dontsqueezethejj.com

I’m sitting in the internet cafe’, taking a little break.  One group leaves today and another arrives.

It has been an amazing week.  The team from Oklahoma headed out to Nazareth to meet up with an LIA partner church.  We spent the week visiting all of their “wholistic” outreach to the community.

We spent time with a leper who was unable to work because of his deformity and so the church built him a home on the back part of his property so he could rent it out for sustainable income.  We prayed with a Muslim woman who was sick and in bed, unable to care for herself, who the church supported by bringing food and providing shelter.  She told us she loved the church.  Met shed a few tears with women who had formed a small co-op to sell groceries because they had lost their jobs at the local factory when they found out they were HIV positive, thanks to their husbands, who had since passed on, leaving them to care for their children.  We prayed with orphans, listened to widows’ stories, laughed with children, and held hands with the poor.

It was a powerful week with many lessons that will be relearned with every memory recall and picture revisited.  The power of this place is palpable.  I wish I could write more, but I only have a short window.

I am cherishing every moment.  There have been some difficult ones, but also some fun ones as well.

When having dinner with a church pastor, he asked me why I was not married.  I told him I couldn’t take care of plants let alone help take care of another person.  I told him about how when I left my house in AZ, the weeds were over my head.  When we said good bye to the church leadership they said they would pray that God would allow me to grow a garden so that I could one day have a wife.

There seems to come a point in every short-term missions trip when the novelty of the host country begins to wear off.  Usually this is only a couple days before leaving and the realization that the end is near can be the catalyst to carry you through.  The beds are hard, the food is strange, the mounting frustration at being constantly misunderstood is more tiring than the physical labor.  The smells are nothing like home, rolling blackouts means everything must be done by candle light, and there is no communication with those you rely on to be your rock in difficult times.  This is hard enough with a few days left, but when you realize you still have an entire month to go, it can feel a little crushing.

I have never spent this much time in the slums.  I have visited on multiple occasions, but never spent significant time daily understanding the story and struggle of the poor.  I am surrounded by way too much reality and it sucks.  It’s not something I want to admit.  It kills me to feel like this.  But on this morning, after days and nights spent seeing the depravity, I can’t help but long for something else.

It is easy to think that serving the poor is sexy when it is theoretical.  It is easy to look at it as anadventure when there is an ending point or when you feel like you are making a difference.  I know so many people who would want the experience of walking the streets at night to see how many street kids line the sidewalks, wanting to talk to them and hear their story.  It becomes much less attractive when you see ten and eleven year old children crying because the cement they are using as a bed is bone chilling cold and the rains are coming.  When you try to give them one of a dozen sweatshirts you own, you are told that this only puts the children at risk because the very thing that could offer a small amount of protection and warmth opens them up to attack from older boys.  So, you hand them some bread, record their story and walk away recognizing very quickly that a hard bed, strange food, and candle light are luxuries these children will never have.

I wrote this the morning after spending the night on the street meeting and filming street children.  The next day we ran back into the same boys and got to talk with them some more and take their picture.  They had come into the city to find work with an older friend and then that friend left them.  The LIA staff were going to try to help them get home.  The meeting with them was the hardest point of the entire process.  I could not stop crying the rest of the night.

We finished filming yesterday and I dropped the team off at the airport last night.  This is my third attempt at this blog post, ah the joys of internet and power in Africa.  I’ll try to keep adding more and more stories and pictures, but it may be a slow process.  Thanks for your prayers and support.  I can’t wait to tell you all the stories from this project.

Growing up in the family of a pastor, Easter was always a big deal.  I remember waking up at 5 or earlier many years so we could spend a little time together as a family discovering the treats in our Easter baskets before we all played our roles in the Sunrise Service.  During the early years of ministry, when the church was smaller, that meant that we ran slides, sang the special music, set up chairs, and helped in most parts of the services.  Later, once things grew, more people were involved, but we still always played a role.  Easter was always about serving others.  From very early on, Easter was an exhausting holiday, but one we always looked forward to as a family.

Things haven’t changed that much for us as adults.  All six of us have been on church staffs, three still are and one is a volunteer worship leader.  

This year, I was a part of the children’s production at my church.  A group of us came together and came up with the play California Jones and the Search for the Eternal Treasure.  I played Wu Hu, Dr. Jones’ dimwitted, but lovable side kick.  We traveled high and low to find the eternal treasure, the cross.  It was a blast.  The church even got one of the original boulders from Raiders of the Lost Ark to display in the kids check-in area, there were multiple ones used in the film.  All the kids seemed to have a great time and so did I. 

I also had the opportunity to help lead worship for the kids services.  The worship times were almost more exhausting than the play.  I loved watching the kids jump up and down, shouting and being excited about being at Church and singing worship songs.  Here is a little taste of what I saw from the stage.

JJ Easter from Life in Abundance on Vimeo.

Every Easter I am completely exhausted and have a hard time staying awake past the ham and green beans, but it wouldn’t be Easter without all the fun of serving.