My Weekend

Friday I had my first staff meeting. It was long, but it was nice. At the staff meeting we did some planning for the House of Joy reunion that was happening on Saturday. 50 girls and 20 kids were planning on showing up. "So, who should be in charge of the kids?" "Mike's good with kids, sign him up." Well, yeah, but those are all English speaking kids. A few other people volunteered and we had a team of five. Five against 20 is not that bad. I used to do one against 10 when I was in charge of the 4 year olds at my church. I wasn't really nervous about that. The thing that made me nervous was that we had to entertain them for 6 hours. I don't know about you, but I can only handle so much of the "let's all dogpile on Mike" game.

Overall, it went pretty well. We had a bunch of stuff planned, but it basically boiled down to just letting them play outside. My favorite little girl, I think her name was Emma, played on the swings with me for an hour.

"Something in Romanian."

"You want to play on the swings?"

"Something in Romanian."

"Okay." I lifted her up into the swing.

"Something in Romanian."

"You want me to spin you?"

"Something in Romanian."

"And swing you at the same time?"

"Something in Romanian."

"Okay, here goes."

*Screams of elation.*

I don't know what she was saying, but I must have guessed correctly. Another game that one little girl decided to play was the "Tell Mike she loves him while she kisses whatever part of his arm is nearest her mouth." I like this game, and if more girls want to play it, I'm not opposed.

Then, once we were done with the kids it was time to head to the three hour conference. We set up our table and prepared to talk to anyone that might be interested in a DTS. Woops, we forgot chairs, so we had to stand the whole time. Sunday was day two of the conference with three more hours of standing.

I woke up Monday, and learned an interesting thing. 27 year old backs were not designed to do that much stuff without proper exercise. My back and legs were so sore, that I just stayed in bed until noon. I'm starting to feel better, but there was a period there where I was praying for the Rapture. "Just do it Jesus. My old body is broken. I need a new one."

Week Off

Today I learned why nobody has given me anything to do yet. They want to give me a week so that I can adjust to things. That's a pretty smart idea, except that it takes me about that long to get used to doing nothing. When they start giving me things to do, I'm going to be used to the nothing.

I also learned that according to a common Romanian phrase, if you really want to ingest the knowledge contained in a book, you should lie on it with your belly. Haha. :)

I made it!

I had zero issues with flights. My flight from LAX to Munich was spent watching Super 8, and trying to sleep. (It didn't happen.) Then I spent three hours in Munich sleeping on the chairs while I waited for my flight. Then I flew to Cluj where friends were waiting for me. I loved how uneventful it was.

Yesterday was more exciting. I went shopping by myself. I was surprised at how familiar everything felt. I found everything I needed, and even got a taxi for myself back to the base. Yay, I'm in Romania.

Everyone

Friend to me: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."

Me, thinking to myself: "You're biased. People say that about lots of things."

...

Then I went to Romania to take part in the DTS in Cluj.

...

Me to everyone: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."

How do I begin to explain this to you? Let's start with me. I grew up in the church. When I was five, I was in Sunday school, and the teacher marked out a circle on the floor in masking tape. "Step into the circle if you want to accept Jesus into your heart." I stepped in, and never looked back. I'll be 28 in a couple of months, which means I've been a Christian for 23 years. I've read my Bible cover to cover. I've heard thousands of sermons from dozens of pastors. I went to Westmont college, which very nearly requires all students to minor in religious studies. I walked into my DTS with the attitude saying, "I already know everything. What can they possibly teach me?" Maybe that's the attitude that you have.

Over the course of the twelve week lecture phase, 80-90% of the material covered was new to me! People say that you can spend a lifetime with God, and always be learning new things. Phrases like that don't really hit you until you experience them for yourself. Many times during the lecture phase I found myself asking questions like, "Why haven't I heard anyone preach the kingdom message before if Jesus talks about it more than anything else? Why haven't I studied the Holy Spirit that deeply before? Up to this point, why hasn't anyone been able to explain Jesus' authority in such a way that would make me shudder?"

Mark 4:41

And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey Him!"

So yeah, if you're thinking that a DTS is not for you, then stop thinking that! DTS's are for everyone! :)

Now comes the tricky part. How do you actually go and do a DTS? Five months is a long time to try and convince your boss that you need to take off. Maybe you have a new born and you can't exactly pick up and go to a foreign country so easily. There are DTS's all over the world, including some as local as Los Angeles, but that doesn't make it any easier for some people.

I was in that situation. I was working in a human resources job for two years. Our company had some major layoffs, but I survived all of that. I didn't feel very important, but it would seem they thought otherwise when they gave me a raise in the midst of a limping economy. There was really no way I could tell my boss that I needed to leave for five months to go to Romania for a discipleship training school. I also couldn't just outright quit my job because there was no telling when I'd find another one. I wanted to go, but it seemed I was stuck. So, I prayed.

My situation was different, but I prayed a prayer similar to the one King Jehoshaphat prayed in 2 Chronicles 20:12. "God, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you."

I forget how long it was before I heard an answer, but one day my boss called me into a meeting. He likes to have regular meetings with me to see how I'm doing, and hear about what I'm working on. They're generally a good thing, and the title of this meeting when I got the email about it was something like Redefining Job Description. I walked into the meeting feeling good. My mish mash job where I'm asked to do a little bit of everything will get a bit more focused. There will be less times when I have nothing to do followed by times when I have too much to do. It will be more even.

I sat down at the meeting. "We're going to have to let you go." Well God, that's certainly one way to answer my prayer. I guess I'm going to Romania.

Maybe you have both the time and money to do a DTS, maybe you have neither the time nor the money. Pray about it. If you're even a little interested, check out the website, or read through the questions on the application, or watch the video.

DTS's are for everyone, and since you are a subset of the group 'everyone', that means that DTS's are for you! :)

The day it started to rain

Metaphorically for myself, but literally for Noah.

(If you are into this sort of thing, check out the sermon on Noah that my pastor did when going through the Life of Faith series. http://realitycarpinteria.com/thelifeoffaith/)

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Noah? Everyone on Earth is partying and doing their own thing. There's no churches, or support groups, or small remnant of Christians. It's just Noah and his family. Then God tells him to do something crazy. At least, it would have sounded crazy to me. God was going to send this thing called rain, and He wanted him to build something called a boat? It had never rained before, and they were hundreds of miles from a body of water big enough for a boat that size, so no one had ever built a boat before. But he faithfully worked on that boat for 120 years. The things that people must have said to him.

I love the way my pastor describes it from the 39-41 minute mark in the video. If you don't want to watch a whole hour long sermon, check out that section.

I just imagine the day that it finally started to rain as a wonderful day. (Then later terrifying.) That was the day that God's word proved true. That was the day that all that hard work finally paid off.

A while back, I heard a call from God. I set out to start working towards that. Some days were good, but most were not. I'm a perfectionist, and I hate failure, and it was hard for me to deal with not being able to raise enough money to answer God's call. I started to wonder if I heard correctly. Did God really call me to Romania? When would God's promise to provide prove true? When would the rain come?

A friend of mine from Romania told me about how God blessed all her supporters. I wanted to believe her, but I didn't. Then last night, I was talking with some good friends of mine. They told me a quick story about when they bought their house. They borrowed some money from their family, and were working to pay them back. Somewhat unexpectedly, the person to whom the debt was owed decided to cancel the debt! I don't know how much it was, but my friends decided to use the extra room in their budget to support me very generously.

For the first time since I started fund raising, I can picture myself going to Romania. Once I sell my car I'll be nearly there. For the first time I can see God's promise to provide for me. I can see the rain.

The goal I'm about to reach is my minimum goal. With it I can eat, sleep, pay my bills, and do ministry. If I got more money, it would go towards, health/dental insurance, the occasional book to read, tithing, and likely supporting other missionaries that are trying to raise support to do exactly what I'm trying to do.

I'm getting excited! I'll be around for at least another month or two, but I don't think much longer than that.

Rich Young Ruler

Matthew 19:16-30

Mark 10:17-31

Luke 18:18-30

When the staff in Romania first asked me to pray about joining them on staff, this story was the first one that caused me to start seriously considering it. (The story that finally convinced me was the one I mentioned in my support letter about the Titanic.) I went to church, and this story was preached. It was in english during an international service. I found myself relating so much to that rich young ruler.

Sometimes I'll even have that same conversation with Jesus. "I've been good. I haven't killed anyone lately. I haven't stolen any cars. What else do you want me to do, Jesus?" "Sell everything you own, and follow me." In my context the follow me refers to going to Romania. The trouble is, that even if I sell everything, it still won't get me there.

In order to reach my minimum monthly support goal I still need $685 per month in supporters, or $16,440 (2 years). Even if I sold my car, tv, surround sound system, gaming system, and games for twice what they're worth, it wouldn't cover it, and people aren't going to buy those things for twice what they're worth. The rest of my possessions aren't worth anything, just some old clothes and yearbooks. I really don't see how I can possibly raise enough money to get back to Romania...

If Jesus has a different perspective using His Heavenly wisdom that supersedes my Earthly wisdom, He certainly hasn't told me about it yet.

Fingertips in the Sand

Last night at around 12:30 in the morning I felt the need to go out for a walk. I needed to clear my head, or pray, or worship, or I don't know. I just needed to go for a walk. I grabbed my sweater and sandals and went outside. Hearing the waves, I walked down to the beach. I stood there on the shore for a while and talked to God, and to myself. "Praise You in this Storm" popped into my head so I worshipped for a few minutes with only the waves and stars as an audience. When I stopped singing they didn't request an encore, so I walked a little further down the beach.

After walking a couple hundred yards I stopped, knelt down, and wrote, "God, Help me." You see, I've been faking it these past few days. On the outside, I'm optimistic about my situation. This is God's calling, so He will provide for me like He has provided for countless others in the Bible and among my friends. Yet on the inside, I'm becoming cynical and jaded.

"Times are tough," "money is tight," or so people keep telling me. Times aren't that tough. It's not like anyone is like the widow in 1 Kings 17:12. "So she said, 'As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.' " I love that whole story in chapter 17.

Anyways, I'm becoming emotionally overwhelmed by my situation. Hope only fades, it never grows brighter. So I knelt down and wrote "God, Help me." in the sand, and just stared at it for a while...

I got up and walked a little further down the beach, but I stopped when I saw something else written in the sand. It was upside down from my perspective, so I walked around to the other side. There in big letters was "I heart U," with the word heart replaced by an actual heart. Someone must have been out with their girlfriend or boyfriend and felt the need to express their love, and yet they didn't write, "Tommy loves Jessica," just "I heart U."

Take a minute and put yourself in my shoes. What goes through your head if you were to write, "God, Help me" only to find "I heart U" less than a minute later? The thing that's in my head is that God still loves me.

Thank you Lord for this reminder of Your love. Help me to prioritize You above Your gifts. Help me to be content to serve You wherever I am. If you want me to stay in Carpinteria for a while longer, then open my eyes to the things You want to accomplish in and around me while I'm here.

Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHdcyue0bSw

"Praise You In This Storm"

I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

[Chorus:]
And I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to you
And you raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You

But as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

[Chorus]

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth

[Chorus x2]