Worldwide Student Network

Welcome STINTers!

2009-08-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome 2009 STINTers! I'm sitting here in the meeting room at Copper. Kevin just finished a great talk on the love of the Lord, and I'm listening along with you to Deb talking about Loving Your Team. (She had ringworm!) On behalf of the whole WSN leadership team, we are so excited about God's work in your life and the fact that we, together, are going to the world. There are about 250 of you going to about 50 different strategic location, with about 2 millions students. The Mission you've accepted: help bring the reality of Jesus to as many as students as possible. Trust God to plant spiritual movements among those who have never heard of Jesus. Raise up national leaders who will demonstrate and preach the gospel for a lifetime. Be a blessing to the nation and people that you will live among this year.

This is all impossible, without the Lord. But with God, all things are possible. He is choosing the ridiculous - you! - to make His glory known. Isn't it cool to be not only rescued by God, but to be given the role to be involved in rescuing others from darkness into light. Obviously, He does the rescuing, but you are His ambassador of the truth of the light of the gospel.

We hope this blog will be a place for you to gain encouragement from the stories of God at work around the world from your teams, to pray for those fellow stinters who are trusting God for audacious faith filled dreams, to laugh at some of the funny things that Matt Mikalatos (Greater Northwest WSN RD) seems to randomly pull off of youtube or out of his wacky brain, and also to get information that we think could be helpful, sometimes even essential, for you on STINT. So, you might want to set this up to come to your email automatically when we post, or just make it your 5th L, Look at the STINT blog. For now, if you have a cool story you want to post or a prayer request for everyone to hear.

And in honor of Deb's great video clip on working as a team:

We look forward to staying in touch this year.
Keith Bubalo
WSN National Director

I finally know that I belong....

2009-01-25T16:55:00.001-08:00

For those of you who started your stint year in August or September, you're finally reaching that time of year where you might find that you're starting to "normalize" in your new culture. Maybe you hit bottom around the holidays and now you're discovering that you have good and bad days... just like... like, uh... like home.

What's more, as the end of the (stint) year rapidly approaches you'll start realizing that there are things about this culture that are YOURS and you want to take it home with you. Or maybe you realize that this is home more than the good Ol' US of A.

As for me, I like songs that put a smile on my face and remind me of how I'm feeling today. And so, allow me to introduce you to Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele and "Oh, Paris!"

Remember

2009-01-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, I typically find myself thinking about what I would like for the next year to look like. I long ago gave up New Year's resolutions, not being able to make most of them last past about 2 weeks. But I'm still a future thinker more than a reflective one. I look down the road far easier and more often than reflect upon where I've come from. But in that, I am missing something important.

I was reading a few days ago from a devotional book by Charles Spurgeon, where he mentions 1 Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us".

Maybe you've sung the phrase before from the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and wondered about that phrase, "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come." There are 2 words we don't often use anymore - "Ebenezer" and "hither".

The Ebenezer is literally "a stone of help".

It's Samuel's version of the more familiar memorial stones that Joshua pulled from the Red Sea to celebrate God's faithful provision to Israel as they made it through the 40 year journey and crossed into the Promised Land to a new life, a new beginning. Samuel raises the stone and says to all Israel, remember how God has worked in your midst up until this very moment.

As you start the New Year, before you think about what you want 2009 to look like, take some time by yourself and with your team, and raise your own Ebenezer. Like a giant road marker/monument, recount to yourself and one another all the various ways that God has shown Himself to be your provider, shepherd, warrior, lover, redeemer, and more.

While there is always much to anticipate and plan for in the future - goals to achieve, trips to take, decisions to make - these markers, this "stone of help", will provide the spiritual context you and I need to move forward with gratitude and hope in our hearts for the journey God has us for us in the days ahead. Stopping in our present, to remember our past, helps us make more sense out of our future. It forces us to hear and learn from God where He fits in this picture, and how He is the one who is watches over our ways.

There, now you can add "Ebenezer" to your vocabulary. I still wouldn't use "hither". Just leave it alone.

May the road for 2009 bring you a richer experience of the mercy and grace of God.

STINT Survey and the Christmas Conference

2008-12-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking alot about you stinters scattered around the world. I know that the Christmas season is often a great time for sharing the hope that you have in Jesus, and I pray that you have seen God revealing Himself to friends that you have been making over the past weeks and months.

I'm sure you are all praying as well for the 10,000+ students who are attending Christmas Conferences beginning tomorrow. Did you know the Bridges Conference has over 800 international students attending, their largest conference ever. Imagine the impact of that as they return to their campuses, and to their nations in the years ahead.

As you pray for all of those who are attending conferences, I know you are hopeful that God will touch the hearts of hundreds and thousands of students with a passion for God and His heart for the nations. You might remember that the first night of the Briefing Conference I shared about Moses and his encounter with God in the burning bush. Well, your surveys about why you came on STINT were evidence of the reality of the burning bush experiences of which you shared that night. 93% of you said that one of the most important factors in deciding to come on STINT was hearing from God in His word and prayer. A friend's counsel, a summer project trip, and vision for your campuses' partnership location were all very significant as well.

It seems to me that the Christmas and Winter conference environment is where a lot of these factors intersect. Meeting with God, hearing about the mission, encouragement from friends, and a chance to go overseas for a summer are all part of the conference environment.

But here is what the stint survey also revealed; only about 5% of you made the decision to STINT while at the conference. 28% made that decision after the conference in January and February. At first I was surprised, but then I realize how good this really is. It shows a reflective process is occurring. There is also the fact that 65% of you said the challenge of raising support was one of your biggest barriers to stinting. The specter of raising $40,000 in 3 months tends to cause one to check a few times if that was really God they heard in the bush, or was it just passing emotionalism.

I pass this along though so that we put our hope in God for what He wants to do in raising up additional stinters. No doubt your experience is proving what Jesus told his disciples 2000 years ago: "the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." Wherever you are on STINT, and regardless of the current results, one message always cries out: We Need More Help!

Jesus' solution was to "pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His Harvest." Put into the example of Moses from Exodus, let's pray that 10,000 students will be "turn aside" to see, listen to, and respond to God as He reveals Himself, and His heart for each one of them to be fulfilled in His Kingdom purpose for their lives. If that happens, I'm sure God will call many to labor alongside of you as STINTers this coming year. (And the rest who don't can support you!)

And my prayer for you is that you will experience God's refreshing touch upon your life in the days ahead, with hope in your heart for how He wants to work in your life this coming year.

Lessons from the Wild II (Devotion)

2008-12-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

The rhino, as any fan of The Gods must be Crazy, knows is the self-appointed fire prevention officer of the jungle. But maybe there are a few facts of the Rhinoceros that you might not be aware of and can apply to live & ministry on STINT.

A group of Rhinos is called a crash. The reason is because a Rhino runs 30 miles an hour but can only see 30 feet in front of them. (Props to Erwin McManus for this insight.) This propensity for running into things is perhaps why God created Rhinos with thick skin and gave them one or two horns depending on the species.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, 'we fix our eyes on what is unseen rather than what we can see' and in the next chapter adds 'we live by faith and not by sight'. What if we charged through life like Paul and his buddies, like a crash of Rhinos - full force, break-neck speed, by faith, not worrying about what we can see with our limited eyesight? We don't have a horn and we're not pachyderms (though some of us are thick-skinned & some thick-sculled) but we have the same promise that enabled Paul to live & minister this way. It's a promise of the coming resurrection; a promise that while this measly aging body will waste away its not the end.

We can be pressed down but we are not crushed. We can be perplexed but we are never in despair. We might be persecuted but we will not be abandoned. We possibly could be struck down but we will not be destroyed. Life, eternal life, real life is guaranteed so we can charge ahead like Rhinos - full of faith.

Another little tidbit about Rhinos is their symbiotic relationship with the oxpecker. The oxpecker feeds off of parasites that live on the Rhino. And it seems like they get the best of them because they get a little of the Rhino's blood when they remove ticks or whatnot. But with the Rhino's myopia, he knows that danger is near when the oxpeckers fly away. (The rhino also has amazing sense of smell and hearing but those facts blur my analogy so ignore them.)

It's teamwork in action. Where the Rhino is limited, the oxpecker is strong. When the Rhino might not even know there are little guys beneath the thick skin slowing sucking life away, the oxpecker shows up for a groom and a snack. For the Rhino, while sacrificing a little blood in the process, this relationship saves his hide. For the oxpecker he gets lunch and a free wild ride.

In the same way of God's created order in the wild, He has placed you together as a team for a purpose. It's no accident you are together. Everyone has a role. Sometimes the role is defined: team leader, person who handles finances, team prayer leader, buyer of snacks for socials, etc. But sometimes the roles are undefined. Maybe one of you is the team encourager speaking life into others. Perhaps you are the one God has gifted with humor who brings light moments to heavy ones. Perhaps you are the team servant joyfully serving others and not wanting to draw attention to yourself. Maybe you're 'the team mom' caring for others when they are sick or 'big brother' looking out for others and making sure folks are safe.

Do you really believe that God has uniquely made everyone on your team and brought you together for a purpose? Everyone! Do you just accept each other's differences or do you appreciate them? Or maybe you are just still back at the stage of being aware that you are not alike or acknowledging these differences but just trying to tolerate one another. How often do you say, "God I am so thankful that this person is on my team and that you made them different than me. They might even bug me at times but I need them... I need those who are thick-skinned. I need the bloodsuckers, too. I need every person on this team and they need me."

We need each other to forge ahead by faith as a crash of Rhinos.

Another Resource

2008-12-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

There is a new on-line resource for evangelistic materials in several languages. It's Gospel Translations and already has articles in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. It's set up like a wiki so if your translation skills are worthy you can add to the tool or maybe a student you are discipling would like to contribute.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

There’s nothing like holidays overseas to make you feel isolated, creepy and angry. It’s weird that no one on your team does them the same way you do (“What do you mean you eat cranberry sauce out of a can?”). I remember my first Thanksgiving at Krista’s family’s house when I discovered they were about to throw away the dark meat of the turkey. They insist it was a joke but I was pretty scared for a minute.

These feelings are intensified overseas, and the next five weeks--Thanksgiving through New Year’s—can be the most difficult part of a stint year. You are experiencing culture shock, miss your family, and your team seems suddenly to represent another culture, too… a culture that opens gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

Then you start looking at the culture. They think it’s bizarre that you celebrate a day of thankfulness by gorging yourself on over-sized birds and cranberries and smashed potatoes. They don’t understand why you want Christmas Day off from your classes. They don’t see why missing your family on this Thursday is different from any other day of the year. You feel out of place, out of sorts and out of strength.

Here’s a scripture I hope will encourage you:

“…they admitted they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country which they had left they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were looking forward to a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Remember, you are not only a stranger to this culture you are living in now, but to the culture of the entire world. A day is coming when you can be “home” at last, when you will be with the Most Beloved One, in his home, celebrating every holyday together with him. In that day we won’t feel alone anymore, won’t be worn out from life in this world and won’t find ourselves adrift and without hope ever again.

So, take a break here and there, make sure you are rested. Give your family and friends a call for the holidays. But don’t forget that you are a stranger where you are in the same way that you would be a stranger in the United States… you are a citizen of a greater kingdom, the Heavenly one. In the meantime, celebrate with your teammates or other believers; that’s a pretty good preview of the New Jerusalem to come.

Homothumadon: Jesus, Fired up!

2008-11-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

Acts 4 is a great scene in the early church. In the chapter prior, Peter & John were on the way to pray and end up healing a 40-year old crippled beggar. Peter turns it into and evangelistic event so the Sadducees arrested them but the number of believers blossomed to about 5000. So Peter & John are brought before the high priest and his whole family. Peter filled with the Holy Spirit gives a rocking testimony of who did the real healing – Jesus: the one you crucified but rose again, the rejected stone that is now the Cornerstone, and the only one under heaven of whom salvation is found. They threatened them and tell them to stop speaking in Jesus’ name and of course the P & J have now of that, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God for we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

But the part that intrigues me is what happens when P & J go back to their team and give a report. Luke writes that when the church heard this “they raised their voices together in prayer to God.” The prayer is an awesome one of acknowledging that our Lord and Creator is calling the shots. And the supplication is simply for God to consider the threats and enable them, His servants, to speak the gospel with great boldness and to continue to display His power through

the name of Jesus.

The Greek word that is translated here in the NIV ‘together’ is homothumadon. It shows up several places in Acts: the 120 were gathered in homothumadon – Acts 1:14; after Pentecost the 3000 continued daily homothumadon in the temple and homes – Acts 2:46; the church ; used to met homothumadon in Solomon’s Portico – Acts 5:12; and the council homothumadon choose some men to send with Paul & Barnabas to Gentile believers – Acts 15:25.

Eugene Peterson writes that “of one mind” or “together” or “of one accord” all seems too tame. Homothumadon is a compound word. Homo means the same. The don on the end signifies that it’s an adverb. But the middle thumas is a word surging with energy. By itself it means ‘flying off the handle’, ‘losing your temper’, ‘going ballistic’. In the context of this movement of young believers there is nothing negative in it, no malice, no revenge, no violence. Instead the energy is love, peace, community, unity, with one voice, a oneness in spirit and purpose. It’s a unanimous response of a large group of individuals with different gifts and ideas from the soul based on what God has done and who He is. It’s not just some byproduct of playing nice or walking through steps of resolving conflict. It’s a holy passion. It’s the fire of the Spirit. It’s Jesus, fired up!

In Acts 4, when threatened the early church could have cowered in fear or just decided to be nice little compliant Christians content with their holy huddle. Come on 5000! That’s a lot to be satisfied with why rock the boat? Instead there is this wonderful powerful harmony, this homothumadon fueled by the fire of the Holy Spirit that calls them to cry out in one voice that God rules and to plead with Him not to take away the threat but it give them as His servants boldness and power to declare and display the gospel in the midst of the persecution. They didn’t resort to trying to overthrow the status quo. They didn’t grumble. They didn’t loose heart. They didn’t cower. They humbly asked that the gospel not be tamed because God cannot be tamed.

That’s what unity is. That’s the kind of power the world has rarely seen. That’s a power that launches transformational movements that can’t be stopped. That’s what being united in spirit and purpose can do. That’s Jesus, fired up!

RIP OFF!

2008-11-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest things for me to deal with on STINT was when someone totally ripped me off. A few of you may have heard my story about the Overpriced Potato that caused me to go insanely off my rocker and yell at an entire market full of people that I was being unfairly treated.

Here's a little news item that caught my attention: A couple on vacation in India was charged TWO HUNDRED bucks for some street food.

In other news, Mmmmmmm, samosas!

How about you guys? And good rip-off stories this year?

Lessons from the Wild I (Devotion)

2008-11-12T15:06:00.001-08:00

The Wildebeest (or Gnu) is one strange animal. It's really an antelope with an ox-like head. But two crazy traits stand-out as lessons to us.

One is that in the dry seasons millions of wildebeests will travel hundreds of miles in search of grass & water. They can cover 30 miles in a day. They often travel with zebras and gazelles following rain clouds and lightening in the distance knowing that the clouds will lead them to the water & green pasture.

This reminds me of the Children of Israel in the desert who were depend on God leading them with a cloud by day and fire at night. Nehemiah writes that it was out of God's great compassion that God lead them providing manna and water for them. And that God sustained them in such miraculous fashion that their clothes didn't even wear out in 40 years of camping out.

For a generation, they knew that when the cloud of God's glory would come down that they were to pitch camp. His glory would come down over the Tabernacle tent. Later, when the temple was built by Solomon, God's glory again came down in a cloud. And one day our Messiah will come again on clouds.

The other interesting thing about wildebeests is that the males will do something that no other antelope does. When hunted, they will stay behind the group or even stumble to act hurt to get the attention of a hungry lion or laughing hyena. While the male wildebeests fain injury, the rest of the group has time to run to safety.

Jesus said that there was no greater love than laying down your life for your friends. When know that verse. We like that verse. What we may forget (or just don't like) is that verse is sandwiched in between these two Jesus' statements. "This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you" and "You are my friends if you do what I command."

Jesus calls us to live and love like Him. That great love, that amazing love, that sacrificial love for others is what separates those of us who just say they know Jesus and those who experience a friendship with the Savior.

Two crazy wildebeests traits. One is an act of dependence trusting Him for our daily bread. Looking for Him to show up and guide us. To dwell with us. To come to us and to come for us. The other is a call to a life of sacrifice, out of love to lay it all down. To consider others more important than ourselves.

Who gnu?

Mid-Year Madness

2008-11-12T12:28:00.000-08:00

Espana ~ Here are the bare minimum facts for the Spain Midyear for Namestan, Eastern Europe/Russia & Western Europe:

January 19 – 25
Where: The conference will be in Nerja, Spain at the Perla Marina Hotel .
Schedule your flights to arrive in the Malaga airport by 3pm on January 19 (Coaches arrive on 18)
Departing flights should be scheduled for January 25
The Conference Registration Site (aka CRS because we have use abbreviations in organization) is live.

Thailand ~ This is for those serving in East Asia, Thailand & Japan.

January 14th - 20th
Place: Central Duangtawan Hotel , in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
You should arrive by 6 pm on the 14th of January, 2009.
Everyone is free to leave anytime on January 20th.
The CRS for this midyear is up so please go here to register for the conference. We need you to register by Dec. 15th.

If you have questions about either Mid-year, first contact your regional STINT Coordinator or WSN Director.

Growing in Self Leadership (a devotional)

2008-10-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

This devotional comes from Ken Cochrum, the leader of CCC's Global Campus Team. I'm certain that you remember his excellent talk on Launching Movements at STINT briefing. Since the time I first met Ken I've respected his character and his deep walk with the Lord. Ken also writes a great leadership blog, and he's sent some thoughts along for all you stinters:

A few months have passed now since we were together at the STINT briefing. That’s probably been enough time to bump head-on into the culture, your team, your leaders, and maybe even your self.

One of the greatest - and most rewarding - challenges of any servant of Jesus is to grow in conquering the towering mountain of Self. Contemporary culture and media thrive on selling Self-interest, Self-promotion, Self-preservation, and Self-indulgence. But those who lead well have mastered the art of putting others' interests first.

I am now three weeks into my 90-day experimen t in overcoming physical and leadership plateaus. I've been examining my ways and listening to the echoes of "self" in what I say and do. My mirror has been a page from a letter written by one of the greatest and most selfless spiritual leaders of all time - the apostle Peter. Here's a guy who hung around with the savior of the universe for 3 years and could easily have claimed titles, pulled rank, or dropped names. But after 30+ years of serving others, he called himself a slave of Jesus Christ.

Here's what grabbed me:

"[Jesus'] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life
and godliness.... so that through [his great promises] you may
become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the
corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this
very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with
virtue,
and virtue with knowledge,
and knowledge with self-control,
and self-control with steadfastness,
and steadfastness with godliness,
and godliness with brotherly affection,
and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being
ineffective or unfruitful.... if you practice these qualities you will never
fail. (2 Peter chapter 1, ESV)

As I have been meditating on this cascading list of character qualities, many observations surface. Two worthy of note are:

1. The value of growing in more knowledge (books, seminars, sermons, professional development stuff) is limited if it does not lead to greater self-control. This is a call to greater self-leadership. It echoes Jesus' words, "If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

2. The ultimate goal of all growth and development is brotherly affection and love. Maybe the litmus test of "Am I growing?" is really "Am I loving others more?" This should start showing up in my life.

What about results? A new physical regimen should result in some noticeable changes in body shape and overall well-being. Check. Spiritual growth should also result in some noticeable fruit in how others experience me. Yesterday someone thanked me for exhibiting a specific quality I had been trusting God to grow in from the list above. I'll take that as progress.

How are you growing in self-leadership? Check out this practical article by Bill Hybels on The Art of Self-Leadership.

When the dinger goes off...

2008-10-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with the title, I just got this picture in a batch of animals dressed up for Halloween and it cracked me up.

My wife Kim and I have a saying for when we feel like we are done with something -"the dinger went off". Its that emotional reaction way down inside that tells me I want to bail out and do something else, that I've hit the wall, that I need a break.

Well, many of you have been gone for 2 months now. From my experience, this is about when a stinter's dinger goes off. For some of you, it's already happened. (The earliest I ever heard was a woman in her first week on location, because she had just got the worst haircut of her life the day before she left the country.)

But Now is a normal time to wake up and wonder "where am I, what have I done?" The adrenalin is gone. Newness has worn off. You've learned stuff about your roommate that scare you. You long for your favorite...food, chair, TV program, ice cream, football games, coffee shop, whatever. You're tired of a hearing/speaking a new language. And for the 90% of you that have been on a summer project of some sort before, this is about the time when you get ready and go back home.

Except you're not going home, and the favorite ____ is not there. Weloome to the stress cycle. Welcome to home sick.

How do you move through this time? here's a few suggestions...(oh, and check your stint playbook..)

As a team, talk about where each one of you are with this. Give it a rating, a number, a letter grade. Call it an animal. Doesn't really matter. Just get it out there objectively.

Remember, this is normal. You are not going crazy. You are not WRONG, BAD, or unfit for STINT.

Don't check out and spend all your time watching all your videos or being on facebook all the time. That can become medication to keep you from really dealing with what you are feeling and opening up your heart to the Lord and others near you...not to mention understanding yourself better.

Take time to pour your heart out to God and your friends. Write the honest thoughts of how you're doing in your journal. Tell your team. Lean on each other. And go somewhere and laugh about all of this together Its okay. So you hate the fact that you haven't had consistent hot running water and you fantasize about hot showers that last 30 minutes and blast all your skin off. That's actually pretty funny stuff.

Some of you may really be spiraling down and feel like you're drowning. Tell the Lord exactly how you feel. And tell your team leader. They want to help you. Team leaders, tell your team about your self. They want to help you too. (And let your coaches in country and in the US know too. We all want to help, but can't if we don't know.)

I can often feel like the dinger is going off, even while in the US. To paraphrase the disciples in the boat with Jesus - "Jesus, uhm, we're about to die here; could you wake up and help us out a bit? Do you not notice or care what is happening?" I find his response kind but firm. "Why so timid, you men of little faith." I'm learning Jesus is teaching me about His constant involvement and protection in my life. And that He is wanting my faith to grow. (Mark 4:36-41)

Oh if your dinger has not gone off, do 2 things. Listen to those in need, and get ready. Your turn will be coming.

I will Be There (a devotional)

2008-09-26T10:22:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the Serbian team landed in-country. I like this pic of them taken at Copper because it reminds me of the promise Jesus made after giving the Great Commish. 'I am with you always, to the very end of the age'.

Now I am not saying Evan (on right) is perfect but he is most likely to play the lead in a Passion play and I think he was the model for the pic of cool Jesus.

All kiddin' aside there is great comfort not only to the trio of guys serving in Serbia but for all of us. He didn't just say "Here's something to keep you busy for the next couple of millenniums, send in your monthly stats and I will be back some time when you least expect it." So in turn we say to each other, "Jesus is coming soon... so look busy." No, Jesus promises His presence not just when the work is done but even now as we help build His Kingdom among all peoples.

So all year-long - He is there.

When you are out trying to find others to talk to about Him - He is there.

When you are rejected - He is there.

When in joy you get to led someone to life in Him - He is there.

When you weep over disciples who are considering walking away - He is there.

When you feel lonely - He is there.

When you are sick - He is there.

When you are wondering what the spank you are doing - He is there.

When you are serving the least of these - He is there.

When you dread getting out of bed - He is there.

When its a perfect STINT day - He is there.

When you & your roommate are arguing over who left the unwashed dishes in the sink - He is there.

When you feel misunderstood - He is there.

When you are at your greatest height of joy this year - He is there.

When you are at the depths of despair - He is there.

He is with you. Not just some mystically apparition. This is not just some token forgotten phrase as He saw you off at the airport. "Dude, I am there for you." It's a promise. A vow. A guarantee. Take it to the bank. (Oops, maybe not a confident phrase in today's market.) Count on it... whether you feel like its true or not. He is with you.

What hope that gives! What confidence! What reassurance! What power! What joy! You cannot fail. He is there!

PS. Pray for the Serbian team as Brian, Chas & Evan have challenged 5 students - Mico, Dijana, Teadora, Zizi & Johana - to serve on a leadership team with them. This is not just a committee but they have asked these young believers to function fully with them as the team this year. Pray that this year will go a long way into helping them see a fully student-led movement in Novi Sad.

Culturally Relevant Evangelism

2008-09-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

On Suffering (a devotional)

2008-09-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Stint feels like trying to juggle live animals. Just when you feel like everything is under control, the animals writhe around and you lose your balance. There are times when the suffering--whether from homesickness, culture shock, interpersonal struggles on your team or fatigue from doing evangelism--seems unbearable.

On top of that, there's a subtle belief in American Christianity that if we follow Jesus, nothing will ever go wrong for us. It's not a new idea. In fact, in Matthew 16 we see Peter saying much the same thing to Jesus. Jesus shares (in verse 21) that he will "suffer many things" and then be killed and come to life again.

Peter, no doubt with good intentions, pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him. "This will never happen to you," he says.

In a famous moment, Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men." Jesus calls Peter's philosophy of the future satanic and tells him that he has in mind "the things of men."

I'll be frank. I prefer a life without suffering. Who doesn't? Even Jesus told the Father that his preference would be to avoid the cross if possible (Mark 14:36). But Jesus tells us that we if we live a life of avoiding pain and suffering, we can't truly become like him. In fact, immediately following this conversation with Peter he turns to the disciples and says, "If anyone will come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? "

There will be times of temptation on stint, when you will look at the world around you and think, "Why am I making all these sacrifices? I have Christian friends back home who are making plenty of money and living a life of ease. And here I am, suffering and in pain. What is the point of this?"

Remember, Christ suffered. If we are to become like him, we will experience suffering as well. And remember, too, that Jesus has called you to stint this year. Your friends may have been called to another context or job or place in life this year. Who know what the future holds? But for today, pick up your cross and follow. He has walked this road ahead of us, and he will give us strength to do the things he to which he has called us.

An Invitation to a Cool Event

2008-09-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9 a.m. Craig Johring, who has been a key player in Enfoque Mexico (the City Focus strategy in Mexico City) will be doing a 35 minute training on how to launch movements on multiple campuses. He's presenting it in Minneapolis, but it will be available on the web, free for all. Because that's the way the internet should be.

Here's the link... there's no login or cost of any kind*.

*Because the internet should be free.

That's How We Roll

2008-09-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

You might think that we here at Casa WSN don't know what your life is like. You might think that we tell you "Love Your Team" but we don't have to live that out. Here's a picture to show you that just ain't so. Look how we cram in together on our way to meals. We take our closeness as a team seriously.

One Dog Allowed

2008-09-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

Lima, Peru has just passed a law that residents in the city can only own one dog. This is an interesting clash of values for us as residents of the U.S.A. What can we learn about Peruvian attitudes toward community, personal responsibility and concepts of freedom from this legislation?

And what can we learn from the fact that no similar ban exists for cats?

Meanwhile, in China we see winged cats. I'm not kidding, and no, it's not a hoax. *

Also in China we can see evidence of the difference between a guilt-based and shame-based culture as a major city decides the easiest way to deter jaywalkers is to post pictures of the jaywalkers in the newspaper.

*It's just matted hair. Sorry to wreck the illusion.

Ramadan Prayer

2008-08-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (September 1st) marks the first day of Ramadan that will last until September 30th.

It's a great time for us to be praying and fasting for our teams serving among Muslims and for the students and people they will encounter this year. Pray that God would preform miracles in the hearts of these men and women that they will see Christ for who he truly is.

One great tool is found at 30 Days: Loving Muslims Through Prayer. The "Muslims In" page is their 30-Day Prayer guide which you can subscribe to at the bottom of that website.

Call Me Brother Zed (A Devotional)

2008-08-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, there was this guy called Brother Zed who came to my school every year. He wore all white, and his wife wore homemade clothes and carried a sign that said something about Hell, and his little son came and sat at his feet. He’d stand in the quad and verbally abuse everyone who came by. We were all sinners, prostitutes, hellions with a one-way ticket to the devil’s dinner table. This was the sort of thing he said to us. Of course all the students loved him. We’d form a crowd and yell things just to get him worked up. We’d also throw pennies at him.

In a way it might remind you of the Apostle Paul. Here’s this guy trying to tell people about Christ, and the brilliant philosophers of the day (that would be us, the penny-throwers) gathered to mock and abuse him. Of course, Brother Zed’s gospel--though actually correct in places, and presented with great enthusiasm--bears little relation to Paul’s gospel.

Paul wrote, “Our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” (I Thessalonians 1:3) Here are a few thoughts I’ve had while ruminating on this verse:

1) Paul’s gospel came with power. A hallmark of Paul’s message is the “power of the gospel to change lives.” It might mean the lame walking, the blind seeing or the dead coming to life. The gospel transforms those it touches. It’s not merely a set of propositions to be accepted or rejected, it’s the offer of metamorphosis, an invitation to the caterpillar to enter a cocoon and be changed forever. The old and dead falls away like chaff and the seed of the gospel bursts into new life.

2) The Holy Spirit is integral to the gospel. If we are not presenting the gospel in partnership with the Holy Spirit then it’s nothing more than lifeless words. Finite words cannot introduce one to the infinite God unless God himself whispers through them. The single most effective thing I can do to ensure I am presenting the gospel well is to make my relationship with the Holy Spirit a priority in my life.

3) Paul expressed his gospel with deep conviction. Too often I think my conviction for the gospel will deepen if I study enough, or understand the battle between evolution and creationism, or if I spend some time polishing my ecclesiology. And of course those things are valuable and helpful. But in the end, reading all of the apologetics in the world won’t bring me to deep conviction in the gospel unless I am experiencing the life change that comes with the gospel and growing in relationship with the Holy Spirit. Knowing Christ intimately creates conviction about His gospel.

I think of Brother Zed sometimes. I wonder if he knew the God he was haranguing all of us to follow. He had deep conviction, yes, but there was no power to his words, and I never once saw the Holy Spirit speak to someone through him. But then I wonder, how often is that true of me, also?

Holy Spirit, may the power of your gospel be evident in my life and ministry. I ask that you would speak to the hearts of the lost as I share your good news with them. Give me deep conviction of the truth of your words and boldness to share the gospel as I should.

Finish That Support!

2008-08-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some helpful thoughts on raising the rest of your money for stint from Gary Schmalz (gary.schmalz@uscm.org). Gary has been on staff with Campus Crusade for 15 years, 10 of them as the Campus Director at Iowa State. He and his wife Cristen currently serve on the WSN team in Minneapolis helping mobilize students in the Upper Midwest.

You’ve been raising support for three months now, your airplane leaves in two weeks and you are at 75%. Why aren't you finished? There are many reasons, but one might be that you're tired of making calls. That phone can get very heavy after a few months of support raising, even though you feel called by God and motivated to go. Isn’t it amazing how many people actually said no? Some were even upset with you that you called. So let’s look at a passage or two that might get that last 20% of support raised so you can actually go do what the Lord has called you to do.

Grab your Bible and turn to Luke 8: 1-3. No, I am not going to list it for you, go get your bible! As you see (because you just read it) Jesus traveled from “one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.” Now you are not Jesus, but you are traveling in order to preach the good news of Jesus to another culture. Your mission is very similar to His mission. In verses 2 and 3 we see a list of folks that supported The Twelve out of “their own means.” They were taking their own resources out of their own pockets and giving it to Jesus and His disciples so that the good news would be preached. Just like you need to have in order to go to your location.

If I had a list like this, and I do, it would actually be much larger than this list and it is (and they support my family of 6). One of the names you would read on my list would be Gelene. Gelene had just lost her husband to cancer and she had two elementary aged children. Looking at it from a worldly perspective I never should have asked Gelene to be a part of my ministry team, but I did, and I do not know why I did that. I met her at her farm, and after telling her about my ministry that did not yet exist, she showed me a machine shed in her back yard. She was going to rent it out and give the rent money to my ministry. She said, “as long as it rents out, you will get support from me.” Fifteen years ago that was $100/mo, now its $150/mo. Absolutely amazing, only God does stuff like that!

Now, there is a person out there that God has chosen to be a part of your support team, and for some reason you have not asked them yet. Please go, call them now, and if they are close to your location, ask to meet with them, if they are an hour away or more, just cast vision over the phone and ask them now. Why over the phone? Because you have 20% to raise in 2 weeks. The plane will leave with or without you. It’s time to have a 5 min presentation with an ask over the phone. Put it together, practice it, practice it some more and then start calling. We’re praying for you!

Notes from Briefing

2008-08-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely we are uploading notes of seminars and talks from the briefing. You can access them here. (You will need to use your company email and password. If you are in a closed location, make sure you are first using a secure system. If you have issues, contact your caring region's STINT Coordinator.)

On that home page, you will see little announcements about midyear dates and then on the left are links to pages for playbooks, language learning tips and briefings. (If you notice that 2007 Briefing is missing its because Mikalatos still hasn't uploaded those.)

Under Christ Alone 2008 Global briefing, you will find two folders for talk notes. Unfortunately, they didn't get recorded this year so we just have notes. So if your team wants to listen to them maybe the person on your team with the best James Earl Jones voice can read them.

Right now we just have 24/7 Prayer, Care & Courage, Evangelism Tips from Aussie, Learn a New World and Launch Movements. But the goal is to have them all by start of September. If you see one missing after 9/1 and you want them, email me and I will hound that speaker.

Finding the Leader

2008-08-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some thoughts from our Fearless Leader, Doctor Steve Douglass, that should be helpful when you get to campus and start building Bible studies and setting up leaders:

“I can’t find any people to lead Bible studies or movement groups!” is what I sometimes have heard from staff. “Do you have anyone at all?” I ask, to which they usually answer “Sure, but there are some problems that disqualify them.” In other words they are not without flaw.

Well, guess what? None of us are without flaw, and we have yet to grow to what we can be. Now I am not saying that there are no disqualifiers. What I am saying is that God can salvage people from a bad past.

Consider the apostle Paul. When we first met him in Scripture, he was a leader in the persecution of the church. He was responsible for the arrest and abuse of many first century Christians. If asked, I am sure almost all Christians during that time would have agreed that there was no way Paul (Saul) could ever be used by God to be a leader in the church.

Yet God called Paul, brought him through trials and teaching, and eventually used him to author more of the New Testament and to inaugurate more ministry among Gentiles than anyone else. Is it unusual for God to salvage people? No! In fact He seems to relish it.

Consider the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. In it we find:

Rahab – a harlot from Jericho who married Salmon and became the mother of Boaz, and she is mentioned in Hebrews 11 and James 2 as an example of faith.

Ruth – a Moabite, whose people were traditionally enemies of the children of Israel, became a timeless example of loyalty. Her marriage to Boaz, an Israelite, led them to become the great grandparents of King David.

David - a dutiful King, yet one who committed adultery and murder.

Bathsheba – an adulteress with David who eventually becomes the mother of King Solomon.

Four flawed people, whom God was able to redeem out of bad backgrounds and shame—as they were willing to turn from their sin and serve Him.

You might be saying it isn’t always sin that disqualifies people; sometimes it is a lack of ministry competencies. I will grant that it is good for people to have innate abilities to lead groups or start spiritual conversations. At the same time many of the twelve apostles selected by Jesus lacked ministry skills. Peter had a knack for saying the wrong thing. Thomas wasn’t exactly full of faith. And I can only imagine how Levi came across as a seasoned tax collector. God can make anyone useful if he or she is willing.

So why am I writing about this to you? In my next Global Connection, I will be sharing with you strategy components that we should emphasize in Campus Crusade for Christ. They are phrased in a way that emphasizes the mobilization of people.

These components may be of no surprise to you. We are all about spiritual multiplication—which involves passing ownership of ministry on to others. But that won’t happen if we view most of our disciples as “disqualified” for one reason or another.

If we find it hard to have faith that God is able to use them, we won’t even try to challenge them toward their potential as a leader. Or, we may embark on a process of discipleship that is so drawn out that people drop out needlessly.

Am I advocating that we should ignore that people have certain barriers to becoming multipliers? No, not at all. I am just advocating that we:

Have faith that God can make people useful to Him.

Look for people whose hearts are right before God (“good soil”).

Work with them aggressively to use their strengths and grow in their weak areas.

Give them a chance to try to minister, perhaps a little sooner than we might think.

Encourage them throughout the process.

Anytime you find yourself reluctant to do these things, think first of one of your own experiences or those of someone you know well. How “perfect” were you when you got started? How skilled were you at evangelism and discipleship? How different are you now than when someone believed in you and let you try?

Thoughts to consider during your devotional times:

1) Look at the five points at the end of this letter. Think of someone whom you have been reluctant to let minister. Honestly assess how you are doing with them in each of the five points.

2) Select one area where you realize you can improve in your ability to help that person achieve his or her potential in ministry.

3) Ask the Lord to give you one or two action steps to help achieve that improvement.

Saying Goodbye 3

2008-08-20T21:50:00.001-07:00

Saying Goodbye 2

2008-08-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Saying Goodbye

2008-08-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

WORSHIP THE KING!

2008-08-19T19:54:00.001-07:00

Love Your Team

2008-08-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

No matter what size they are!

Prayer for one another

2008-08-19T19:15:00.001-07:00

Steve Douglass and the Stint Commissioning

2008-08-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Steve Douglass with our MCs and Andy McCullough. I've included some notes on Dr. Douglass' talk... just notes, it's not word-for-word unless it's in quotes.

Steve braved a tropical storm to come be with us for a few hours. He leaves tonight because of meetings tomorrow. Why would he do that? "Because I love you. I am so impressed with what you are going to do next year, serving God overseas."

Here's the Problem. You're only going to spend a year or two overseas and you're going to feel that things are just getting started.

There's a great person who's going to stay and do follow up when you are gone. That's the Holy Spirit.

In I Corinthians 3:5-6 Paul says "we are servants through whom you came to believe. I planted the seed. Apollos watered it. But God made it grow." Psalm 1 says those who walk with God instead of with the world are like trees planted by the water which bear fruit in season and whose leaves don't wither.

Steve told us a great story about finding a sapling in his yard and helping it grow. It ended with him being up on his roof with a chain saw pruning his maple tree!

A person with a heart with "good soil" will grow, and will yield a crop. The only way spiritual movements can flourish is for good soil to yield a crop and you are going to launch that in the lives in many people next year. You will plant the seed and God is faithful to bring it to pass.

"One thing I've learned to count on through the years is this: Jesus changes lives." Over time people change drastically. 2 Cor 5:15 -- the old has come, the new has come. There's no such thing as a spiritual movement apart from changed lives.

A couple of examples of changed lives:

Steve Douglass told us the story of his own life. He spent time at MIT looking for the secret to finding satisfaction... it seemed not to be success. He went to a Bible study to hang out with a young lady and saw people whose lives were different... he eventually decided that's what he wanted, and he sat up in his bed and prayed for Christ to come into his life. Years later he wrote "How to Get Better Grades and Have More Fun." The first time he shared about it was at Vanderbilt. 75 students showed up, which wasn't bad. About half were Christians. About half of the non-Christians there wanted to know more about Christ. He gave the talk 300 times, about 30,000 students heard it, 150,000 books published. The point: the people from that Bible study planted a seed, and as Steve grew he became more useful to God, and God brought the fruit.
Steve was told about a student who spent a lot of time drinking until God got a hold of his heart in a dramatic way. He was leading many to Christ, his life was changed, today he's a pastor.
At a campus in Wisconsin a freshman named Kate came into her dorm room to find it decorated in black crepe with many books on the occult in the room. Kate went to CCC meetings and learned about Freshman Survival Kits. Kate gave one to her roommate, and it was amazing. Her roommate voraciously consumed the material. Her life changed. She redecorated the room, she threw away her occult books. She made a big difference on that campus, a changed life, a great contribution.
A young man who, years ago, was a gambler. Could run numbers in his head. Engaged in wild living and all of a sudden God got a hold of his life and he radically changed. He went into the insurance company, an incredible success. When he died, he left 400 million dollars to promote the Gospel. One thing they did was to come up with a way to talk about getting power for living life. Well known people gave their testimony on television. They saw 7 million people ask for a copy of the book. best we can tell, 700,000 people received Christ in a six month period. Jesus got ahold of his life.
Steve's Dad. He had struggles in life. One was alcohol. Alcohol ruined a marriage, caused hard words to be said, led to divorce. Ruined his career. A sharp guy, outgoing, winsome... but job after job fell away. Steve got a call in the middle of the night, his dad had come out to Southern Cal looking for him, but Steve was in Australia. For five years on and off he lived with Steve and became one of the most popular guys at CCC HQ. When Steve's Dad died, 600 people came to his memorial. In five years Jesus had changed his life.

When Jesus changes lives, those lives spawn interest on the part of other people, those people respond, they receive Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the desire to read the scriptures and more people come to Christ and desire to tell others, and that is a movement of God.

You are going out to share Jesus. Many will respond. Some will go on to bear fruit. Those precious people you invest your lives in will launch movements where you go. Wherever there are changed lives, there are spiritual movements.

"As you go, I pray you find those people God has prepared beforehand" (Eph 2:10). You will run into people, plant a seed, a tree will grow and fruit will come.

A closing story: Sunday. A few days ago, on a walk. Listening to the Bible on his headset, praying. He meets a neighbor. The neighbor asks to walk with him and asks him if he's a Christian. The neighbor wants to be used by God. So Steve gave him "Enjoying Your Walk with God" and a Bible and a copy of the Jesus film with the answers to 50 tough questions that people ask. He introduced him to the church that he's helping plant in Orlando.

"If God can bring my neighbor across the street to talk about Jesus, he can find people in the countries you are going to." In many cases it will be people who totally don't know Jesus. They will marvel at the fact that the vitality in your life is somehow related to God.

You are going to make a difference in the next year for eternity. You will see a small amount compared to what God will ultimately do. Eventually these transformed people will take whole territories for Jesus Christ. "I commend you for the most excellent choice you have made about how to spend this next year. Having been at this for 40 years I can tell you truthfully... I have no regrets."

Living Well with Candice

2008-08-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some notes from this morning's talk by Candice Siewert.

What are you going to do when you don't get a paycheck because you didn't clear your advance?
What are you going to do when your team leaders are big jerks?
What are you going to do when your boy/girlfriend who promised to call you on Skype every night doesn't?
What are you going to do when everyone else's computer will connect to the internet and yours won't?
What are you going to do when you practice what you need to say at the restaurant and the waiter doesn't understand a word?

STINT is a full-time job. You actually have to work all day. You have signed up for a 40-50 hour work week. (At this point, we read 2 Timothy 2:3-7.) This is what we're called to do: to be a soldier under authority. Being a missionary is hard work. It's hard stepping into a culture you don't understand.

Don't create "Little America" on stint. Ask your team leaders what you should be doing, when, why and how often.

Some things that should always be in your schedule:

Time with the Lord. Do it in the morning, afternoon or evening, just do it.
Day with the Lord every month.
Prayer. Build it into everything you do.
Days on campus. Be thinking, "I am on campus every day."
Be looking for exposures. In the first month you should meet 25 people a week.
Evangelism. We really do want you to share your faith. Make the name of Jesus FAMOUS. The world has enough friends. You're not going to make friends. You are going to represent Christ.
Small groups. Don't lock into a small group until after the sixth week. Ask yourself, "Who is truly spiritual interested among the people I know?"
Always practice the language. Use the bi-lingual materials. Use your language. Go to class. Use people who know the language.
Share your firsts. First time you order in language. First time you use the squatty potty without holding your nose.
Meetings. Be prepared. Show up. Do your homework. Be prepared for prayers, planning, parties, administrative details.
Send your prayer letters. People have invested in you
Be careful about Time stealers. Updating Facebook. Blogs. Skype. Throwing a good Pity Party. Harboring a bad attitude. Lack of planning.
Be people of encouragement. Help deal with conflict. Encourage your teammates. Invite people into your troubles.
Use your Playbook. Lots of great tools in there to help you.
Team Norms. Come up with three or four you will actually do and commit to it. Look at the "one anothers".

Things are going to bug you. Don't let things build up. Little things become big things if you don't deal with them.

Authority. Your team leaders may be younger than you. But the Lord has chosen them to be your leaders. Pray for them, support them. Remember, when Miriam and Aaron grumble against Moses, God says to them, "Who are you to grumble against God's anointed?" Pray for your leaders. Pray to be humble, to be allowed to submit, that he will enable you to speak positively about them.

Some decisions no one else can make for you:

No one can make you study.
No one can make you send out a prayer letter.
No one can budget for you.
Drinking. No official WSN policy... but if you do not drink now DON'T START ON STINT. Talk to your team. Some of them may struggle with alcohol. Talk with your team about what you're going to do about this.

STINT will be an adventure. Believe it or not, you will soon have stories like Candice's, complete with convicts, terrorists, hippies, rock stars, Bolsheviks, broken airplanes, and vodka-imbibing Russians.

God knows what is going to happen to you this year. And he is going to provide for you all the way.

You Winsome You Losesome

2008-08-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Dann Stockton of the Autumn Film created yet another original work of art for you. This is titled "You Winsome, You Losesome."

Remember: The only winner at a casino is The House. Everyone else is a sucker.

Conference Word of the Day

2008-08-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

At a conference like this, there may occasionally be a word that is unfamiliar. The stint blog is here to help!

Winsome.

adj. Charming, often in a childlike or naive way. Sweetly or innocently charming; winning; engaging: a winsome smile.

[Middle English winsum, from Old English wynsum : from wynn, joy]

win'some·ly adv., win'some·ness n.

Word History: Winsome people easily win friends, so it is not surprising that winsome and win have a common root. Their shared element win- comes from the Indo-European root *wen-, meaning "to desire, strive for," and has a number of descendants in the Germanic languages. One was the prehistoric Germanic noun *wini- meaning "friend" (literally, "one who desires or loves" someone else), which became wine in Old English and is preserved in such names as Winfred, "friend of peace," and Edwin, "friend of (family) possessions." A different form of the root with a different suffix became Old English wynn, "pleasure, joy," preserved in winsome. Finally, the verb win itself is from this root; its meaning is an extension of the sense "to strive for," namely, "to strive for with success, be victorious." Outside of the Germanic branch of Indo-European, we see the root, for example, in Latin venus or Venus "love, the goddess of love," and the verb venerāre, "to worship," the source of English venerate.

From:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Ephesians 6 with Jay and Chip

2008-08-19T08:04:00.001-07:00

In an unprecedented move, Chip and Jay take the stage together to lead us in our time in the word. Here are some of my notes from this morning:

We started with some review and overview.

* Chip: You and I are "little a" apostles... I hope that this year you have a sense of your "sent-ness." Paul refers to himself as the least of the apostles, the foremost of sinners. We need this balance of knowledge of our being his ambassadors, something that gives us tremendous confidence. At the same time we need to remember with humility his great grace that has brought us into his kingdom.

* The rivers of his mercy are meant to bring us under the gracious, loving, merciful reign of Jesus.

* God is working in all kinds of ways to bring out the beauty of Jesus in us so that we might shine with the likeness of Christ in our lives.

* Those who have been transferred out of darkness and into the kingdom of the beloved son are told how to live by Paul... the challenge is that we tend to look at those in the kingdom of darkness as completely without God, but there is knowledge of the kingdom that can be found even in the pagan world.

*We live now as strangers and aliens in this pagan world, the challenge is to stay away from sinful actions, we need to keep our conduct honorable so that people will see our good works and glorify God in the days to come.

* The pagan is not impressed that you read your Bible every day. They may pray more than you to their idols. What they are impressed with is what they see as good... when they see that we are committed to our friends, to the homeless, to that which is beautiful in art and in creation, they are impressed with these things (the things we do in the "overlap" area).

*Eph. 6. Paul makes it clear we are in a battle with spiritual forces, and we must continually put on the armor of God, daily.

* Notice how often Paul tells us to pray... four times in the last few verses. The best thing we can do in the midst of spiritual battle is to pray.

* Compassionate deeds must be entwined with passionate proclamation. Our deeds and words blend together. Deeds illustrate and illuminate the gospel, and words explain it.

*There is a certain "narcotic" that comes in caring for the widow and orphan. The message of the gospel is that Jesus is King. Compassionate deeds only expand the kingdom of God when they are connected with this message. A couple quick points showing this scripturally... one is Acts 3 (Peter and John heal the lame man)... that good work is misunderstood and people think that the men do this by their own power. So they explain their good works with the gospel of Jesus.

* Tim Keller says When we serve and do mercy with others and when we proclaim the message of the gospel propositionally, either one fails to have the impact of the two together. So if we say we are opposed to homosexuality, but we serve and care for those who may be suffering in the homosexual community, it creates a dissonance in the minds of the pagan world that is extremely winsome. It opens the pagan to the possibility of responding to the gospel.

* 6:23-24. Paul circles back to where he started... God's great mercy elicits our love for him to be incorruptable, and day by day there is growing intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ.

*It is an amazing privelege to participate with God in his plans. His great grace makes us love him more and more every day.

Dann Stockton Gives Us An Original Work of Art

2008-08-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Dann from the Autumn Film has provided us with this lovely piece of original art. Feel free to print it off and ask for his autograph. In addition to the electronic one already included. Then you will be rich when he is famous.

Learn A New World with Cheryl Boyd

2008-08-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

First, Cheryl started out by sharing with us her obsession with the Olympics. In great detail. Because she loves the Olympics like crazy.

She started having a burden for Eastern Europe as she learned about Nadia... that she wanted her to be happy, that she wanted her to know Jesus.

*Defining Culture: The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group.

* Remember that there are good and bad parts of culture, but hesitate to label these things quickly. Some things are neutral, even, and make us uncomfortable so we want to label them as bad.

*Here's the Kwast model of culture.

* Being a servant. Philippians 2:1-16. What did Christ give up to "minister cross-culturally" to you? What things have you already given up or do you anticipate having to give up in order to serve the students in the culture where you are going? What do you anticipate being the hardest sacrifice to make?

* If culture is hard for you, that can be God's gift to stretch you and help you grow. Don't give in to the temptation to abandon learning the local language.

*Don't make "Little America" in your flat. "We'll let our culture ROAR in our flat tonight." Enter into the world of your students rather than trying to re-create America and bring your students into it.

*We are looking for a Biblical culture.

*Cultural Ministry Cycle:

Honeymoon is when you say, "I'm so glad to be eating roaches today! What a great story for my blog."

Pit of Despair is when you walk through the market and think, "This could be like a video game and I'll see how many people I can kick in the shins."

Normalization is when you start to balance these things out, and move to a good place of recognizing the good and bad things about your culture and your host culture.

*Cheryl shared the story of a student who came to Christ through a stinter who was used by God to enter into culture and get to know, love and share the gospel with her.

Ephesians 4-6 With Jay

2008-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some notes from Jay's talk this morning:

*Revelation 22: the River of Life flowing from the throne and the Lamb

The dwelling place of God will be re-established, and great orchards will grow alongside the river. Even the Dead Sea will be a place of plenty. Leaves of healing for the nations. This connects to Eph 3, that this new community of people brings together nations into a new person, a new temple.

*God's plan is not a "one location" invasion, but a dispersal. He causes us to be communities of what C.S. Lewis calls "good infections." "Every Christian is to become a little Christ." As we do this, we become "carriers of Christ." We are mirrors of Christ to others.

* "God loves you -- God loves me -- just the way you are, just the way I am. He can't love you any more and he won't love you any less. But he loves you too much to leave you the way you are." --Max Lucado. This is a reflection of the message of Ephesians 4-6.

* Paul sets up a contrast between the Christian community and the pagan community. He comes across harsh because he is contrasting that which is righteousness and beauty with that which is outside. The reality is that God is in a process of moving us toward maturity, although Paul is emphasizing the contrast in this passage.

*"The trouble with the evangelical church is that most of us don't spend enough time in the gospels." -- Dallas Willard. Jay challenges us to make time in the gospels a regular part of our spiritual life.

*The Christian life is less like obeying rules and more like painting a portrait. That portrait is of Christ.

Ephesians 4 with Chip

2008-08-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Chip led us through Ephesians 4 this morning. A few notes:

*Our relationships with one another illuminate or obscure the gospel (4:1-3).

*Our differences are by Divine design -- they grow us up and prepare us for service. Implication: accept, embrace, and make room for everyone to make their unique contribution (4:4-13).

*How we grow to full maturity in Christ -- 3 avenues for growth
1) Relationships with one another (4:1-16)
2) Renewing our minds (4:22-23)
3) replacing old habits with new (4:25-32)

* Chip said, "The only way for us to love one another as we are called to is through Christ Himself." (4:32)

Love Your Team -- Mike and Karen

2008-08-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Mike Westover and Karen Hibberd also walked us through how to deal with team conflict, and they did a great job of it. Some notes from their time:

* Among the top 5 reasons Muslims give for choosing Christ is the lifestyle of Christians they have seen... the love they exhibited in relationships and the treating of women as equals.

*Mike talked about how we are to love our enemies... he has a hard time thinking of enemies. But he can think of people he's been hurt by, dislikes, doesn't get along with or doesn't agree with. We need to love these people as well, and everyone we have conflict with.

* Conflict isn't bad, it just is part of life in a fallen world. There's no intimacy without conflict, and our conflict-free relationships are often superficial.

* Bad ways to deal with conflict:

Deny/Avoid (We are told to put aside falsehood)

Judge/Attack/Accuse (We are told not to judge; Matt 7:1; I Cor. 4:5)

Talk to Others About It (Eph 4:31... don't slander)

End the relationship

* How we should deal with conflict (Matt 5:23-26)

* Healthy steps to resolve conflict:
1) Go to the Lord
2) Go to the other person
3) minimize conflict by knowing expectations, team norms, good communication

*Remember, we can't do this without the help of Christ (John 15:5)

Prayer for Tifah

2008-08-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Tifah, the lead singer of Autumn Film, has been under attack of late. She has had very few restful nights of sleep. Either she will have nightmares or she will not be able to sleep or both.

Several of us have been praying for her and we want to invite you to join us. We believe this is an attack from the enemy. If she can't get sleep it affects her ability to fully lead us in worship. Would you join us in praying for Tifah? As you go to bed and maybe if even like I am now at 3 :13 am, when you are awakened in the night.... (Thank you loud drunk hippies) will you intercede for her?

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me - Psalm 3:5
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. - Psalm 4:8
He grants sleep to those he loves. - Psalm 127:2
When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. - Proverbs 3:24

The Beautiful Mountains of Copper

2008-08-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

After the enormous thunder and hailstorm of last night, the surrounding mountains are covered in snow and are breathtakingly beautiful:

Here's a picture of Chip, Keith and Amber taking a picture of the mountains:

Ephesians with Jay Lorenzen

2008-08-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

This morning Jay Lorenzen continued our "flyover of the terrain of the book of Ephesians." He told us that chapter 1:10 is the "continental divide of history and time"... He shared this translation of the verse with us: "It is God's plan to unite all things in Heaven and on Earth under one ruler. The ruler is Christ."

Jay also spent time explaining to us that the message of God's love, mercy and grace flows both vertically (in relationship to God) and horizontally (to those around us). He shared a quote from Carl Henry that said, "God is a God of justification, and a God of justice."

Jay encouraged us to look at Acts 19:8-20:1 and reflect on Paul's story of a vertically and horizontally connected community, and also 20:17-38 for Paul's conversation with the leaders in that community.

We don't have commercials like this in America

2008-08-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

I know we all enjoyed this wonderful commercial this morning, for an overseas apartment complex.

Ephesians With Chip

2008-08-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

This morning we spent an hour on our own, everyone getting some time with the Lord, and then the Autumn Film led us in worship. After that, Chip Scivicque got up and led us in the book of Ephesians.

I appreciated a lot of the things Chip shared, and I cried like a baby during parts of it. I kept looking around, thinking, "Surely Andy McCullough planned for this and is going to send someone down the aisles with tissues." But he didn't. :)

Here are a few things Chip shared with us:

"Paul's central paradigm for the Chrisitian life is that the more we understand God's grace, the more we desire to live a life of worship."

"The gospel is good news about a victory that has been won."

He also shared that we have been chosen for adoption (Eph 1:3-6) by sharing the beautiful story of his family adopting Amber. He showed us that God has redeemed and forgiven us (vss 7-10) and that He has given us a great inheritance, which is His presence (vss 11-14). He told us about God's lavish grace "for the praise of His glory"... that His grace glorifies Himself and moves us to live lives of worship.

HAIL!

2008-08-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

It hailed like crazy today, cancelling our trip up the mountain for lunch. We were all disappointed.

I decided I wanted to walk out in the hail, so that I could feel it cool and fresh on my face and be filled with joy!

But actually it hurt.

I did go up the mountain later, though... if you get a chance head up the ski lift, it's beautiful.

Eric shared this with us today

2008-08-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Christ Alone -- The First Night of Global Briefing

2008-08-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a great way to kick off our week together.

I particularly loved the energy that our many flag bearers brought into the room as they raced around with a variety of countries represented.

And, of course, it was incredible to have our friends the Autumn Film leading us into worship.

I know what most of you want, and that is the footage of the incredible documentary footage of Keith Bubalo that MCs Eric and Emily brought to our attention. As Eric pointed out, there was a time when Keith had to make a choice between targeting a chance at becoming the national director of WSN or following his Olympic Dreams. Here's the video of what might have been.

Keith walked us through the story of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3. He showed us how this story illuminates God's desire to reveal Himself to us in a way that is unmistakably Him. And he reminded us that we all have "burning bush" moments or we wouldn't be sitting there in the room tonight, about to embark on stint.

I was particularly moved as people in the audience stood and shared the many places where God has revealed Himself to them: in a park, in the Oxford cemetery, in a corner of a bedroom, at 4 a.m. or on the plane to Rome, talking with friends and strangers, during traffic accidents, at coffee shops, at conferences and in lonely places.

It made me think of those times in my life, where God unmistakeably made His presence known to me. Once on a walk on an Oregon beach, once in a stand of bamboo in East Asia, another time in the still darkness of Joshua Tree National Park, where I thought to myself, if a bush caught on fire right now and was not consumed, I wouldn't be surprised.

And Keith reminded us that as followers of Christ, we will be people empowered by the burning presence of the Holy Spirit. He reminded us that "It's not normal to see a person on fire... they're different."

And then the worship set the band took us through was so powerful, and so clearly attuned to what Keith had shared. The band and Keith, by the way, didn't talk to each other about Keith's talk or the content of the worship songs. It was amazing the way they fit together so seamlessly. Which, to me, is evidence of God speaking to the band and to Keith, and of them being His conduit to speak to us.

Thank God for that!

How You Are Feeling

2008-08-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

We've had a little survey going in the sidebar, asking the question, "How are you feeling coming in to the Global Briefing?"

Here's how you answered:

1) Relieved to be finally going somewhere.
(37%)

2) Sad to leave my family.
(6%)

3) Excited to be done with support raising!
(34%)

4) Scared of altitude sickness.
(17%)

5) Hungry. And Tired.
(6%)

6) Wait -- uh -- am I supposed to be going to that thing?
(10%)

If I were an amazing guru of numbers, no doubt I would discover many interesting things that would become a best-selling book. I will point out that same percentage of people are hungry and/or tired as the people who are sad to leave their families. I'm not sure what that means.

Oh, and for the ten percent of you who are wondering if you're meant to show up to the Global Briefing today... yes, you are. Better get to the airport!

We've added a link to a new survey at the top of the sidebar. If you'd take a few moments to fill it out, we'd greatly appreciate it!

Postcards from THE EDGE

2008-08-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

I just moved into my room for the Briefing... it's a little dorm room in a building called THE EDGE.

This is my third year in the EDGE, and rooms have varied. This year's seems to be clean and it smells just fine. The elevator on the way up smelled like a party after it's over, but my room is great. Of course, it looks like someone tried to bust into my door at some point. But on the bright side, it looks as if they failed miserably, sobbing in the hallway.

Someone started a rumor recently that not all the rooms had bathrooms. I'm not sure where this rumor came from, but it's not true. Here's a picture of my bathroom. There you go. Rumor debunked.

Also, my room has some cool decorations.

Tips For High Altitude Living

2008-08-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out things in a new culture... like when you are so high in the mountains that you can't get a good enough grip on the over-inflated chip bag to open it. Here's a brief tutorial to help you out:

At the Denver Airport!

2008-08-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

I saw this little fella today at the Denver airport. It's a gargoyle coming out of a suitcase. The write up on it said that it is designed to be above a person's head to "watch your baggage" and make sure it arrives safely.

I am sure this teaches us something about the culture and religion of the people of Denver. That and the enormous blue horse bucking out in a field with glowing eyes. Didn't get a picture of that one, though.

These are the sort of observations that can help us as we "Learn a New World" in the culture we're headed to. Okay, so maybe it would be false to assume that the people of Denver are supersitious and really think that gargoyles will watch over their luggage. In fact, it probably shows the opposite... that they feel comfortable making jokes about belief in the supernatural in some way. Of course, the colored murals near the baggage claim tell us other things about the people of Denver as well... everything from a desire for peace, a distaste for war, environmentalism and more is revealed in that art. And of course the fact that there is a rotating baggage claim for skis tells us a little something about the culture as well.

When we see these strange little oddities that make us say, "This is not like my airport back home" we can take an opportunity to learn more about the culture that has created the airport we're in!

Copper Mtn here we come

2008-08-12T20:33:00.001-07:00

I leave tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. for Copper. A lot of team leaders, new stinters and coaches are on their way, too! Without my wife here at the house to help me, I had to look up the weather all by myself. And then I thought... I bet a lot of the fine people coming to the Global Briefing don't have wives to help them, either.

So here's your five day forecast:

65° F 41° F

61° F 38° F

56° F 38° F

56° F 38° F

61° F 43° F

Or you could learn a new world and look at these:

18° C 5° C

16° C 3° C

13° C 3° C

13° C 3° C

16° C 6° C

I would put in little pictures of sunshine or clouds for the various days but-- let's be honest here -- this is not really in my skill set.

See you guys sometime in the next 24-48 hours!

Christ Alone

2008-08-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Our theme at the Global Briefing this year is "Christ Alone". Hopefully its your theme throughout the year too.

Hi I am Andy McCullough. Sunday Matt introduced me. Of course all he did was pull a post off of another blog for this project I led this summer through my church so it made it sound like I only cared for one country. In fact, I passionate about the world and that people who dwell in dark places everywhere will see the light of the glory of Christ. But since I am Matt's nemesis, it makes sense for him to try to paint me in such a way. MIKALATOS! (said through clenched teeth and with a balled up fist.)

So I just got back from South Africa less than a week ago. (Of course I am going start talking about Africa so that might lead you to believe Matt was right.) It was an awesome, awesome time as I got to serve with this diverse group of people from all over the country ranging in age from college students to a grandmother. For 12 days we just served among the poor in a township outside of Pretoria. We did a variety of things like serving meals and playing with 150 or so kids each day, teaching classes to adults on business so they can rise above their poverty, loving on this people in Christ, etc. It was a great two weeks as we just woke up every day with the mindset to serve. We got to share Christ in both word and deed. And we just enjoyed each other as we did it too.

For me it was week of our theme for briefing: Christ Alone. It wasn't about me. It wasn't about anyone else on our team. It about Christ. Living and loving in His name. Taking His message of hope to the hopeless.

STINT can be a temptation. As crazy as it sounds now, it will be easy even in the midst of serving to make this year about you. You will see it creep up as you face unmet expectations, disappointments, conflicts or even successes. The enemy will attack you and make you think its about you. (Well he can't make you but sure will try.) Before you know it, your focus will be off Christ and on yourself.

It's easy to forget that its not about us.... its about Jesus. It's about Him and His glory... not mine, not Campus Crusade's. All this is for Him. "For me to live is Christ and die is gain", the apostle Paul writes in Philippians. From a smelly Roman prison he was saying that "Life is about Christ Alone".

Our prayer is that the week at Copper Mountain will not just be a week of information download that half of which you forget before you get on the plane. (Though we are going download some important info and every speaker will inevitably say "if you only remember one thing..." .) Our prayer foremost though is that you really meet with Jesus. That He shows up and by your experiencing Him, you come back to that place of surrender. And you say "Jesus, this is about you. I die to my desires. I surrender it all to you. I want to live for you and you alone."

May God meet us this all in this special way.

People, Get Ready

2008-08-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like getting ready for a trip, especially when you know you're going to be gone for a long time. Nine months. A year. Two years.

There's the little details like packing your bags... (Which clothes should I take? How many cans of hair spray can I legally take on board a plane? Is my luggage tough enough to withstand a severe beating at the hands of an imprisoned ape?)

Then there's the aspect of saying good-bye to loved ones, which can be extremely difficult. We've all learned some lessons about this from the movies we've watched as children, and now, somehow, it just seems wrong unless we part with loved ones on a train station's platform.

Still, in the midst of packing toothpaste, peanut butter and socks and saying goodbye to loved ones it can be easy to forget the spiritual aspect of what we're in the middle of. This isn't the same as loading up your car for college, it's not the same as leaving home for a week for summer camp. The fact is, that God has called you to serve him for a year overseas, and this stepping out in faith is a spiritual action, and it's important for us to be prepared spiritually for what he is asking us to do.

When Joshua was about to take the Israelites across the Jordan River, it was an important moment in their history as a people. God had promised them the land across the river, and forty years earlier they had said, "This is too hard. We can't follow God into this place." So He sent them out into the wilderness for forty years. He took care of them there (fed them, gave them water, made sure their sandals didn't wear out), but He told them that only the children (plus Joshua and Caleb) would be allowed to enter the promised land.

Now they stood poised to enter... a place not unlike where you are today. God has called you to someplace you never expected. You've stepped up and said you will follow Him and already He has been stretching your faith as you've raised support, said good-bye, explained to your parents why you have to go, and now you're packing up for the plane ride.

At this turning point in Israel's history of following God, Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." (Joshua 3:5, NIV)

I think this is wise advice for us as we prepare for our time together in Colorado, as well as our time on stint. The Lord consistently shows up on stint and does amazing things. The number of people who have heard the gospel in the last several years through the faithfulness of people like yourselves is truly astonishing. He is going to bring new brothers and sisters into the kingdom this year. He is going to show you dark places in your own heart you didn't know existed, and shine his bright light into them so that you can embrace his healing and transformation. He -- the God who made the entire universe, the ocean, the land, the stars and all of humanity -- is going to meet with you as an individual and show you His love.

It would be wise then, for us, as people who will be standing in the presence of the Most Holy One, to make sure that we are sanctified, set apart and pure for our Master.

Take some time before you get on that plane to make sure you are holy, useful and ready to do whatever good thing the Master may ask of you. Spend some time in prayer and reflection and commit your self and your year to Him. Let's not make the mistake of preparing all our physical goods for the journey without preparing our hearts.

Global Briefing Conference Director: Andy McCullough

2008-08-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick introduction to Andy McCullough, who is running the Global Briefing this year. Andy has the answers to all your questions, in addition to being a wonderful person. If you see Andy wandering around the camp with a dazed, exhausted look on his face be sure to pull him aside and say, "Blessing upon you, good sir. Blessings upon you." Here's your intro:

"My name, as you know, is Andy McCullough. I have worked for Campus Crusade for 22 years now, the last 9 with the Worldwide Student Network where I help mobilize students to help change the world.

I like to read especially history. I like to travel and learning about other cultures. I am passionate about getting others involved in His Kingdom work. I enjoy hiking though I don't get to do it as much with small little boys who want to be carried once they get on a trail. I am married to a wonderful wife named Robin who when I left last year to work with orphans in Africa she said, "you are getting to live my dream". We have three little boys who I enjoy wrestling with: Luke, who turned 6 just a few weeks ago, and twins Jack & Drew who just turned three.

Twenty years ago last month, I was in Kenya on my first international missions trip and fell in love with Africa and Africans. I was so humbled by the hearts of the people I met. I am excited about going back and serving with all of you."

Worship at Copper Mountain

2008-07-31T09:45:00.001-07:00

For the last two years we've had the band The Autumn Film joining us to lead our (musical) worship times. These guys are extremely gifted, both as musicians and worship leaders. I've really enjoyed getting to know them and I'm certain that you will appreciate the way that they help us become aware of God's presence and worship him. One of the stint objectives is "Love the Lord", which is why we make sure that each morning we have time in the word with Chip and time singing and worship together with one another.

Here's who is in the band:

Tifah, the lead singer. The band was originally called Tifah, actually. But then it got all confusing when someone would shout, "Hey, Tifah" but they were talking to the band and not to Tifah individually, and then Tifah would say "Yeah?" and the person would say, "No, I'm talking to the whole band."

Tifah also plays various instruments, keyboard and guitar mostly. Tifah has a deep love for Christ and it's very clear in the lyrics she writes and the unselfish and Christ-focused way that she leads worship.

This is Reid. Reid plays the... I forget which instrument. Banjo or something? It's unclear to me looking at that picture. Reid always tries to make sure not to look into the camera.

It's Reid's birthday while we're all together in Copper, so be sure to tell him happy birthday every day you see him. Reid is a careful thinker and a loyal friend. You can tell people around him trust him deeply, and in many ways he shows his deep commitment to others and to God in the way he interacts with the band and his passion to lead others toward Christ.

Lastly, we have Dann the Drummer. I think Dann can do more pushups than the rest of the band, and this makes sense because BBC research shows that drummers are the athletes of the music world. Dann has a wacky sense of humor and tries to hide the intellectual books he reads, because it projects an image that is ill-befitting a rock star. Dann loves his bandmates, and he loves God, too. If you hang out with him it won't be long before he is telling you this himself. He's a great guy who wants very much for people to know and understand who God is.

I know you'll enjoy The Autumn Film while we're together in Colorado. They are excited about what you are doing as stinters, and they love to hang out. Be sure to grab some time with them between sets or during the free time.

When I spoke with them yesterday, they wanted to make sure you knew that they've made eight of their songs available for free download (DRM free and in formats for iPod, Zune, or the MP3 player of your choice). Four of the songs are from their latest album and the other four are from the album they're currently working on. So download those and get a preview of the great music and worship we're in for at Copper Mountain!

WSN Interview: Chip Scivicque (part two)

2008-07-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

Continuing a quick interview with our Bible teacher for our time together in Copper Mountain. Click here for part one.

WSN: So I’m sure you’ve heard the St. Francis quote, “Share the gospel with everyone, if necessary use words.” Would you say that’s the same thing or taking it too far?

CHIP: The best way to communicate the message is in word and deed, mixed together, blended together appropriately so that we can respond the way that Jesus did when the friends of the paralytic let him down in front of Jesus. If you read the account of the friends of the paralytic, they tore a hole in the roof and lowered him down in front of Jesus because they couldn’t get to him because of the crowd. That man had two pressing needs. One, he must have needed forgiveness, because that’s what Jesus gave him. That’s where Jesus started. “Your sins are forgiven.” The man also needed to be healed of his paralysis. And it says that Jesus seeing their faith, he responded to that by healing him. But there’s no indication that Jesus wrestled with, “Well, should I share how he can be forgiven and know God even though he’s a paralytic, or do I heal him and hope he gets it, that I’m God and I can save him.” He did both. He touched his human need and healed him of his paralysis and he spoke words of forgiveness.

WSN: I imagine some people would hear what you’re saying and say, “This is a great new evangelism technique. I can do something nice for someone and then they’ll listen to the gospel.” What would your response be to someone like that?

CHIP: Eric Swanson says that when we’re feeding human need, if it’s refurbishing a school, doing renewal in the community, or working at a soup kitchen or working in an orphanage, “Salvation is always our ultimate motive but it’s never our ulterior motive.” Of course we want to see people come to know Christ and be redeemed and live forever. That’s so much bigger than whatever human need they have. But we don’t do good deeds as a means to an end to share the message and chalk up how many people we shared the message with and how many decisions we got and how many members we got into our group. That’s not Christian.

WSN: It sounds like what you were saying earlier, that someone who is culturally very far away and would never sit down and listen to the good news, instead they saw it in action and realized that it could be a part of their life.

CHIP: Exactly. When they saw Christians serving sacrificially and when they saw them up to their ankles in nasty, moldy mud in New Orleans gutting these homes they said, you know, these people actually do have something to offer and that’s compassion and love.

WSN: How did this happen in your own life, how did the paradigm shift happen for you?

CHIP: Several factors converged. By God’s grace he’s given me a love for the Bible. I’ve read it over and over. For most of my life I’ve tried to read the Bible through every year. And as you read the scripture, it is so obvious that God cares about widows and orphans. Prophets always are condemning Israel for their lack of concern for the people on the margins of society, for the poor and oppressed and Jesus took up that same message when he came. So the first thing was looking at scripture and looking at my own life and the ministry I was in and saying, you know, we’re not really touching those groups of people. We’re just sharing the gospel message with the young, the bright and the beautiful and even when we do come in contact with the poor and needy we’re just sharing the gospel message with them and not really helping them with their needs. So that was the first thing, God’s word.

Number two, we went to Thailand in 1983 and I was 30 years old and the human need in Thailand began to get my attention. There were lepers on the street, there were deformed children on the streets begging. There were 70,000 orphans in the country and we, early on, began to visit orphanages. And the wealth and the poverty there was a lot more mixed in. Here in American we’ve done a great job of partitioning the poor off into certain sections of town that we upper-middle class white folk don’t have to go in and we live our lives and do our shopping and working and playing in these nice upper-middle class areas and never have to go through the depressed neighborhoods of our community. In Thailand it wasn’t that way. Wealth and poverty were all mixed together and you lived among the poor. That was helpful for me. It opened my eyes to the needs of this world.

The biggest thing in Thailand was in 1991. We walked into a handicapped babies home that had 450 children with all kinds of birth defects and we got involved in that orphanage and volunteered there regularly for two years and actually adopted a little girl from the orphanage. That, too, opened my eyes to how much human need is in the world and as I observed the Christians who were working in this government orphanage I realized what a beautiful thing they were doing and that sharing the gospel message among the bright and the beautiful is not the only thing that God values. I know he loved what these folks were doing in that orphanage. Then, coming out of Thailand, a big thing for me was—Thailand is 95% Buddhist, 4% Muslim and 1% Other. The Protestant population is still only about 4 to 6 tenths of one percent. And that’s after 200 years of Protestant missions.

WSN: Wow.

CHIP: So obviously the gospel has not been experienced as something powerful or effective in Thailand, so I wrestled with our own lack of effectiveness. Mine personally, Campus Crusade, Evangelicals. I just looked at the landscape and thought, there are all kinds of Christians here. We have people who are theologically liberal here doing mercy ministry and not sharing much of the gospel message, we’ve got people on the other end who are real conservative who are sharing the message but not doing much compassion ministry. We’ve got high church and low church, the stiff Presbyterians and some wild, crazy charismatics and nobody is responding to any of this. As I thought about that the thing that I saw was, you know what, everybody over here is either meeting human needs and hardly ever talking about Jesus or they’re talking about Jesus all the time but they’re not actually showing any concern for the poor and the needy in this country. So I walked away from Thailand when I was 40 saying, I wonder what would happen if someone were to put those two things together in a place like this?

WSN: And then the tsunami hit….

CHIP: When the tsunami hit we did begin to put those things together. And it’s been phenomenal. In the hardest hit province of Thailand, before the tsunami hit there were three churches. A year after the tsunami hit there was an article on the front page of a Thai newspaper that said that there were now 65 churches or Christian centers in that province. That’s in a Buddhist country where there’s never any Christian news because the Christian population is so insignificant, but on the front page of the Thai newspaper there’s an article about all the Christians who had been down there responding to the tsunami and how much good they had done as far as cleaning up, relief and re-building and –by the way—there’s now 65 churches where there were only three a year ago.

WSN: That’s pretty amazing.

CHIP: It really is. My buddy Mike Christians led a park ranger to Christ that has gone on in his faith and is still walking with him two years later. This guy received Christ with tears rolling down his cheeks and then turned around and shared with his friends and family and Mike said, “I’ve been here for twenty-five years and I’ve never, ever seen a Thai respond to the gospel the way this man did.”

WSN: I guess it does show that we’ve been presenting these different pieces of the gospel, but not the whole thing. And the whole thing put together is pretty compelling.

CHIP: It really is. I was talking with my friend Jay Lorenzen about this one day and he said, “I guess we as Christians have to bear the weight of the gospel’s implications before our message has any power.” That is so true. The gospel’s about a great God who condescended and came down to man not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. That’s what the good news is. So when we live that out, when we lower ourselves and humble our upper-middle class white selves (or whoever we are in the world) and go anywhere not to be served but to serve and to spend and be spent on behalf of the people’s needs and tell them the gospel as we go, it does become a really powerful thing.

WSN Interview: Chip Scivicque (part one)

2008-07-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

Our Bible teacher at the Global Briefing is Chip Scivicque.

Chip has been on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ for thirty-two years. He served for two years at “Ole Miss” before moving on to direct the ministry in Auburn for five years. He’s spent a total of twelve years living and doing ministry in Thailand. Then he worked to help send college students to do ministry internationally. Since the tsunami in Thailand he’s been asked by Campus Crusade to work on a new “Good News, Good Deeds” focus, helping the US campus ministry to turn our attention toward living the gospel, not just talk about it. He jokingly refers to himself as the “Good News, Good Deeds Guru.”

WSN: As if world evangelization wasn’t enough, now Crusade wants to be a humanitarian organization?

CHIP: We don’t want to become a humanitarian aid organization, but continue to be who we are. Students are our target and the proclamation of the gospel is our lead foot, but--and here is the operative phrase--we want to weave the compassionate works and words of the gospel into the fabric of the campus ministry.

WSN: This sounds like a pretty major paradigm shift.

CHIP: Well, yeah, it is a major paradigm shift and I think it’s a lot bigger than Crusade. All of Evangelicalism was born in the 50s (pretty much). Theological liberalism had really swept the Protestant church and the great majority of Protestant Christians rejected the miraculous and the supernatural and removed that from scripture. Their approach to scripture was, “If I can’t prove it scientifically, then it must not be true.” So they rejected the virgin birth and the miracles of Christ and the bodily resurrection and a literal second coming and Christ became a good teacher rather than a savior and a redeemer and the Son of the Living God. When they did that the gospel message really had no power to redeem and to save mankind. They were left with the teacher’s advice to love your enemy, turn the other cheek, feed the hungry, take care of widows and orphans and in their minds, evangelism and missions became mercy ministry. Evangelicalism was born, and one of the things at the heart of it was belief in the inerrancy of scripture, that it’s the inspired word of God.

So Evangelicalism was born in this sea of theological Liberalism where there was almost nothing but mercy ministry with no gospel proclamation. We said, “Wow. If you feed someone or build a home for them or make their life better or heal them of their sickness and then they die and go to hell, what good did you do them?” A false dichotomy was created, that there’s either mercy ministry with no proclamation or proclamation with no compassion demonstrated toward human need. So the shift that’s going on is huge. Evangelicals and Campus Crusade are realizing that it doesn’t have to be either/or, it should be both/and. So all Evangelicals, including Crusade, are trying to bring proclamation of the message into the context of demonstration, trying to share both the words and the works of the gospel.

WSN: So how do you answer the critics who say, “What does it matter if we mow people’s lawns and they still go to hell”?

CHIP: One, you need to realize that the gospel is not just a verbal message. The gospel is a person. It’s Jesus. And the good news about him encompassed everything about who he is or was when he was on earth and everything that he did and taught. It wasn’t just propositional truth. So as we share the gospel with people, we need to share it through who we are, and how we live, and what we say. The gospel was never just a verbal message.

Second, usually for people to understand the gospel they have to both hear it explained and see it lived out. The further a person is in their worldview from the Biblical worldview, the more true that is. I learned that in Thailand. You take someone who has a very eastern worldview--like a Buddhist worldview, or Taoist or Confucianism-- they have to see the gospel both lived out and explained verbally or it just doesn’t compute. You have to put “the mowing of the lawn” and the proclaiming of the message together.

Another realization a person like that needs to make is that we are not here to just get people into heaven. We’re here to get heaven onto earth. That’s what Jesus taught us to do. He taught us to pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God wants his will done on earth as it is in heaven and Jesus taught us to pray and work in that direction. And so we are to try to expand and expend the loving way of Jesus Christ on earth in every way possible and every place possible so that heaven breaks into earth and people get a taste of it and they want to go there. That’s what we’re here to do. They hunger for heaven and the king of heaven and want to know him and spend eternity with him.

Look for part two of the interview tomorrow!

The Great Peruvian Guinea Pig Festival

2008-07-29T20:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a great photo essay about the Peruvian festival of the guinea pigs, in which the little guys are dressed in fancy clothes, fattened up and then... eaten.

Warning: There are before and after pictures at the link above.