51 Weeks

Skilly and A Dedication

Here are two unedited videos, just to give you a little flavor of what we did.

We Are Back!

Wow.

That one word is the best that I can come up with to summarize the trip. Wow.  What a time.  I can hardly believe that we are back.  I'm already starting to count down the next 51 weeks so we can do it again!

This was one of the best (if not the very best) trip that I have been on in the 18 years that I have been doing this.  We built homes for five families that needed them.  We shared Christ through our actions.  Many of the students that went on the trip committed their lives to Christ for the first time, and many more recommitted.  It was simply an amazing trip.

I am tired.  Moving 100 people around internationally is taxing, especially when the border closes when you are trying to get home! Heheh...that was interesting.

Over the next week I will be posting up pictures, videos and stories.  None of them can truly represent what we experience...how can you capture the work of The Lord with a digital camera?  But I will do my best.

Thank you to all of you that supported us financially and prayerfully.  We really could not have done it without you.

Mexico Day 5

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

You did it!  You made it all the way through the week.  What a week it was…living in the desert, building homes by hand, getting to know people in a way you never thought you could in just one week.  Take a moment to yourself.  Forget about the others that are sitting around you.  I want you to think about the last five days.  Write down a few thoughts in the space below.

What did you feel for the family that you were building the home for?

Think about your parents.  How is your relationship with them?  Has this week changed anything regarding that relationship?

What about you?  How are you different after this week?  Did you find what you are looking for?

When you fully commit your life to God, when you tell Him that you cannot do things on your own, that you have done things you know He doesn’t want you to do and that you want Him to forgive you, things start to happen.  When you tell Him that you want to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus and that he is the only way you can really achieve eternal life, then you have arrived.  It’s been a long journey, and it’s been painful at times.  But you have arrived.  You are still crooked, but you are crooked for God, not for yourself.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version)

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Romans 10:9-10 (New International Version)

9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. Share some of your thoughts that you wrote down today.

2. What is one of your favorite moments of the week?

3. What do you want life to look like when you get back to the United States?  What can help you achieve that?

Mexico Day 4

Waiting On The World To Change

Imagine for a minute that you were in charge…in charge of “things”.  Whatever.  Your household.  Your classroom.  Your entire school.  The United States of America!  Seriously, imagine that you are in charge.  What’s one of your first thoughts?  If I start thinking about things in this way I usually start off by thinking how I would change things, how I would make things better.  It usually starts off in my head with a thought like, “…if only I was in charge, things would be different.  Instead of how it is now, it would be…” and then I could trail off into how life would look. 

It isn’t uncommon to think this way.  No matter your age you are no doubt aware of the upcoming Presidential election.  We’re already seeing the candidates all over the place, telling us that if they were in charge, this is how things would look.  Each and every one of them assures us that if we just have the courage to elect them, life will be good.  No, not just good…great!  Life will be great if they are in charge.  Things are going to change.  And so you wait.  You sit and wait for things to change, for things to get better.  You also wait until the day that you are in charge, because from that day forward, things are going to get look different…

Problem:  that isn’t the approach that God tells us to take.  Well, not entirely.   It’s missing a step.  You see, God does want each and every one of us to change the world, but with one important thing that must happen first.  You have to give up being in charge.

Yikes.

That really sucks, doesn’t it?  I mean, you’ve been waiting your whole life to be in charge!  Everybody you know is telling you how you can become a better person so that you can take control of situations, so that you can be the boss of the company, so that you can be class president.  You are constantly being told how to get ahead, whether it is through the best possible grades or by getting a summer job.  It all comes down to you…or so we are told.

God takes a different approach.  Why?  Well, he’s the one that is in charge.  He’s the boss.  He calls the shots.  But he’s about the best boss you’ll ever have, because instead of Him cramming stuff down your throat, he lets you decide whether or not you want to let Him be the boss.  We know already that we want to be in charge of ourselves and do whatever we want (see that Romans verse back in day 2), so now we have to decide that we aren’t doing a very good job with ourselves.  We have to let God know that he is in charge, and we’re okay with that.

Yikes again.

Here is the cool part: when you do get around to letting God call the shots, he will tweak the way you see things just a little, and he will actually help you to make changes, the changes that you have always wanted to make.  Not because you are in charge, but because He is!  This tweaking (or change or transformation or whatever you want to call it) is pretty cool.  Read this story:

Genesis 32:22-28 (New International Version)

Jacob Wrestles With God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
      But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

27 The man asked him, "What is your name?"
      "Jacob," he answered.

28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, ^[a] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Jacob wrestled with God, and God tweaked him forever.  He changed his name, and he changed the way he walks.  Change isn’t a bad thing, especially when you have been waiting for it for so long.  Here is the good part though, so pay attention: even though God changed several things about Jacob, he still used the person that Jacob was (stubborn, among other things…who in the heck challenges God to a wrestling match?) to change the world.  He used Jacob and all of his crookedness to make the world a better place.

This is what God wants from you.  He wants you confused and geeked out and introverted and goofy and obnoxious and shy…he wants all of those things, every crooked inch of you…but he wants you to let Him be in charge.  Why?  He loves us, and he wants our lives to be full of joy.   When you wrestle with this concept, letting God be in charge, and you let Him win the wrestling match, things change.  Tomorrow we’ll talk about what God will give us when all of this happens.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. If you were the President of The United States, what things would you change right away?

2. What is happening in your life right now that you wish you could change?  Do you feel powerless to make the change yourself?  What can you do to start fixing it?

3. What are some of your best character traits?  Some of your worst?

4. Have you ever wanted to change your name?  Change schools?  Change families?  Move to another country? 

5. Read 2 Corinthians 3:18.  What do you think it means to be “transformed into his likeness”?  What are some things that you can do to work toward this?

Mexico Day 3

Open Your Eyes

Based upon several years of experience in Mexico, I’m going to guess that while you are reading this you are feeling several things:

ü  Tired

ü  Sore

ü  Dirty

ü  Happy

Yes, you really can get all of that in one neat little package called “Mexico Mission Trip”.  Amazing, isn’t it?  It’s only going to get better.  Look around today, open your eyes to the beauty of what is here.

If you are old enough to drive you may have experienced something that I have had a problem with more than once.  I’m getting ready to go somewhere and I’m really in a hurry, so I go to grab my car keys from the place where I ALWAYS leave them, and they are not there.  Frantically I start looking around…in the kitchen, downstairs, in my pants pockets from yesterday…I look everywhere and they cannot be found. I start getting frustrated, probably blaming my missing keys on somebody else in my family, and keep tearing the house apart.  I need those keys!  It’s about that time that my wife will ask me if I left them in the car.  Of course not! Why would I do that?  And don’t you think I would remember if I did?  Of course when I actually do discover them still in the ignition of my car, I feel a little…ummm, stupid.  How ridiculous I was, I searched everywhere and the entire time my keys where in the most obvious spot.

I have heard so many people over the years searching for something…for truth, for comfort, for justice, for fairness, for love.  They search and search, sometimes hoping to find the answer in a funky Eastern religion, sometimes hoping to find the answer in other people.  However, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to search high and low to find the truth.

Luke 24:30-32 (New International Version)

30When he [Jesus] was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

This bible passage describes a scene right after Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross.  He appeared to these two men, and they didn’t even recognize Him until after he was gone!  He was right in front of them the whole time, but they were so busy looking for other signs of Him, they were so caught up in their own lives, that they didn’t even see what was right under their nose.  They simply needed to open their eyes.

Yesterday we talked about sin; what it is and what its implications in our life can mean.  I think we probably agreed that sin exists in us no matter what we do.  We can try our hardest to not screw up, but it’s going to happen.  God says that he doesn’t dig sin.  In fact, he hates us.  That puts us in a tough spot.  So what can we do about it?

The answer is so simple, people look everywhere for it, but the entire time it is right in front of them!  All we have to do is open our eyes.  It says in the Bible that if we ask for it, God will forgive and forget our sins!

1 John 1:8-10 (The Message)

8-10If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to Himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of Him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. Write down some thoughts about your trip to this point.  Open your eyes to the people that you are building the house for, and also to the community around them.  What are some of your observations?  How is their attitude toward life?

2. Looking at your answers above, does this work against what your pre-conceived notions of them were before you started the trip? How does what you are seeing compare to what Americans (generally speaking) think of Mexicans?

3. What do you think about other religions in general?  Have you looked at other thoughts (Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, etc) to try to find answers to life?  What conclusions did you come to, if any?

4. Is it hard for you to say “I’m sorry” to somebody when you are wrong?  Why or why not?  If somebody asks you for forgiveness do you easily forgive them?  Again, why or why not?  Think of a situation in your life right now where you have screwed up, or maybe one of your friends or family members did.  What would life be like if, when you came home from Mexico, everybody involved in the situation forgave everybody else?

5. The bible verse from 1 John tells us that if we ask for forgiveness God will quickly pardon our sins.  How does that make you feel?

Mexico Day 2

All These Things That I Have Done

I think the objection that I hear the very most to Christianity goes something like, “if God is so loving, why would he send anybody to hell”?  I’m just bottom lining it for you, the objection comes in many flavors but usually sounds very much like that.  I guess I will answer it simply, and with one word: sin.

What is sin?  It’s the junk we do in our lives that we really shouldn’t be doing.  It ranges from what we consider to be the very bad to things we try to make sound better (like “a little white lie”).  Guess what?  We can play games all day and try to judge what sin is better or worse, but the fact remains that God looks at it all the same: disobedience.  Wow, that’s bad news, huh?  Well, yeah.  But also there is some good news around the corner.  Keep reading.

I remember many years ago I got a chance to get to know a pastor on a personal level that I had only known from a distance before.  I knew of him, and most people I knew also knew of him, and we all thought he was great.  We thought he had everything totally put together, and I was pretty sure the worst thing he ever did was accidentally not give enough money to an orphan once.  Yeah, in my eyes the guy walked on water.  You can imagine my surprise when I got to know him very personally and he confessed to me that he really struggled with certain behaviors and attitudes that he knew God would disapprove of.  Heck, HE disapproved of them, but he found himself always drawn toward that behavior.  That was confusing to me…I mean, this was a man of God, how could he not be absolutely perfect?  The answers lies in a part of the bible written by a guy named Paul:

Romans 7:15-25 (The Message)

14-16I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.

17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

21-23It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

24I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

You see, everybody is subject to this thing called sin…every man, woman and child.  Remember those shiny, happy people we talked about yesterday?  Yup, even they keep going back to sin.  The “sinners” that Jesus and Levi were hanging out with?  I’m guessing that even after meeting Jesus Himself they had some problems.  So here is part of the good news that was promised just a page ago: you are not alone.  Somehow that always makes me feel just a little better, because sometimes I feel like I’m the only one that has problems that keep coming up.   And here is a little more good news for you: God recognizes this and wants to help.  Seriously, he does.  We’ll talk more about that in the upcoming days.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. Think back to when you were a little kid.  Is there something you just kept on doing that bugged the heck out of your parents or people around you?  Did you ever get over doing that?

2. As people we like to put values on things (this is better than that, these here are much nicer than those others over there…).  We do the same with sin.  Why do you think we do this?

3. “Sin” is the result of our actions, but something usually starts our actions.  This is sometimes called “temptation”.  The world today is very different than it was even 10 years ago, temptation seems to be more prevalent than ever.  What are some of the temptations that you have to deal with on a regular basis?

4. What do you feel like when you are tempted but then turn away from it, avoiding the “sin”? Why do you think you feel that way?  What do you feel like when you give in?

5. You can go as deep or as shallow as you want on this one.  You do NOT have to share anything with the group that you don’t want to.  That said, what are some things that you are feeling temptation with, things that you think will ultimately have you do things that you know are wrong?  How can you avoid this in the short-term?  How can you totally avoid this in the long-term?

Mexico Day 1

Shiny, Happy People

When I met Sue several years ago I picked up right away that she was a great person.  She was funny, she spoke highly of her husband and daughter, and she kept her work place alive with just the right attitude.  Sue appeared to have it all going for her.  As I got to know her through my work, she started telling me things like, “I sure wish I was a better wife” and “I just don’t know what I’m doing here day after day…it’s all the same, it never changes.  What’s the point”?  Lori was like most people that I know; keeping it together but not deeply satisfied with life.

I started telling her about what it meant to live life as a Christian.  Not in-your-face-this-is-Jesus kind of talking, but more like telling her how my life is better since I became a Christian.  She enjoyed talking to me about these things in person and over email.  Of course every once in a while I would invite her to come to church with me and my family, telling her about the kinds of things we do there.  Each time she politely declined, she always had something to do instead. 

Finally about a year and a half ago I thought I would invite her to an Easter service.  Everybody goes to church on Easter, right?  I told Sue about the different service times and she told me that yes, she would be there with her husband and daughter.  The plans were laid, and she was excited (I think) to come to church.  Easter came and went, and Sue never showed up.  She emailed me the next day.  Her email broke my heart.  It said that she had intended to come to church and that she was sorry to disappoint me, but she realized at the last minute that she couldn’t.  Why?  She swore often, sometimes on purpose!  She like to smoke two cigarettes a day (I know, what’s the point in only two? She asked me…), sometimes she drank to the point of getting a buzz, and frankly sometimes she was just downright mean to people.  Lori finished her note by telling me that maybe when she gets these things under control she will be good enough to come to church.  We are still friends a year and a half later, but she still hasn’t come to church.

So many people take this approach to church, and guess what?  It’s the wrong approach!  I have met so many people over the years that won’t go to church because of their own actions and attitudes that I couldn’t possibly begin to count them.

Question: when you think of “church people” what kind of images come to mind?  Write down some words, or a couple of short sentences, that describe the “typical” church person.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you may have written words like “perfect” or “happy”.  I’m also going to guess that you may have written down (or at least thought about) words like “hypocrite” and “judgmental”.  Am I close? 

When Jesus walked the earth he blew up all of the notions of what kind of person was “good enough” to follow Him.  Jesus didn’t teach Sunday school when he was here, so “church” looked much different, but we can easily see what church would have looked like if it has been formalized.

Luke 5:27-31 (The Message)

27-28After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, "Come along with me." And he did—walked away from everything and went with Him.

29-30Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. "What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and 'sinners'?"

31-32Jesus heard about it and spoke up, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out."

Did you catch what happened there?  Jesus went to a party to celebrate with Levi and they were with some of the most crooked people of their time.  The Pharisees (the shiny, happy people from church) were offended, and Jesus told them that those were exactly the type of people that He wanted to hang out with.  He wanted the crooked people at church.

Questions for group discussion:

1. Who do you most closely associate with in today’s study.  Jesus?  The Pharisees? Levi?  Sue? What makes you feel that way?

2. Do you feel comfortable going to church?  Why or why not?

3. Do you find yourself judging other people sometimes, even when you don’t want to?  What kind of people do you look at this way, and why do you think you do that?

4. If Jesus showed up at your house over the weekend and told you to call up a group of your friends and have a party with Him and them, what do you think he would think of the group you hang out with?

5. What are some things that YOU can do to make church a more inviting place for every type of person?

Online Giving Update

Several people have indicated to me that they want to give online but were not sure how to do so.  I have uploaded a Word document that explains this in four easy steps.  Click here to download the document, and then click on the button that is on the left side of the screen to be taken to our secure, online payment gateway.  You can support our mission using a credit/debit card or an electronic check.  Thanks!