whether it's World Race or a church group- you build relationships and you model your walk with Christ...that's a huge part of discipleship and that time is not wasted!

By the way, you can check out the Racers' blogs at www.theworldrace.org.  Go down to the lower right side of the page and select blogs from Ukraine.  The two teams that were in Uzhgorod were Aletheia and Cologne of Christ.

Birthday

I was thinking of writing something today in honor of Kim's birthday.  I couldn't think of anything except the blog below, written 5 years ago while I was on the World Race.  The original blog appeared here.

It all started with a simple question from our newest World Racer- Rusty Jackson. He had just finished running about 3 miles in the somewhat sweltering heat and humidity of Thailand. As is often the case among us "old guys" a workout like that will exacerbate all the old war wounds. Rusty was feeling his knees and in the course of conversation he asked, "Do you remember when you got old"? My first response was, "Yeah, when I started the World Race."

I wish I could have just left it at that.

Lying under the mosquito net in a Hill Tribe home later that night the question kept reverberating in my head. I do feel old.

OK, I''m not fishing for a bunch of "you're not old" comments from anyone, especially from my comment obsessed family. I'm just trying to express myself in the vein of my literary hero, Scott Molgard!

But I do remember getting old.

It happened the week I lost Kim. Everything changed. It sounds like a cliche, but part of me died with her. When times were good and we were having fun- I always felt alive. And young. Most people find it hard to believe, but there really were no bad times when we were together. At worst, there were "routine" times; but not bad.

I always felt alive being a Student Minister too. Thirteen years in one church and I was dang good at it! But even that ceased to bring life after Kim died. Almost immediately I started feeling too old and tired and out of touch.

I thought taking Life to the Nations would bring me back to life. It has at points. But mostly I feel like I'm 7+ months into this thing and I'm wondering where and when I'm going to find life. I know who I am in Christ. I'm "awake" to who I am in the Kingdom. I know better than live in the trap of finding my identity in what I do (a Student Minister or Missionary). .

I think I'm headed for a crisis of faith. When the Race started I didn't care about what happened afterwards, but now that the time is drawing near, well, I can't help but think of it. I don't have enough money to be a bum forever. Part of me wants to go home and build a cool little house and pursue the "dream". Part of me wants to go to Ukraine or Croatia or even maybe back here and raise orphans and churches. Part of me is scared to death of that kind of commitment and the work it will take to learn a language. But here I am not getting younger. I've been preaching for a while now three of the most important things are: Love Extravagantly, Live Regretlessly, and Long for Jesus. I really don't want to go through life having a bunch of regrets (leaving my songs unsung as Seth Barnes put it). I almost feel like I've passed the point of no return for some of those things though. If I were remarried and had a kid right now I'd be pushing 60 when he/she finished school! So I want to fly airplanes (but I don't know when I would ever actually use that skill), I want to jump from a plane (that shouldn't be too difficult), I want to have a family, and I want to make a difference in kids' lives.

I've learned all of that and more this year (most of it I already knew) but I haven't figured out yet what to do about it. Or have I and I'm just scared to follow through?

Give me some grace if you feel like I'm whining. I started this blog while I was with LO/Nessa last week and I finished it today- August 19. Today would have been Kim's 36^th birthday.

I just thought I was taking time off this month....

August so far has been eventful!  Let me begin with this one really neat experience.

You remember of course that I lived in Ukraine all of 2009 and during that time, on two occasions I had friends doing "logistics" for The World Race visit with me in preparation for arriving teams.  And then, on three occasions that year I had a small hand in hosting said World Race teams.

Already this year (back in April) I've hosted a WR Team (they lived in my apartment for the month).  But I had a first this month.

I had personal friends visit me.

Haley is the oldest daughter of one of my all-time best friends.  I remember when she was born.  Her Dad and I go all the way back to the 7th grade.  We were college roommates.  He was in my wedding and I was supposed to be in his but I took-off for a job in Alaska or Dakota or somewhere instead.  Her Mom became my friend during those college years.

Haley and her husband of just barely a year, Caleb, spent last week with me here in Uzhgorod.  It's hard to put it into words what the simple act of spending a week on-mission with me means to me.  Aside from the fact that it was nice to have visitors from back home (who brought me a suitcase full of Taco Shells and other essentials), it was humbling that they would spend their resources to come all the way over here.  They both have a heart for the Nations and they've both been involved in missions and ministry throughout college and now as they both work for a great missions organization in Atlanta.  They wanted to see what God is doing in my part of Europe.

I basically plugged them into what I had going on this past week- working at the Day Camp at Nehemiah International.  I didn't really have to fabricate something for them to do.  We just joined-in where we saw the Lord working.  It wasn't earth-shattering mission work I don't think.  We were just living life on-mission here in Uzhgorod.

I have delusions of grandeur sometime.  I want to do something dramatic.  Heroic.  Earth-shattering.  But most of the time being a missionary, for me, is just going about everyday, walking with Christ...I just happen to live in Uzhgorod, Ukraine while I'm doing it.  And for a week, Caleb and Haley joined me.

Having them here gave me an opportunity to share my passion for Ukraine, to share some hospitality, to serve them even as they served another ministry and some kids at a Day Camp.

Ruka Dopomogy Camps

Two weeks of Summer Camps are in the books.  The first week was mostly middle-schoolers; the 2nd week, mostly high-schoolers.  The camps were sponsored by Ruka Dopomogy, the Ukrainian organization I work with in training churches in a Jesus-Focused strategy of youth ministry.  Most of the churches that attended the camp have participated in our training.

I worked at a large, residential camp 3 summers ago near Lugansk.  There were a couple hundred kids and the facility was a run-down Sanitoria- a wellness retreat of sorts, from back in the day.  I also worked at a Day Camp here in Uhzgorod last month at a really nice guest house/hotel.

But this was different.  Understand: this time last summer I accompanied the Zion Hill Baptist Church Youth Group to StudentLife at the Beach in Daytona, FL.  Louie Giglio was the Camp Pastor; Chris Tomlin and others led worship.  We stayed in a resort hotel on the beach.  There were 6000 kids there!!  It was big-time to say the least.

These two weeks were a little bit different.  Thirty kids. Tent camping.  Cold showers.  Outhouses.  The food was pretty good- simple, authentic Ukrainian fare provided by a couple of sweet local ladies everyday.  The campsite is a Dacha (a country home with land for a garden) that's owned by one of the participating churches.  There were other camp facilities all around our property, some more, some less developed.  We basically set our tents up around the farmhouse.  Services were held in a small shed or outside on the hillside behind the house.  We had Bible studies and messages in the mornings and evenings.  We had "track-times" of English Worship, Arts and Crafts, and Sports.  We had large-group games everyday.  It was all you could wish for in a camp without bells and whistles.  (Ok, there were a few instances of bells and whistles.  We did use a projector for movies and we had a simple sound system for worship.  The best use of technology was playing drums on an Ipad to accompany the guitar during worship.)

Here's some pictures:

Slovakia Road Trip

So I got this friend.  Susan W.

Way back in 2005 I was the Camp Pastor for a week at a World Changers project in Pikeville, KY.  There were 4 college/post-college kids on staff for that camp and I've stayed in touch with 3 of them ever since then.  Susan W was the staff team leader.

Last week I was surfing Facebook when I ran across Susan's status saying that she was packing that night and headed to Slovakia the next day.  My first thought was, "dang, that's right next door".  (Literally, it is- the border is probably a mile or two from my house!).  As the weekend progressed I started wondering if I could swing a quick road-trip to see her.  Turns out she was serving in a small town about 3-4 hours away.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy!

So last Tuesday I went by the Bus Station and bought a ticket to Kosice, Slovakia for the next morning.  That part was easy.  I was pleased with myself!  I figured once I got to Kosice it would be easy to find public transportation to Jelsava another hour or so away.  Yeah.  That's what I thought.

According to the Internet (which is always right, right?) there were buses leaving every couple of hours.  I figured I'd take the bus to Jelsava and then grab a taxi to the hotel where the team was staying.  No problem!

Upon arriving in Kosice I learned that the next bus left in 4 hours so there I sat and waited...not knowing until it was too late that I was a block away from the Mall and the McDonalds!  Live and learn.

Finally, about 3 pm I caught the bus to Jelsava and when I got there I discovered the only town in all of Europe that doesn't have taxi's standing by at the bus station.  To be fair, it's really not a bus station...just a bus stop.  I knew the hotel was out-of-town and up a mountain a few miles away.  I asked around and figured out that the bus going back up the mountain would be another hour wait.  I played charades with a girl in a bar for a few minutes trying to find a taxi.  She made a call for me but as best as I can tell the taxi just didn't want to take me up there.

So after a few minutes of contemplating I said a quick prayer for help getting to the hotel (really, I'm embarrassed to say how quick and faithless a prayer it was), and I started walking.  I thought, worst case, I'd have to walk 5 miles, or maybe I could hitchhike.  After about 5 minutes of walking I saw little a Roma girl running past me with her face painted and the crazy thought occurred to me that the team might be in town doing ministry.  A few minutes later, I saw more kids and was really beginning to feel I was on to something.

The I saw a big bus pull out of a schoolyard and I thought...yep, that's them.  Or rather, that was them.  I just missed them!  But alas, there was still a couple Vans in the parking lot.  Someone directed me to the one with Americans in it and when I asked if they were from World Changers, the driver asked me if I was Susan's friend!!  In a matter of minutes I was on top of the mountain with 50 or so students from International World Changers.  I spent the night with them at the hotel and I got to visit with Susan and some pretty cool IMB Missionaries working with the Romani people group; I even met a MSU Grad that's getting ready to move to London.  I got to spend a few hours with them that evening doing ministry with 100 or so beautiful Romani Children (lots and lots of them in that little community!).

And just so you don't think the adventure was over at that point: The next day I planned to go back to Uzhgorod (because I'm a busy guy!) but lo and behold yesterday was a National Holiday and the bus schedules were "abbreviated".  As far as I know I caught the only bus out of the village that day but couldn't get a bus to Uzhgorod.  So like all suffering servants I got a room at Best Western in Kosice and had a Dr Pepper to go with my Subway Sandwich and Walkers 100% British Potato Chips.

Jelsava is a small and pretty run down village in a small valley in the mountains that seems to be inhabited by a lot of beautiful Romani people.

Here's some of the World Changers with the people they were ministering with all week.

Here's one of my color-enhanced shots of sunset and a kid with a very bright shirt!

Meanwhile, back in Kosice.  This is the Philharmonic.  It once was an 1100 seat Synagogue.  Pre-World War 2 there were 12,000 Jews in Kosice.  All but 600 were killed in the Holocaust.

St Elizabeth's Cathedral, the easternmost Roman Catholic Cathedral in Europe, construction began in 1390ish.

Resolved. To give.

I have struggled with how to handle "beggars" for years.  I remember when I was a youth minister in Aberdeen our youth group used to help out at a local community center where we distributed clothing and food.  We used some sort of voucher system to keep the same people from always coming in to get stuff and it was irritating when they were obvious playing the system.

A few years later I was Associate Pastor at Bayou View Baptist Church in Gulfport.  When you're church name begins with the letter "B", and you live in a Casino town then you end up pretty high on the list of scammers going through the phone book.  

A Deacon friend in Aberdeen taught me a valuable lesson way back then.  I remember Lynn saying that he'd rather err on the side of giving.

I found this quote online attributed to the great CS Lewis: "It will not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been 'had for a sucker' by any number of impostors; but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need."

I've probably struggled more with giving to strangers since the World Race back in 2007.  It became apparent to me on several occasions overseas that many of the "beggars" are "slaves".  In Thailand and Cambodia beautiful children sold trinkets and my first thought was that they (and their family) were being industrious but then you find out they were not going to school and were in fact being "pimped".  Organized crime uses old grandmothers and little children, broken old soldiers and deformed kids.  Watch the bad guy burn-out the kids eyes in Slumdog Millionaire in order to make him a more effective revenue producer.

I don't want to contribute to or perpetuate that.

But there's this one kid.  I met her probably in February.  I gave her some money but felt bad about it because I just don't like giving money to beggars.  It was colder than ice that day and I didn't see a store nearby to buy her anything so I handed her a couple dollars.  After that I resolved that I would carry some juice or something with me (I almost always carry a small backpack) and I would give her juice or food in the future.  

Today I got caught short.  I didn't have anything with me.  And I didn't give her money.  And I felt bad.  I feel like- it's bad enough that I'm perceived as a rich American...I don't want to be perceived as a rich, greedy, stingy, mean-spirited American...a Missionary to boot!

Even if this kid is being effectively pimped-out by her mother or worse, I want her to light up when she sees me walking down the street and not just because I'm a great guy with a lot of money and a generous spirit.  I may not be able to have a long conversation with her but I can remind her each time that Jesus loves her.  But I can't do that if I ignore her and walk away.

So.  Resolved.  From now on when she approaches me I will not leave her empty handed.  I will still try to always have a juice or something with me to give her but if not I will at least give her something.  I will err on the side of giving.  I will not be a rich, greedy, stingy American Missionary.