around the world with Jesus

I’ve wanted to memorize and pray for all the countries of the world for about 5 years. I figured since I’ve actually started, that blogging about it may help provide added accountability.

I heard a speaker at Book of Hope quite some time ago. His name is Dick Eastman and he’s with a ministry called Every Home for Christ. http://www.ehc.org/

If I remember correctly, he spoke of praying for every country in the world every day on his way to work, or wherever he was going that day. I love that idea. Of course, it’s a listing thing where he would simply fly through a list. However, with his decent knowlege of the world a passion for those people, and a greater love for God, I bet some cool things happen in response to those prayers.

The prayer…

• helps keep his passion alive and growing.
• reminds him to pray for the places he’s been and the people he’s met
• helps him be more aware when he hears of places on the news or in conversation
• connects him with the desire God has to receive worship from the nations
• is heard by our Savior, who responds

He passed out prayer maps that day. I have mine with me most of the time, wanting to actually start the memorization process. The idea is to pray for a few countries a day each day for a month, but I like the idea of just learning them all. I’ve told other intern teams of my desire to learn them all. Haven’t done it. Will do so starting now, or last week actually.

Click here to see the list.

I’ve gotten Africa, but am a bit worried about all of those Oceanic islands. Wish me luck…or even order the map (it’s free). Accountability in cyberspace has arrived.

It’s been a great week. Just over a week ago, our spring ‘09 team arrived. The team will soon serve in Galveston, TX; Haiti, they’ll be in the Dominican Republic and then serve another country in the region, returning to Atlanta for a Convoy of Hope outreach. It’ll be a full 2 1/2 months. This is a great team.

Let me introduce them…(left to right)

Natalie is from the Seattle area. As a Bible Quizzer she memorized much of the New Testamant. She just graduated from Evangel with a teaching degree.

Deserai is from Sioux City, IA. She also was at James River’s Master’s Commission a few years ago. Her cousin (er, her mom’s cousin) is Rick Ryan from our Convoy of Hope staff.

Bethany is a Missionary Associate who will work with Karen to lead the team. She’s been on the Convoy team for 1 1/2 years.

The bear isn’t real or on the team.

Jorel grew up as a missionary kid and will head to seminary after the term. He graduated from Bethany College.

Karen was on the fall team and is helping to lead this team. She’s an RN with a Master’s in teaching.

We have a great team…just wanted to introduce them to you. Here are 4/5 of them on the couch.

Our Convoy of Hope interns and I talked Monday of two great tragedies…

Tragedy #1. There are people today who haven’t decided to follow Jesus. Maybe they’ve never heard, or maybe they’ve rejected. Either way, this means they don’t have the comfort/strength/guidance/etc. from the Holy Spirit. They don’t have the “full life” that John 10:10 promises. And then a future without Jesus after their death is quite a tragedy too. All tragic.

Tragedy #2. God created man to worship Him. He sent His Son to die for us. His Son (that’s Jesus) sure worked hard and sacrificed for us. God is love, you know. He “dwells in the praises of His people.” Many people around the world don’t know about Him so they’re not worshipping Him. Many who do know about Him have chosen not to worship Him. He’s wanting praises, our attention, our love, and our lives and not receiving them. Tragic.

John Piper is a pastor/author who’s written about this. http://tinyurl.com/ilikepiper includes a 14 point sermon that touches on the topic…good stuff.

So from your perspective, which is the worse tragedy? Which is a stronger driving force? Their bleak future here and after life outside of Jesus, or a deserving Jesus not receiving their praises today?

We’ve been watching Lost. Never saw an episode (except for one that was playing in an airport one time, but that doesn’t count.) Last fall, we watched one. Then another. Then another. Yep…we’re in the middle of season 4. We won’t be ready for the season premiere Wednesday night, but I suppose that’s ok. We’ll DVR it and then watch it when we’re ready.

Until Lost, The Office was the only show we followed. It’s a good show. Well written. I see the draw.

I fly a lot. I usually don’t get too scared (although that flight where I touched down in a storm and then we took back off again due to “wind shear” did spook me a bit), but I do wonder who’s around me. For me, the stories of each of the people are the most meaningful elements of the show. Everyone has a story…and Lost does a good job of telling them.

Hopefully, there aren’t such a high percentage of fugitives, criminals, etc. on my flights, but you never know. I have enjoyed traveling with some interesting people. Some of them about whom I know:

• Terrorists being flown from S. America to the U.S. Two of them. The flight attendant told me about how they got on in hoods while handcuffed before anyone else. She said there were numerous armed marshalls surrounding them. She even told me where they were sitting. She could probably lose her job over that, but I thought it was interesting. I don’t think she was lying.
• I sat next to Bill O’Reilly’s radio boss one time. In fact, it was 4 years ago tomorrow (on my way home from the inaguration). It’s my favorite flight conversation.
• The lady I blogged about who spoke no English…or French…or any other major language (the flight attendant drew a chicken and a cow to get her choice at meal time. She’s from the middle of the bush in Mali, Africa.
• A well traveled, lovely Christian woman (like my aunt’s age) named Amelie. W e still keep in touch on occasion.
• A Seattle protester type lesbian. She was very kind, but I’m pretty sure she’s done a lot of protesting… I think she probably (unverified) threw stones during the WTO meetings in Seattle a few years ago. We had a fascinating conversation on much of the flight. She respected what I do and who I am, and I really enjoyed conversing with her. Quite informed and intelligent.
• A TV producer from New Mexico. We had an amazing conversation. I told him I work with a Christian Disaster Relief organization, but when I mentioned the word “missionary” toward the end of the flight, it kind of spooked him (I think it’s because he used lots of bad words…but they really didn’t bother me…I really enjoyed our conversation). We’ve kept in touch some since then.
• Some guy I didn’t recognize, but he was in first class (saw him as I was departing), wore boots to his knees, a big fluffy fur coat, lots and lots and lots of bling, sunglasses and had his shirt unbuttoned nearly towards his naval. The japanese tourists were getting photos with him…not sure who he was though…
• Lots and lots and lots of other really cool people.

If I ever get stranded, these are some of the types with whom I’ll battle the “Others.”

Like I said, everyone has their story…and when I’m not ready for a nap, and when they’re not ready for a nap, I enjoy hearing the stories of the people around me. May God use me in those conversations to reflect Him well…

As a random bonus…in airports I’ve run into people like Karl Rove, Johnny Knoxville (does some show called Jackxxx), Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, and a really nice Christian singer named Al Denson. My friends Steve and Melissa met President (still elect) Obama…that would’ve really been cool. And I’m a bit of a nerd for recognizing Matt Drudge…I know.

Convoy of Hope was shut down last week…but I was at the World Missions Summit 2. I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything. It was incredible. I twittered, “it smells like missions here”. It did. Not sure what that meant, but it was a very cool week.

But I don’t think I slept much. A little…but not much. Five guys in a room with two double beds wasn’t too comfortable. I did bring an air mattress, but…

I’ve mentioned to teams that God is pretty smart. On his top 10 list, He included the obvious…don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t take My Name in vain. Most people who want to follow Christ do pretty well in most of those areas. But He included another…Honor the Sabbath.

I won’t do a long exegesis on this commandment, but I will say that He wants us to take some down time every now and then. I’m not always good at that. Honestly, I can be very good at it sometimes though. I have been the last day or two. I think resting can honor God. I like Hebrews 6 that speaks of entering “that rest.” Here…I think it means more than just physical rest. It alludes to the kind of rest that we can have in our minds and hearts when we know we’re living right. That’s a pretty cool rest…

So…the idea of just being and not necessarily doing is a pretty holy thing. It brings honor to God. We were in church this morning, but I’ve been vegging for about 3 hours. It’s felt great.

Taking a sabbath…so important He wrote it in stone. Busy doesn’t equal holy. I’m going to post this and shut down the computer and get some more rest…

It'll be a great week…here is Lindsey with our "See it, sense it, live it" banner. She's on it with some kids from a refugee camp in El Salvador.

I’ll admit, that often when seeing other people my mind wanders, wondering their story. Like one time, I saw a pink Cadillac with a Mary Kay sticker on it and just three burly men were in the car…what’s up with that? What is their story?

I’ve flown a number of times, but never have had an experience like today.

I’ve been to Africa a few times and have met some absolutely wonderful people from remote areas that I would imagine could experience some big culture shock in my country.

Today, a woman from Mali flew next to me from Chicago to Paris (I’m on my way to Armenia). She was experiencing significant culture shock. She didn’t speak English or French (it was an Air France flight) or any other major language. I’m not sure what language she was speaking. The only way I got her name/country was when she showed me her passport. She’s in her 60s and the passport didn’t have any stamps in it. I didn’t understand the no stamps part.

The flight attendants…and I’ve not seen this before…were drawing pictures of cows and chickens on her menu, so she’d know her dinner choices. They even made cow and chicken noises. She got chicken.

When the plane started backing up from the gate, she got visibly scared, and kept holding on to the seat in front of her. I tried to calm her down. The flight attendant asked me if I wanted to move. “Nope.”

She looked at my cell phone with awe, as if she wondered what it was or something. As we started speeding down the runway, she grabbed my arm with both of hers and held on tightly for quite some time.

I grabbed my camera towards the end of the flight and took this photo…

She loved seeing it. I think it may have been one of the first digital cameras she’s seen up close.

Anyways, while it’s certainly none of my business, I wonder if she was visiting family. I wonder if she needed medical treatment. Vacation? Someone’s guest for a presentation or something? Wander-lust?

That all being said, she’s a child of God, and a special person. I don’t need to know her story, and will never learn it. However, He knows her and understands whatever language that was quite well.

So I’m on the road again, meeting up with the team soon in Armenia. I’m looking forward to blogging more about that…

I told the team when I last saw them to let me know what they wanted, and I’d try and bring it to them when I meet up with them later this week.

Here’s the list of what they requested:

• Dove Dark Chocolate Promises
• Tazo Green Tea
• Burts Bees Chapstick (the regular kind, either comes in a tin or a tube)
• Dove Milk Chocolate Promises (in the bag)
• Excedrin Migrain
• Diet Mountain Dew
• A coat left in the boys room in the intern house
• Reduced Fat Skippy Peanut Butter
• Guitar Strings (I guess Chad needs more strings)

• Tortilla Chips and Salsa

Some of those things are for individuals, and some are for the whole team. Don’t tell them (or do they read this? we’ll see…) but I also brought some pumpkin pie filling and stove top stuffing…they’ll celebrate Thanksgiving in this part of the world, gotta have some taste of home.

If you were in a place like Moldova or something for a month, what would you want from home?

Here, Claire gives us a bit of a tour and her thoughts…

Then, we went back to the small church building (it’s actually more of a home) where they fed us and we had a service for about 25 kids. What a wonderful time. There’s a family from the main church in Sarata that’s sees this village as their mission…we loved partnering with them for this day. (We also provided a lot of groceries for the church and food for the ministry.)

While there, I met Maria (not her real name…). We were sitting down, and there were balloons on the floor and we, not knowing each other’s language, got in a mild balloon fight. Fun. We palled around for the rest of the afternoon.

I then learned her story. She’s 10-years-old and has a little sister. Her father has been gone for years and her mother left last year as well. She’s taken care of her little sister for months now. This church found her, and has been helping her. In fact, the couple pastoring the church are letting Maria and her sister move in with them. She’s now well fed, warm and has some adults who love her and are telling her about Jesus.

The larger church is working towards perhaps starting an orphanage to help children such as Maria and her sister.

Great girl, fun afternoon, honor for Convoy of Hope and our interns to partner with churches like this.

Today we're about an hour from the capital of Moldova in Sarata Galbena. I'm sitting in the first Pentecostal Church sanctioned by the Soviet Union…a miracle story (blogged it in June).

Tomorrow we'll work with this church to host a Convoy of Hope outreach. We're finishing the bagging of 500 bags of groceries, we'll soon set up and then pass out even more invitations in this village.

Clear and beautiful day.