Lean on Me

Well, I have spent a week by myself in Jamaica. Kirsten has left me to bear the heat and has headed up to Ocean City for a couple of days to attend her brother's graduation. I am thankful that we were able to arrange it so that she could go and be with her family for the special occasion, but Jamaica is lonely without her. To make the situation a bit more complicated, Spirit Airline's pilot association has decided to stop working and strike! Therefore, Kirsten's stay is going to be an extended one (great for her and the family, sad for me).

As I have posted before, one of the greatest things about us being here together is what God is doing in our lives. There is a great deal of learning in my heart regarding dependence. I have spent the better part of my almost three decades trying to break free from the reins of dependence to become independent. This is the great cause of our national history, isn't it? I do not doubt that independence is a wonderful goal in many aspects of our lives (Who wants to be dressed by mom when you are 35?), but I do doubt its efficacy and benefits in terms of the Christian life.

Sin, at its core is a desire to be independent from God. It is our rejection of God's rightful rule in our lives, that is our dependence upon Him and His grace. Therefore, we must become more dependent in our Christian lives and give more of ourselves to our King. This is not the case simply with our vertical relationship with God though. I believe this is also the case in our horizontal relationships with other people.

In our personal relationships we must learn to become more dependent, more vulnerable. When we strip down our external barriers and fully enter into a relationship with another person, we do experience what God has designed to share with us through relationships. It is here that marriage has taught me more about God and ministry. Honesty, humility, vulnerability, and being others-focused all matters in our relationships if we are to experience truly the fullness of God and joy of relationships. When we try to maintain our independence and claim our "right" to keep an area to ourselves, we close off an area that God or others could bless, change, or even use! Ironically, however, when we give ourselves to God and others we actually find what we are looking for - real freedom!

I miss Kirsten largely because she has become a part of my life that I need in order to function properly. Sharing stories, laughs, tears, bearing each others burdens, etc., is difficult from a great distance. What might this say about God in our lives and our lack of joy in all aspects of life? Perhaps we are still trying to force our independence like a 17-year old with a new car but with no gas money. We have the desire to be free, but do not have all the means to do so. The truth is we were made for dependent lives, not independent ones.

One of my favorite lines in Forrest Gump comes when Forrest and Bubba Blue are on patrol in the rainy tropical forest of Vietnam. As they are trying to get some rest Bubba says, "I'm gonna lean up against you, you just lean right back against me. This way, we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud. You know why we a good partnership, Forrest? 'Cause we be watchin' out for one another. Like brothers and stuff. " Lets lean on the everlasting arms and also on each other.

A YF Roadmap

Every Friday night Kirsten and I head down to the church to lead Youth Fellowship (YF) meetings. The meetings are a mix of praise & worship, teaching, and games. We have met and gotten to know many great people through YF. When we arrived, Pastor Allen placed YF under our direct care, which is our primary responsibility. Out of respect for the group and by way of becoming acclimated, we observed more than controlled YF for the first six months. I did take on the main teaching role each week, but we allowed the member leaders to plan and execute their game plan. This 6-month period allowed Kirsten and me to get a pretty good grasp on the strengths, weaknesses, and focus of YF. This observation period has given us a great snap shot of our role in the mix.

With this said, we believe that Saturday may be a watershed moment in the YF ministry. Over the last couple months Kirsten and I have been thinking, praying, and talking about a long-term vision for the YF. It was this past weekend that we had a meeting with the member leaders in the group to discuss this vision. We knew that it could possibly be met with some resistance and even animosity, but anything worth doing is worth doing despite the possible opposition.

We proposed a three-fold vision statement for the YF:
- Bring young people into the body of Christ - Our desire is not simply to increase attendance numbers on Friday night, but to increase those who are a part of Christ's everlasting Kingdom!

- Nurture their growth in Christ - Our passion is develop and guide believers into a solid and applicable faith grounded on the finished work of Jesus.

- Equip them to serve Christ and His Kingdom - Our conviction is that we are called to make disciples; therefore training young men and women to serve Christ and His church is essential to the ministry of YF.

These things we can only do by God's grace, which we strive to do to the glory of God alone!

Saturday's meeting went very well, and the young people attached themselves to this vision. In order to meet this vision, it does mean rearranging the infrastructure to facilitate each prong of the vision. Therefore, pray with us for this ministry. Please pray for:
- the transition, as it will take time to work through.
- our leadership, as we take more direct control over the schedule, activities, and training.
- guidance from the Holy Spirit that we will be sensitive to the needs and feelings of the group.

Grace and peace.

Slow and steady...

To be honest, there is a great amount of anxiety that pumps through my heart, mind, and fingers as I sit down to write each week about our time in Jamaica. The reality is that each week is very much like the others. Our mornings are spent primarily at home in preparation for afternoon and nightly meetings and classes. Our weekends are typically busy in study and teaching. So what is new? Well, not much.

I did throw away my favorite hat this week because it was covered in mold. I apparently sweat a lot in this Jamaican climate, which has left my hat damp - a prime target for mold to grow on in the intense, humid heat.

Kirsten and I also celebrated Memorial Day. We did not organize a parade of any sort, but we did eat pizza and beef! We were able to break away from Buff Bay yesterday to enjoy a day of mini-vacation, including some time on the restaurant's water slide.

As this is the second post I have written today (although the other one you may never see) I get this intense anxiety to write things that are shocking, startling, incredible, and fresh. Well, life is not always lived on the mountain tops; ministry, I am learning, is the same way. It is a consistent, faithful plugging along that we do. We strive to live well for the sake of the Gospel while praying that others will see Jesus in us and be drawn to Him.

The longer we are here, the more we see that consistency and faithfulness are the foundation to the Christian life and specifically for the ministries here in Buff Bay. Change is neither occurring at record pace nor are conversions of souls being tallied in the hundreds like a Billy Graham crusade. But these are not the point. The way God pulls in the harvest are not really up to us. I have recently heard it said that we can only control two things: our faithfulness and our effectiveness, meaning we can only give it our all. We must be diligent and consistent in our lives (which is faithfulness) and evaluate whether or not we are doing all that we can do in our lives to be faithful (which is effectiveness). Kirsten and I are trying to do both to the glory of God and the good of the people of Buff Bay. Let us be faithful people; that is what God truly desires.