Two for the price of one...

6/18/2011

Week one down in Memphis, seven more to go, and there is no turning back now. Tonight we went out to dinner with our missionary partners, who just might be the most amazing people I’ve ever worked with. As we stood on the bank of the Mighty Mississippi the hot Memphis air competed with the smooth breeze of an impending storm and we talked of injustice and grace.
Steve, one of our partners, said, “Bad neighborhoods aren’t bad because bad people move in; they’re bad because good people move out. In your best neighborhood you will have bad people and there is nothing that will change that.” They drove us around several neighborhoods and pointed out dozens of houses of people who have chosen to move into the roughest, toughest, scariest places because they understand what these people need most is consistency and someone to love them. They need someone who is going to hold them accountable to what they do, to show up to sporting events when their parents won’t, someone to provide a safe haven and a strong hand. They don’t need our pity or our money; they need faith, but most importantly peace.
In the car on our way home from dinner we talked about intentional living strategies. When you’re called to a foreign country to do ministry, what do you do to prepare for that transition? 1) Move there, duh. 2) Study the culture and history. 3) Learn the language. 4)Find out where they –ing and –ing with them. (I.E. Shopping, eating, walking, laughing, etc.). You will bumble through attempted friendships until you find someone who is warm, excepting and willing to teach you the ins and outs of this new place. The exact same thing works for inner city ministry. Turns out it’s not rocket science after all, but it takes a whole lot of perseverance.
You will face resistance, be pushed back and knocked down several times until it seems like you’re ready to give up, but the moment when you’re at your wit’s end is when it gets good.

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6/25/2011

Colton, Emily, and I have just said good bye to our second group of student and are taking a break at the Memphis Public Library. This last trip started off with a bang... well it was more of a smash... Within the first hour of the trip the youth pastor, the female adult staff, and myself managed to accidentally break a window of the fifteen passenger van in an attempt to retrieve the keys that were locked inside. A few minor cuts, a trash bag, some duct tape, and a whole lot of sweeping later, the window was patched.
the week did get better from there.

One question that I want to be able to answer at the end of my summer is this: How has prayer shaped the last 10 weeks?
I want to be more diligent in prayer knowing that when we pray for things that seem impossible, we get a chance to see our faith increase and God gets a willing instrument to use. The last two weeks I have been praying for got to provide "enough" for all our teams and for myself. Enough patience to make it through the day, enough work for the work site, enough sleep to function, enough perseverance to push through the hard patches in the week, enough food that everyone's full, etc. I have always considered abundance as what I need and have found myself frantic when it gets down to the wire, but there has always been "enough."

Fools in the Kingdom

Do you ever have moments where things really do seem to be in slow motion? Like those moments in the movies when the guy sees the girl of his dreams gently tuck her hair behind her ear or the father watches his children giggling in the front yard after a long day at work. I had one of those as I walked from the LeaderTreks office to my car tonight. I started thinking about the very first summer I spent with LT as an intern. There was so much question to what would happen over then next 10 weeks and I questioned if I had what it took to make it through. I had no idea what was coming. As I turned back towards the building the slow motion hit and I felt in the bottom of my stomach the same feeling I felt as an intern. The one that told me I was on the edge of something much larger than myself. The one that says the weight you're about to take on will grow you and make you fall more in love with your Savior in the most challenging life experience. The one that reminds me there is hope and peace to be found. The one that whispers stories of lives that are about to encounter the living God in ways they have never before.
This will be my third summer of trip and I still feel like I have no business being in the authority position I am. Everyday I am humbled to know that I have been entrusted with SO much. My feeble hands will help restore the Kingdom of God? Really? If God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, then I am definitly a fool and ready to be foolish.

Office Frustrations

Lately I have been stressed. Summer is coming sooner than I would ever want and there is still much to be done. Usually when there's an upcoming holiday I look forward to a day to kick back and hang out with people. Not this time. I look at this Memorial Day as a time stealer. One less day this week that I can get things done and one day longer that I have to wait to talk to the people I need to.

It takes me quite a long time to get to the point of being frustrated or frazzled but once I get there I cannot come down until the task is resolved. Unfortunately I am over a week away from resolution and the stress continues to take a toll on my sleep and back muscles.

It's not the events of the summer that have me worried, it's not the responsibilities that I will assume, and certainly not the amount of teaching that I will have to do; all of that I'm excited for. No, it's the paperwork. It's all the last minute paper work no one sees as being important until someone is demanding they have it. I wish that people took more care in complying with the seemingly insignificant tasks. I know my life would benefit from it.

But you know what? The summer will come and the summer will go and trips will happen and all will be well. Just getting to that point right now seems impossible.

I was walking in Memphis, but nowhere near Beal Street.

I've been home from my trip in Memphis for a whole 24-hours and thought that I would write a little about the last week while it's still fresh on my mind. I'm going to be in Memphis for about 9 weeks this summer so I was hoping that this trip would flesh out possible work projects and VBS sites. I got a whole lot more than I expected.
We showed up at our ministry partner's house on Saturday (the day before our trip is set to start) to find that our concrete project for the upcoming trip had fallen through, but there was hope. A friend of our ministry partners needed some improvements done to their house. We decided to go take a look at what we could do to help and if it was going to be enough to keep 13 students and 6 adults bust for a week. Within ten minutes of being at the house I quickly realized that this was not going to be your ordinary house. We were warmly greeted, shown all around, and glimpsed a little of their vision for change in the heart of Memphis. This wasn't just a house but a community of creative believers with the mission of loving their neighbors. These people were so focused and dedicated to serving other people that they had no time to keep up their own living space.
The whole week unfolded story after story of how these people came to live together and the mission that kept them there. In the beginning, these people were strangers brought together by coincidental meetings and opportunities, which grew into a mission minded community. Since then walls have been broken down (literally and figuratively) to make room for these changes.

I am always amazed at how the seemingly coincidental meetings of people turn out to be less than coincidental. Which makes me wonder about this "coincidence." I saw in that house what I want for my future: community, service, and love. I don't think it was any coincidence that our original project fell through. I think that this is another story in the making of how creative and all-knowing our God truly is.

Lets start from the beginning.

I've titled this No End Like The Deep End because I feel as though that's how I live my life. Most people wade into the water and then dive in when they find the risk is worth taking. Me? I don't even bother to perch my feet on the side of the pool to see what's at the bottom; I dive in cannonball style and pray that I can swim and it seems to work for me.

I live and work in a suburb of Chicago with a leadership development organization called LeaderTreks. Since signing on in 2009 my life has never been the same. Adventure follows me around like a hungry puppy and my life has more purpose than I've ever known. This blog is for me, so I can unpack my experiences as they happen and for you so you can share in the joys and failures that come with living life in the deep end.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm going to enjoy letting you into the adventure I call life.