Filling the Lamp's Oil

Mexico RSDN '08

2008-04-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Thanx to Chad for editing such a great video.

and also the blooper reel starring mostly Sam:

2008-01-31T14:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends

The past four years i have been blessed with the opportunity to help lead Alma Height's Mission trip to Mexico. I have seen the Lord at work time and time again in the hearts of the high school youth who have gone, and have seen the Lord work through them, amazingly, to share his gospel with the lost, and hundreds come into a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This year i have the opportunity again to go, but found out later than i would have liked, so i am asking for your support. I need to raise $650, which would include airfare operating costs for the orphanage.

To tell you a little more about the trip. It is to an orphanage in Tecate, Mexico, just east of Tijuana called "Rancho de sus Ninos" (http://www.ranchodesusninos.org/). The orphanage was started in 1989 and has now grown into a daycare, school, bible college, youth center, and a evangelism trailer that goes out regularly into the community, and also helped plant over a dozen churches in the surrounding areas. But amazingly it survives entirely through the donation of churches and individuals. It is a great testament to what God can do through a man/woman of faith.
Our basic day will consist of a work project at the orphanage before lunch and a ministry event in the afternoon. In the past that has been helping out at the daycare, youth center, local churches, or going out with the evangelism trailer.

To support me you can donate online at the following link :
http://almaheights.org/donate/mexico_08/#Chris

Thanx a bunch.

Chris

P.s. Check out the video below of my trip last year.

Mexico Trip Video '07

2007-05-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

The following is a video my friend Jake made of our trip to Mexico. Enjoy!

I'll be leaving for the Philippines in 9 days. Today i got my Typhoid shot, and will soon be purchasing some heavy duty mosquito repellent.

Mexico!

2007-04-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Where to start, where to start? Mexico was great!

We left Tuesday, April 10th and flew to San Diego early in the morning. They was 34 people in the group, about 22 students mostly from Alma Heights, and 12 college aged and adult leaders. At the airport we wore out bright Orange group shirts that helped the group stay together. At the airport in San Diego we were met by van and a bus that picked us up, and after a short stop at a Walmart drove us across the border to Rancho De Sus Ninos, east of Tijuana.

The Orphanage is just an amazing ministry that has grown into a daycare, school, bible college, evangelism trailer that goes out regularly, youth center, and has helped plant about 18 churches in the surrounding areas. The founder, Steve Horner, is an amazing man of faith and Rancho is a testament to what God can do with a man like that.

The first day after arriving in the early afternoon, we went out with the evangelism trailer. The trailer is driven out and plopped in the center of an open lot. 500 chairs are set out, a stage, sound system, and projector are assembled and the American teenagers are set out in groups to invite people to come. By the time the event starts the chairs are practically filled. Kids than give testimonies with the help of a translator, dramas are performed, and an evangelistic movie is played, and at the end one of the bible college students gives an altar call in Spanish that 60+ people respond to. For me, it was just plain amazing to have contributed to and witnessed it.

I was in a mime of the parable of the prodigal son that we performed with a narrator in Spanish. I played the prodigal son and was slapped by two girls each time in it. Ouch!

Our basic day consisted of a work projector for 3 hours before lunch, and a ministry event after. We also had individual and group bible studies, during the day and a worship and share time in the evening. Our work projected consisted of digging ditches and pouring concrete for the foundation for walls for the new daycare that they are building. Their current daycare ministers to 183 kids and is in an odd location at the top of a steep hill. The new one they are in the process of building should be able to minister up to 250 kids. It was hard and grueling work that included a lot of manual mixing of the concrete with a shovel and swinging of a pickax.

The second day after lunch we went up to the daycare and played with the daycare kids besides performing dramas, and leading teaching and crafts. On Friday we went out to a church and walked around the neighborhood inviting people to come before helping to lead the service, and conduct the children's church. On Saturday we went to La Roca, a youth center. We passed out fliers before and than took part in a chaotic play-time that included basketball, soccer, rollerskating, jump roping, and football. During the time we sat all the kids down and performed some dramas, one of the students shared her testimony, and a staff member preached. On Sunday we helped lead two church services, and on Monday we went to Tijuana to be tourist before flying home.

I was extremely blessed to play and spend time with one of the orphans named David, who is 5, and i have been sponsoring him for the past year. At meal times he would wave for me to come sit with him and i look forward to continuing the relationship that i have now started with him.

Hooray i'm home!

2007-04-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I just got back and I am still alive. God is good. I hope to write about the trip soon, but i NEED sleep first.

!Gloria a Dios!

2007-04-10T01:15:00.000-07:00

Today we leave for Mexico! The group of students mostly from Alma Heights Christian Academy will fly down to San Diego. There we will be picked up and driven across the border to the orphange outside of Tijuana. We will spend half our days working on various building projects like mixing concrete and laying the foundation of future buildings. We will also spend our time ministering to the orphans, at a local daycare, youth center, and at various churches in the area. We get back late April 16th. Stay tuned to hear what the Lord will do in out time there.

2007-04-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Its defintely good to be home. For the past week i have been loitering around Alma Heights. I guest lectured in 2 Senior Classes on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." My friend Erik and I subbed a 7th and 8th Grade P.E. class. On Saturday Tom, Erik, and i led a 4 hour training session for the kids going to Mexico. I taught a section on prayer, and although i might be bias, i thought it went well. Today i gave my testimony in a chapel at Alma, and afterwards during lunch confronted Mexico bound kids asking them to give theirs in under 2 minutes, which they have been practicing. Only four days till we leave for Mexico. I can't wait to see what the Lord will do there through the kids and in their hearts.

2007-03-30T00:15:00.000-07:00

It certainly has been alittle while since i last posted. I arrived home to San Francisco three days ago, and it is good to be home. Let me backtrack a abit.

I finished the article for OMS' magazine. It took me a couple weeks and a rewrite or so. The first time i interviewed Tom Wright, my sound recorder ran out of batteries. My first dcraft didn't have the angle that the editor wanted, so i interviewed a few new people and completely rewrote it. I can't wait to see it in print. I will have a published work when it comes out. Hooray!

The article is about the two different short term missions trips to Spain and Hungary that Global youth ministries led last summer. I interviewed two alma heights students, one that went to each for it. The magazine should be coming out soon. I'll try to post it on here.

Over the past few months in Indianapolis my house mates and i have spoken in almost 20 middle school public classrooms on abstinecne. We weren't aloud to talk about Jesus, but we implied him to the best of our ability and portrayed a godly lifestyles. We know also that many people were praying for the classes we spoke to and we pray that others might harvest the seeds we planted.

Besides regularly studying and discussing the Bible with Tom, Richard, and Erik, we have been preparing for Alma Heights upcoming missions trip to Mexico. We have been working putting together the binders full of devotionals, training materials, and all relating trip information. After printing out all the material and compiling it we shipped it to California.

On March 27th i flew home to California. Before leaving i had to pack up all my stuff which was no fun, and say goodbye to all my friends and aquaintances made at the OMS campus headquarters.

Coming home was nice, especially to start catching up with firends and family. This week Tom Wright and his wife Beth and dear Mama Brown, are in town speaking in chapel and teaching at Alma Heights. On Saturday we will have a training session for all the kids going on the missions trip to Mexico.

I will help lead the Mexico Trip which goes down to the orphange at Ranchop De Sus Ninos in Tijuana Mexico. That will be from April 10th-16th and from mid May to June i will be in the Phillipines working with some church planting teams through OMS.

2007-01-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

The interpersonal training session went really well. I experienced a lot of interesting insights on how to better relate to and understand people, and i also learned a few things about myself through self assessment. It also helped me to better connect with some of my friends here, and through that i have been blessed.

Over the weekend I drove up with a few friends from the organization to Detroit for the big auto show there. I am not really into cars but i had a really good time and saw quite a few interesting things. The first snow storm quickly melted a day or so later. And than over the weekend it snowed 2+ inches, and we have had snow flurries off and on for the past week.

OMS has a magazine they publish three times a year called Outreach Magazine. I will be writing an article for the next issue, on my department Global Youth Ministries, and probably a testimonial for the following issue.

Last night I had dinner with a missionary couple from Ireland who are continuing the next two weeks of missionary training. My house mate cooked the typical intern dinner, hamburger helper. We had a good time and as my mother would agree, it is a blessing to spend any time with someone from Ireland. They are ministering to homeless kids on the streets of Mexico city.

Our travel schedule is always up in the air. For sure we will be flying out to California on March 27 to do training for Alma Heights' Mexico Missions Trip, that would depart right after Easter. There is current talk for us to go to England, Hungary and Spain for a week to prepare for the summer missions trips, and i may go to Indonesia for a month in between May and June. There has been talk of that program being canceled though. So i will find out in a few weeks.

Walking in a Winter Wonder Land

2007-01-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

Today it snowed for the first time that i have been in Indiana. Fellow intern, Richard, and i were so excited we frolicked (Yes, you are right to think that frolic is an odd word choice, but what else do u do in snow?) and made snow angels. Only an hour earlier we had been romanticizing about the ocean, and by our actions i felt we were betraying our true love.

This week we have started training in interpersonal relationships, how to be better listeners and managing conflict with others and things of that sort. It lasts one week for about 8 hours a day and is a section of the three week training that new full time missionaries receive. They are about 15 in the class and they come from, besides America, Mexico, Ireland, and England.

To back up a bit, i went down to Hudson, Florida (which is just north of Tampa) for a South East Regional Conference with OMS. I flew into West Palm Beach and met up with a previous high school classmate and we drove across the state to Hudson. At the conference i helped run a program for special needs jr highers. Besides teaching on Missions we joined them in rock climbing and paint ball. I was also quite blessed by the main assemblies, and was able to talk with the director of a program called eXtreme Walk, and get info on spending a full year in another country working with church planting teams there.

It was the first time i had been in florida, and i was able to admire its humidity, warmth, swamps, long moss clumps on the edge of trees, fishing on the Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. It was also the first time i had been to North Carolina because by flight connection was in Charlotte. The picture to the left was taken of the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Tampa, Fl.

Fun in the Sun

2007-01-04T05:15:00.000-08:00

In a few hours i will be leaving the San Francisco Bay Area for Hudson, Florida. OMS is having a regional missions conference there and i will be helping to run a program for a small group of High Schoolers. Than i will flying back home to Indianapolis for a Interpersonal Training Course at the Headquarters. The conference, it seems is being held at a summer camp like place and paintball is going to be available. :-D

The holidays have been absolutely great, catching up with friends and family. I have also started writing a science fiction short story, and I put my first college application of the year out to a school in Los Angeles called Biola. I also am greatly look forward to seeing everyone at the headquarters since its been a month and a half.

Missions Emphasis Week

2006-12-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

Ello all. I have now been home(San Francisco Bay Area) for almost 2 weeks. It has been good to be home to catch up with friends and family. It has also been good to minister again to various people who need spiritual encourgaement, or Jesus in their lives.

My mentor, Tom Wright, has been in town since December 1st, and he has been speaking daily at Alma Heights' Mission Emphasis week. We are currently half way through the week, and today's planned message got bumped. The Lord had other plans. Instead my friend Richard shared scripture exhorting the students to not be lukewarm for the Lord. To put away their spiritual apathy, and passionately run the race that the Lord has set for them, and to be filled with love and respect for their teachers and classmates. Towards the end of chapel, two thirds of the kids stood to affirm that the Lord had been speaking to their hearts and they wanted this for themselves. Praise the Lord! Thank you to all, spread out across the US, who have been praying for them.

I have been teaching two sophmore Bible classes here and we are going through the early chapters of the book of Acts and it has been going well. Friday we will be having a gathering of local pastors and youth pastors over lunch to introduce to them OMS and let them know about the various missions trips that we are planning for next summer.

Home is where your heart is

2006-11-27T23:26:00.000-08:00

I have now been home in California for about 5 days. It is very good to be home. Good to see family and friends and relate to them my experiences abroad.

Budhaphest, Hungary was very ... interesting. It was the first time that i had been over seas. The flight over was 8 hrs 15 min from New York City to Budhaphest, and the shortest night i had ever experienced. We were brining 6 suit cases full of new clothes to donate to a social welfare program over there called the "Large Family Association" that helps poor families with three or more kids meet their baisc needs. We also followed up with the teens who attended an English Camp run by the missionaries there over the summer and ran a day camp in similar format for younger kids on the saturday we were there. It was neat to meet with the missionary couples and fun to play with their small children. We also attended the small missionary established church, and toured the city of Budhaphest.

The Hungarian language is rather unique and supposedly very hard for an english speaker to learn. The country was under communist rule until 1989 and you get a sense of this by the silence of the adults as they ride the buses. There are pastries stands on practically every corner, and my friend Tom knows just enough Hungarian to order a pastry. The currency of Hungary is the florint and it is about 200 florint to a dollar. Stuff in general seems to cost about 20% less for the most part.

I will be home from Thanksgiving to about new years. The Department of Global Youth Ministries will help run the missions emphasis week at Alma Heights Christian Academy on Dec. 4th-8th. Happy Holidays!

Infinity...been there. Beyond here i come!

2006-11-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this post was a bit late in coming. We attended a missionary conference in Owosso, Michigan. This was the first time i had been in Michigan, and i really liked it. The trees were turning; igniting all different shades of red, orange, and yellow. The forests we drove through had an atmosphere i had never experienced before. It reminded me of M.Night Shyamaln's "The Village."

The conference went very well. Besides OMS, three other missionary organizations were represented: Wycliffe, CRI (Christian Resources International), OM International (Operation Mobilization). I am not sure of the full extent of each of the organizations, but Wycliffe is involved with translating the Bible into languages that do not have it; CRI is involved with receiving and distributing and Bibles and Christian books to people who need it around the world, and OM International has a fleet of ships they use to evangelize from port to port around the world.

After Michigan there was a weekend long college retreat ran by OMS called Breakaway. There were about 40 in attendance and it went really well. I ran the power point and helped with the cooking. Tom's wife, Beth, and her brother, Mark, are great cooks and i had a good time in the kitchen taking their orders. I didn't get too much sleep through this.

Than we moved a townhouse to a duplex on campus. That was alot work, and we cleaned the house after. Than the Department of Global Youth Ministries went to New Jersey for some business meetings with Pillar of Fire. Richard and I were told after that we did a good job presenting ourselves. We proposed for the department to be involved at other Pillar of Fire schools around the country besides Alma Heights and Richard proposed for an OMS Regional Office to be opened at Alma Heights for Northern California.

The next day we toured New York City and had a great time. Tom is a good tour guide and he knew just enough about the subway system to get by.

Tomorrow i leave for Budhaphest, Hungary. We will be bringing alot of clothes to a nonprofit orginization over there called the "Large family association" that helps low income families meet their basic needs. We will be doing follow-up and hanging out with kids who attended the Enlgish camp there last summer. We will also be working with OMS' missionaries living there, and setting up for next summer's English Camp.

Please pray pray that the Lord would fill us with his love to show to the people that we meet and that the light of His Son would be reflected on us also. Pray also for safety in our travels.

I look forward to being home in California, Thanksgiving morning!!!

Minnesota and beyond...

2006-10-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we are going to be driving up to Owasso, Michigan. Over the weekend Tom will be speaking at a Missions Conference at a church. This will be the first time i will ever be in Michigan. Hopefully after i will stop confusing it with Minnesota.... Well they both are next to each other and they both start with an M, right?

Owasso, i know is a town in Oklahoma, so maybe i have the name of the town wrong. Expect a summary of the trip when i return.

Missions to the Max...

2006-10-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

My day started with chapel at 7:57am. The Department of children's ministries made a presentation on some of the stuff that they have been working on. If you would like to know click here. Their goal is to inspire in kid's a missionary's heart, and make tools to put into the the hands of teachers in churches and private schools that would teach kids about missions. During the presentation i kept thinking how alma heights, highlands, and my home church would be blessed by this material.

Today we started going through the book of Collosians, starting with a survey of it as a whole, and trying to get into the mind of Paul and why he wrote it. Then we broke for lunch, and when we came back a part of our office in the basement (batcave as we like to call it) was flooded with water . I'm not sure if it is from a backedup drain or a brocken water heater. Good times!

The Exodus Decoded

2006-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

I saddly came in second in the monopoly game. I got a humongous early lead early on. I was the first to place houses on the green monopoly. I had boradwalk and park place also, and i even had the most money. I don't know want happen. Eventually i lost to my friend from Spain named Jorge. The game didn't last as long as we expected.

Today i went to church at Southport Presbyterian nearby. I attended a class on C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, and went to their contemporary service after. In the class we watched a documentary that was recently on the History channel hosted by James Cameron called the Exodus Decoded. It was amazing. If you like archaeology you need to see this. I am not sure when the History channel is going to show it again.

Monopalooza

2006-10-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

I am about to go take in a monopoly tournament. The missionary couple is opening their home up from 1pm to 11pm. I'll let you know how i do.

Tales of a Columbian "Sicario" ...

2006-10-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Today i was extremely blessed with a few others to sit down with Dr. Wesley Deuwel and discuss his book we have been reading. This to me was the equivalent of doing a book club with others on Mere Christianity but having C.S. Lewis in attendance. Dr. Duewel would be humble enough to say that he is no C.S. Lewis, but at 90 years old he is still as sharp as a tack. We sat in his office and discussed for about two hours. Each question would bring up a life story, some long/ some short, that would always apply. And it was great also to get insights on points we were not clear about.

He showed us copies of his book printed in other languages like "Mighty Prevaling Power" to the left and told us how he was humbled to see people in China give thanks before hand for receiving a copy or cry after. Then he related that people in some other countries do not own many books, and at that books with a steadfast Christian message. Here is a link to other books written by Dr. Duewel at amazon. "Heroes of the Holy Life" is one that i look forward to reading.

Yesterday i had the opportunity to transcribe the life testimony of a prisoner for my friend Sarah. She had just gotten back from a two week trip to Colombia where she had been working on a documentary on the amazing transformation by the power of the Gospel of a prison in Medellin, and the prison ministry that has continued after.

I know i am going to mess up some details, but basically through political unrest relating to a man named Pablo Escobar, 15+ years ago, after his government placed a bounty on his head in turn promised every prisoner at this jail $2,000 for each guard they killed. It got so bad that an average of 20 men died each day and the guards would lock the doors and refuse to go anywhere near the prisoners. Statistically it was the second most dangerous prison on the planet.

About this time God put a burden on the heart of a man to daily walk the cells and pray for the prisoners (He might have been a local priest). Then one day the violence and killing suddenly stopped. The death toll dropped from 20 a day to 20 in the past 10 years, and 1 in the past year from natural causes. What happened? The prisoners were led to Jesus by OMS missionary, Jeanine Barabon, and a team of Colombian evangelist and thereafter she started her ongoing ministry at the prison. In 1992 Jeanine started the Bellavista Prison Bible Institute. Through this discipleship program, over 400 prisoners have graduated and now minister to other inmates all across the nation in the penitentiaries where they are. What is great is that the Columbian government is pleased about the results (their guards not being killed), and is encouraging similar ministries to be started at their 50 other prisons.

The testimony that i was transcribing was of a man who as a child was raised to be a "sicario," hit man, and ran in child gangs for hire. He was sent to prison at least five different times for gun trafficking and other things i forgot. At one point he said he wanted to die, but didn't want to kill himself. So he strived to put himself into situations that would.

Eventually he ended up at the Medellin prison where a younger inmate offered to read the Bible to him. He chose to hear a story over a psalm and was told the story of Job. While listening the man started to cry, and when asked why, he tried to downplay it. As the young inmate continued to press the question he relented and related through his tears that he was struck by the fact that Job through terrible circumstances of losing his health and everthing he held dear did not blame God. The man found that through all the garbage in his life found he could relate to Job's circumstances but not his mindset, and this struck him to the heart. The young inmate than proceeded to tell him the good news of Jesus Christ, and the man today is a living testament of the life transforming power of the gospel of Christ.

Sarah says there are several reasons she wants to make the documentary:
1) Its an amazing story that needs to be told
2) To help Jeanine Barabon raise support for her prison ministry
3) Its a testament that if Jesus can transform the life of the "scum"of the earth(as the world might see them) he can do the same for you and I.

Roller Coasters and Reading...

2006-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend a group of "younger" people who work with OMS went to an amusement park outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. We were given free tickets and drove two and a half hours to reach it. It was very similar to Paramount's Great America and is called King's Island. We had a blast on the many attractions and rides and it was also a good time of fellowship. Pictured to the right is the "Drop Zone" thats sits 40 people, unlike the one back home thats sits half that.

There is a man who you will find here at OMS Headquarters named Wesley L. Duewel. He is a successful author and has published almost 2 dozen books. Whats even more amazing is that he is 90 years old, and every now and then you will pass him shuffeling down the halls. In his early 20's he was one of OMS' first missionaries to India, and was the driving force in opening India as an OMS missions field. His books have been published in many languages and are widespread throughout the world. We are about to start reading one of his book's called "More God More Power" and will be sitting down and discussing it with him.

On the back of his book you will find this: "Wesley L. Duewel has been an evangelist, pastor and missionary for more than fifty years. An accomplished author who has specialized in revival and the deeper life, Dr. Deuwel lives in Greenwood, Indiana."

Stocky, no neck, and blue in the face he was...

2006-10-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today was a half day of prayer. It is something the headquarters staff do every month, and was a blessing to be a part off.

The seminar went well last night. The group is called Crosswinds and is a loose orginization of a handful of missionaries unaffiliated with OMS. The focus of the seminar is to be an encouragemnt through Scipture to each person in their ministries. The people who atteneded are from all over the United States, and have worked in India, china, Thailand, Malaysia and various other countries.

It went well. I ran the sound for the sessions and recorded onto a cd all that was said. The group is rather charasmatic and one of the speaker's face only turned a purplish red 4 times.

The Seminar will continue tonight,all day tomorrow, and the first half of Saturday. Saddly i will be missing the second episode of Lost tonight because of it. If you can't relate i am sorry for you. :-)

Fall is in the air...

2006-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Fall is in the air here in Greenwood. The leaves of the trees are turning orange and red. This statment might not phase you, but having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area surrounded by evergreens and eucalyptus this is a semi-new experience.

We have taken a break from our studies having just finished "Missionary Warrior" a biography on the life of OMS International founder Charles Cowman. On it we had an essay test that i did so-so on. If i had more time i could have written alot more, oh well.

Last week we went to a prayer meeting with a handfull of other pastors in the area. It was a pretty sweet to see these men being accountable for each other, and lifting each other up in prayer.

Today a seminar/conference will be starting for the next three days that i will be running the sound for, just like i use to do at my home church in Pacifica. Stay tuned to see what the conference is about... i'm currently not sure.

State of the Union...

2006-09-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Things are going well. We have been reading through Romans and just finished the biography of Charles Cowman, the founder of OMS. Each day we meet and discuss what we have read. Our discussions have lately been focused on the topic of Reformed Theology vs. Weslian (and everything between) and attemtping to surmise for ourselves what exactly "salvation" is, because your view of salvation determines what exactly your ministry does.

We were blessed twice last week to have Randy Spacht, the incoming Excutive Director of International Ministry sit down with us and discuss the book of Romans. He has also been a proffessor at an OMS related Seminary in Colombia.

This morning Eric, Richard, and I spoke in the chapel. We talked about ourselves and shared our testimonies. We also led one worship song with Tom on guitar.

On a selfish note i was able to introduce a few people on campus to a board game i like called "Settlers of Catan."

Once Upon a weekend in Penn's Woods

2006-09-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend i attended a Convention/Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania for OMS' North Eastern Region. We drove about 9 hrs from Greenwood, Indiana. There i got to hear a missionary couple from Brazil and another from Haiti speak on what the Lord has been doing in their countries. Another couple spoke about how they heard God's call on their lives, and are soon about to depart to Mozambique. It was also a blessing to meet quite a few retired missionaries.

Now that i finally have a connection to the internet feel free to e-mail me at chiron1138@aol.com with any questions you might have or even if you just want to say hi. Adieu

No they weren't dancing in the Aisles...mostly

2006-09-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

I have been quite blessed this past week and a half. Every where I go people pour out their love on us. On the OMS Campus in Greenwood, IN. everyone is welcoming and surprisingly more than I had expected have extended their hospitality to us and opened their homes. But none of this has compared to the love that would be poured out to us in Rochester, NY.

We left for Rochester early Friday morning at 5am. It was going to be about a 10 hour drive from Indianapolis and would once again extend a personal record of the farthest East I had ever been. Tom Wright, my boss/mentor/friend, was invited to preach at a Black Pentecostal Church there called the ‘Pentecostal Miracle Deliverance Church Center’ or PMDCC for short. This Sunday’s service was a yearly held event called Holy Convocation which was set aside as an encouragement for people to rededicate and refocus their lives on Christ. We would be attending a church service there Friday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening. For the interns under Tom; Richeard, Erik, Jorge (pronounced Horhay), and I; this was to be a cross-cultural and cross-denomination learning experience.

While in Rochester we stayed at the house of a dear friend of Tom known affectionately as Mama Brown, or just Mama. Last summer she traveled on a high school missions trip to Hungary with Tom as adult leader. Mama is a 66 year old Black woman whose kids have grown up and left the house and showed herself to be one of the most loving people I have ever met. In more than just appearance she is as Black as midnight, and has a very southern style of metaphor in her speech. I sadly can’t bring one of her many phrases to mind, although each was quite funny. She also affectionately called those who entered the hospitality of her home, her sons.

The young men (us four interns) stayed in the loft of her 3 story house where beds were prepared. The house had so mush character. It wasn’t very wide or deep, but it was very tall and the rooms were stacked on each other, and in the center of it a stairway ran its height. But the most noticeable thing was how much it squeaked and creaked when you walked. Mama attended to us at meal time like royalty, and we had collard greens, corn bread, okra, pork in the greens, and fried chicken. Definitely the cooking was very Southern in origin.

We attended the Friday night service and the dress was formal. Walking into the church I will have to be honest and say that I did feel uncomfortable for about the first minute, being in all-Black church. But the people were very welcoming that I quickly got past it. It was the first time that I had been to a Pentecostal service. To use some slang, it was quite ‘kickin.’ The worship time was loud and intense and I enjoyed every second. “I don’t think I ever clapped so much,” my friend Richard later remarked. Mama Brown gave the message for the Friday night service. The sermon was quite interactive. Members of the congregation maintained an ongoing dialogue with the person preaching. “Amen” and “Preach it” and “That’s right” and “She/he speaks the truth” could be heard after almost every statement given.

Saturday we got to meet up for lunch with my dear friend and Pastor, Peter Burch. It was such a blessing to spend time with him, and his wife, Holly, and his kids, Ashley and Devante. I introduced my cohorts to Peter, and we spoke for a few hours and had lunch. Also he took us on a tour of his church he is pasturing at, and his vision for the different ministries he would like to start in helping and reaching the community. I am very anxious to see how the Lord will use him.

Saturday night we were blessed with a Lasagna that a member of the church dropped off to help feed the ‘missionaries.’ It was a great time of bonding and fellowship between the four interns, accept we later found out that night that one of us snored quite heavily. We ironed all our clothes the night before because Mama would have it that none of us would iron on the Sabbath.

Sunday night we woke up early and, if I remember correctly, had a hearty breakfast. Mama outdid herself with Pancakes and grits, and bacon. We went to the Sunday school before the service during where I got to give a short message, sharing my testimony and encouraging the audience to be a light for Jesus wherever they are, sharing the Gospel of Christ with their friends and acquaintances. It was sprung on me at the last second but I think the Lord quickly prepared me and allowed my hopefully to relate to those who are different than I.

The main service was great. I was quite blessed by the energy in the worship time. Tom gave the message out of Revelations on the coming victory of Christ over the Devil. His words were powerful, on account of his source material…the Bible. Interesting enough his style of worship changed to fit his audience, specifically a Charismatic Pentecostal church. It reminded me of how Paul talks about being a Roman to the Romans and a Jew to the Jews so that he might win souls for Christ. Logically one might accuse him of falsely representing himself, but in good conscience I know he will say that he was adapting his style to better reach his audience.

After church was a siesta time. We had Dinner between 3pm and 4. This made my friend Jorge happy because this is the usual time that he eats lunch in Spain. I found out after, that in the south, dinner refers to lunch, and supper to dinner. Strange. We had some green beans that meal that was sent over by another member of the church. Very good Green Beans, I might add. In the words of Mama, “They had Jesus in them.”

By 6pm we went back to the church and attended “Sunday Extension,” which is like an evening Sunday school. I really enjoyed this, too, because the adult participants were very engaged on the Subject at hand. I took part and contributed as much as I could. This surprised the teacher leading the class, who by the way was the cook of the green beans we ate earlier. After that was the evening service
Each week in every service it seems they have an opportunity for people to “testify” on how the Lord has been answering prayer or working in their lives. With a little encouragement, Richard, Erik, and I all got up and spoke. I think this impressed the church leaders. After this another 2 guys got up and testified, who previously in their lives had been involved with gangs and drugs before Jesus got a hold of their heart. After hearing Tom’s message they were inspired to drive around the streets of downtown Rochester and find somebody to share the Gospel with. The person they found first was a gang member with a pocket full of booze, and a younger family member at his side. He related to the two guys what his life’s state and how he had recently been in a gang shoot out. In turn the two guys told him about the good news of Jesus Christ; the fact that every man has a sin nature that they are born into, and it is this sin that will lead them to spiritual death when they die, Hell. But God in his compassion, love, and grace made the ultimate sacrifice by sending His Son Jesus to die in our place. Like a sacrificial Lamb of the Old Testament our sin was placed upon Him. Romans 10:9 says,

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The Gang Member on that street corner placed his faith in Jesus and vowed to change his ways. He emptied the bottle from his pocket right there on the street and decided to live as an example to his younger family member at his side. Yes, Jesus is in the business of changing lives.

We got back pretty pretty late from the service. “That is enough church for one day,” humorously remarked Jorge as we started to change our clothes. The rest of the night I purposefully got no sleep and spent it talking with my friend Jorge(pronounced Horhay) about his home in Spain, his family situation and what his church is like there. I in turn told him about myself.

We left at 5am for Greenwood, Indianapolis. We sadly did not stop at Niagara Falls but should in two weeks. The drive went pretty smooth. I drove a portion of the 10hr trip. Some how our van is still working, and I would like to thank anyone has prayed for it. Please continue. It’s actually currently being looked at by the on campus mechanic.

The rest of the week was pretty good. We are still going through in-depth through Romans and the book called “Missionary Warrior,” a biography of the founder of OMS. More on that later.

Tomorrow we leave for Hershey, Pennsylvania for a Regional weekend conference/convention for OMS International. It will relay to constituents what OMS has accomplished in the past year, and their current plans for the future. I am looking forward to it. I believe missionaries from the field will be speaking. Our departure time is 5am and the drive is about 9hrs from Greenwood, Indiana. Stay tuned for a full report.

In passing I think if I post more often my post will be shorter. Toodles.

Off And Running...

2006-09-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hello all. So i've finally gotten into the swing of things here in Greenwood, IN. All this time i've yet to get regular internet access, and this has been a hinderance in keeping up with anybody. So at this time this blog is the best way to let people know how i am doing. I also hope to jazz this blog up a bit once i get regular access.
Lets see where do i start? ... Last monday was our first official day of 'work.' At 9am we had a meetting with other OMS staff members. They had a short devotional, briefly talked of various office related things and than Richard, Erik, and I (the three new interns) were introduced. We each told a little bit about ourselves. After the meeting Tom gave us a brief intro on how the orginaztion breaks down. What division and region is under what, and who is in charge of this and that and how the international region relate to the ones here in America. In other words my description is rather vague because i have already forgotten most of this informnation. :-) Than Tom, our fearless leader, took us for a tour around OMS headquarters. To this office and that one. To this department and that. "And if you need help with this come here..." "And this is our inhouse mail room where you can..." People were very welcoming and each asked us where we were from. Than we got to meet the Director, i guess that is what you would call him, of the orginization. His office was nicely furnished and his secretary ran to get him for us. We shook his hand and yet again spoke about ourselves. Because of the large interest in these new "strapping" young men, as one little old lady put it, Tom has set us up to share our Testominies in an upcoming chapel. They have chapel twice a week, tuesday and thursday morning at 7:57am.
Our basic day, so far, works out that we have a Bibler Study for 4hrs from 9am to noon. Than lunch, and than some type of work project until 5pm at the latest. The Global Youth Ministries department, which i am interning under, is currently moving its office from and office to a garage. Now this may sound kinda of odd, but we are defintely trading up. The garage is pretty large but it is just going to need a little TLC. So we have been cleaning out the garage, furnishing it, moving furniture, painting the old office for the new tenant. Today we assembled a desk for that same person.
We have been studying in-depth in the Bible through the book of Romans, and also reading a book called "Missionary Warrior" a biography of the founder of the Oriental Missionary Society (now OMS International, this orginization that i am interning under) which is written by his wife. Both of whom are deceased. I also just started attending a Bible Study at a nearby church on a book called "The Contagious Christian."
I have been getting along so far quite well with my two roommates. Each of us have our own room, and our abode is a sweet little bachelors pad. There is a chance that we may lose it, if a specific missionary family comes home from the field. And their larger family would be in a greater need. If that happens we might be moved over to a nearby apartment, and possibly forced to share a room. :-(
In the area of entertainment the TV show "Lost" is playing nonstop in the living room. I brought the first and second season and addicted my my room mate Erik. Richard, Erik, and I are all trying to finish season 1 and 2 before 3 starts October 5th. Also there is a theatre nearby that plays movies for only $.50 every tuesday. So last tuesday night when went with a group of some of the younger people on OMS staff. Tonight there is an on campus a party for the TV show "Survivor." My "boss" Tom (he is not really my boss but the guy i am interning under) and a few others on staff are diehard Survivor fans. So i am looking forward to that.
On wednesday the Orginization had a half day of prayer, which was unexpectantly a great blessing. It was held at a local church and the first 50 minutes was set aside for a personal prayer time. I got alot out of this and was able to pore out to God specific worries and doubts that had been in the back of my mind in relation to this new chapter in my life, and what settled on my heart after was an overcoming sense of peace. A specific verse that i purposefully found during this time was the second half of Jeremiah 66:2. In it the Lord says,

"This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word."

And also, not on purpose, i found Psalm 103, a passage i had memorized when i was in first or second grade. It was probably the largest thing i had memorized at the time and was done for a ACSI Speech Meet. It says,

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The first verse is a challenge to me to be a person who is humble, and someone who is broken before God. When we are broken, when we can no longer do it on our own. It is there that we can find our strength in God, and we can know that peace that surpasses all understanding, and He can start his work in our heart, to create us into the person that he would have us be in the likeness and characteristic of His Son.
The second passage is an encouragement to the way that God relates to those who call Him Savior and Lord, and the writer in the first verse in response to all that God does can only Praise and Worship Him.
The rest of the half day of prayer was spent in an organized corporate prayer for specific missionaries and their kids that the orginization had set out to many various countries, and specific things that each were dealing with.
Tomorrow morning at 5am we leave for Rochester, New York. It will be a 10 hour drive, and we will be attending a Black Pentacostal church there. Just picture the Black church in the movie "Blues Brothers" and that is how my mind's eye expects it to be like from what Tom has told us. We will be attending a friday night service, and a Sunday morning and evening service there. We we will also be attending an evening Saturday service at a nearby spanish church. Tom is going to be preaching at the Black church which is our purposefor going. But alos to expose us to cross cultural ministries. I will also be meeting up with my former Pastor Peter Burch on Saturday, which i am really looking forward to. I have always thought of Peter as a mentor and was sad when he felt God's call to lead him back to his home town in Rochester where he is now a Pastor. Saturday is also his twin son and daughter's birthday. I think they are turning 10. I remember when they were 5.
I will post as soon as possible after we come back.

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away ...

2006-09-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

I definitely need to star this post with a disclaimer. I am a writer at heart, so please forgive me if this post runs long. I have been in Greenwood Indiana for two days now. As i write this, sitting in the living room of my new boss, Tom Wright, i can hear the "Manning Bowl" play in the background. Go Colts, i guess. (When in Rome ... ) And on that note i am sad to hear the Niners lost. :-(
Me and Richard have succesfully and safely arrived in Indiana. We stopped in Salt Lake City the first night and Colby, Kansas the second. Wyoming sticks out most in my mind for having straight long deserted unpoliced highways, and a horizon that stretches miles in every directions. The Salt flats in Utah were pretty cool. I picked up quite a few salt samples from there. We caught some traffic north of Denver, and i missed a turn off in St. Louis leading us to tour the city up close and personal. We arrived in Greenwood Indiana at almost 2am, Saturday morning. There is a three hour difference between here and the Bay Area, which will be to my advantage when i eventually get a cell phone (Cingular: free nights and weekends!).
OMS headquarters is pretty neat. It sits on about 20 acres, and the main building has 40-50 international flags sitting in front of it for all the countries OMS has ministries in. All the homes on campus house staff members for OMS.
We were welcomed by Beth Wright, Tom's wife, for Tom was unable to stay awake. She showed us our new home. The place is two stories, four bedrooms, 2 and a a half bathrooms, kitchen, dining, and living room, and its only going to be housing three people. We share a wall with a retired missionary couple from Japan. I have my own room, Richard has another, and the third is taken by a guy named erik. Erik had gotten in only earlier that day and he is the thrid intern under Tom. He is 24 years old, from Kansas, and training to be a pilot. He is also rather tall and a nice guy.
We spent Saturday after sleeping just setteling in, unpacking and arranging stuff in our rooms. Tom and Beth were busy with soccer in the early afternoon. Sean, their adopted son from Korea, had a soccer game. Later in the evening we went out to dinner in downtown Indianopollis with Tom, Beth, Sean, and Horhay (don't think i spelled that right). Horhay is from spain, 23, and has been staying with the Wright family for the past few weeks to work on his english. He met Tom on his last mission trip to Madrid a month ago. After dinner we toured the city. And later in the night, Richard, Erik, and I watched Anchor man.
Today we (which will always most likely mean Richard, Erik, and I) went to church at Tom and Beth's Presbyterian Church. We went to a sunday school class going through C.S. Lewis' 'Mere Christianity.' The main service had a guest Dixie Land Band leading worship. Noy exactly my style but it was neat to broaden my horizons.
In the evening Tom and Beth invited us over to watch the Colts' football game. Tomorrow my day starts at 8am with an OMS staff meeting. There i will be introduced to other people on staff and start to guage what my new responsibilities will be.
Friday we will be leaving for Rochester for the weekened. Tom is going to be preaching at a chruch and i look forward to meeting up with Pastor Burch and his family. Well now i must sign off. Toodles.

"Todo, where not in Kansas anymore..."

2006-09-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Well, actually we are... but when you read this we will for not be. Me and my friend Richard have been driving for the past two days. We drove from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, Utah the first night staying at a hotel there. The first day was about 750 miles, and today we drove almost 800. We are staying overnight in a motel in Colby, Kansas. We should be in Greenwood, Indiana by tomorrow night. Some highlights of the trip would be stopping at my Grandmother's house for breakfast in Truckee; going farther East than i have ever gone before(Reno); realizing how desolate Central United States is with plains stretching as far as the eye can see; romping at a rest stop on Salt flats in Utah. So far we have traveled about 1500 miles so far and by the end of the day tomorrow will have driven 2300 miles. Please continue to pray for our safety. Thankyou.

T-minus 7

2006-08-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

There are T-minus 7 days and counting until me and my friend Richard drive to Indiana. I am keeping busy figuring out all the details before we leave. Anywho, as soon as we are settled in Indiana i will be sure and post again. Please keep our safety in your prayers as we travel there.