Global Reach for Justice Cambodia 2009

Its a dark and rainy day….

I love days like this, I don’t know why but they slow me down. They cause me to think. To reflect and to meditate on things to come. I am thinking of the true possibilities of our Global Reach for Justice in Rwanda. We are leaving on June the 8th. I was meeting with the team just days ago, and we ask the question, “why do you think you are supposed to go on this trip?” There were many different answers. Some said, “I want to help the children,” while others said, “I’m not sure what I can do but I want to help change things for the people of Rwanda.” They all truly gave good answers.

I think we all should take time to ask that question about our lives in General, as to why we do what we do. Why are you involved in this or that? Where are you serving and why? It should bring perspective and clarity.

I asked myself, why are you going to Rwanda this year? My response is simple. To produce potential in people. I see this as one of the main reasons for my life. I have a vision for the potential in people and I feel my assigment in life is to help people realize that potential.

I know when we look at places like Rwanda, we see all the bad things that have happened. After having been there and built so many great relationships, especially with young Men and women who want to lead their country to health, I see a lot of promise and unending wells of potential.

My purpose in going this year, is not to just give a fish, but to teach them how to fish. I have kept relationships going through the web as much as possible, and we are planning a major connection with young leaders when we go. I believe that interaction and teaching, and relationship time is going to make a real difference in the lives of these young Rwandans, and in the life of the future of their country. We are going to help them in humanitarian ways, and in leadership.

How do you change the world, by seeing the potential of change, and producing it.

That’s why I am going to Rwanda. Why do you do what you do? Please share.

1…2…3…Do the servolution with me

What a great concept. You have to love Dino Rizzo, Pastor of Healing Place in Baton Rouge, LA. This guy and his whole team are remarkable, and inspiring. They have become the personification of community involvement.

Harvest on all of its campuses, Okc, MWC, STW, EDM, check out www.harvestokc.com to find out more, are joining with Healing place and over 300 churches representing hundreds of thousands of people for 7 days of Servolution. The term Servolution was coined by Dino and is the name of his upcoming book. It means a revolution of service.

We believe that the church can speak about the love of Jesus, but then must also take the responsibility to share the love of Jesus in practical ways. Serving others, not for personal gain, not for what we get back, but just the opposite serve to show the love of Jesus. Isn’t this what Jesus did, when he walked the earth. He cared for people in practical ways, He brought solutions to problems, he was lead by compassion. We see it even in the last supper, when He, knowing that the disciples would run, knowing that Judas would betray Him, and Peter would deny Him.

He put a towel around his waste and filled a basin with water, and served them by washing their feet. He did this for two reasons one, for the act itself, two to be a model of what Christianity is all about, sharing His love by serving others. Dino said something that stirred me, Jesus reached us to reach past us.

If you are a part of harvest, don’t hesitate to get signed up for as many of these seven days of servolution events that you can. Lets show the world that no matter what is going on, there is hope because the love of Jesus is in us.

Do the servolution with Me

April Fools…

This is always a fun day. Friends playing tricks on one another, and everyone having a lot of fun.

According to Examiner.com

The most popular theory of when April Fools Day started is that it began in 1582 in France when King Charles IX reformed the Julian calendar and made it Gregorian. This made the new year begin on January 1, instead of April 1, as it always had been prior to the switch. Because cell phones, texts, and e-mails weren’t around then, the news of the calendar switch took some time to get across to everyone. As a result, some countryfolk (and a few stubborn ones who resisted the change) were labeled “April fools.” They were subsequently used as punchlines in jokes, sent on “fools errands,” and subjected to practical jokes. Scottish and French settlers brought to the colonies of the US in the 1600s. Thus, a holiday was born.

No one wants to be the butt of a joke. Most everyone likes to pull a good prank though. One thing of noticed about peoples attitudes towards God, even many religous people is they think, buy having faith God will somehow make a fool out of them, as if He is some kind of cosmic trickster.

Many believe He is all about the old bait and switch. He will draw us in with all this talk of blessings and eternal and abundant life, and then when we have faith in Him and “seal the deal” he switches on us and gives us negative things in our lives.

God is truly not a trickster and He is not trying to Make an April fool out of you. God loves you and I, He views Himself as our father, and desires that we view Him that way too. God is a benevolent father who loves to give good gifts to his children. God is good.

I love what Matthew 7:7-11 in the Message bible says…
“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?

I would encourage you, you can trust God, he will not make a fool of you, your faith can be fulfilled in Him. If we being imperfect can treat people with respect and love, how much more can our perfect father and creator love us and bless us.

Don’t be an April fool. Trust God. He loves you!

overcoming frustration

Many times in the forty years of my life i have battled with frustration. The feeling that things just aren’t working out. The irritation that I’m trying hard to accomplish something and for some reason it just isn’t happening. The consternation that comes with expecting certain responses and results from people and them not living up to it, or worse, expecting big things from myself and not being able to meet a goal, or complete a task or get the results i was aiming at.

Frustration is a killer, its the step before discouragement and depression. Frustration unresolved steals motivation and momentum from your life, and brings everything to a halt. It opens the door to bitterness and offense in our lives, which lead no where but to negative circumstances.

So what is frustration really. Frustration is the difference between Expectation and reality. You expect your kids to behave a certain way, and in reality they are not perfect. Everything between the two is frustration. You expect to be at a certain level in your career by a certain time, but you don’t make it. The difference between what you expected and where you really are is frustration.

Given that life is imperfect, and there will be many times when our reality doesn’t line up with our expectations, how do we keep from being overrun with frustration?

The common Mistake we make is to get focused on our reality. There is nothing wrong with evaluating your reality, or being honest about it, but if we get to obsessed with it, or focused on it, especially in light of its deficiencies in relation to our expectations we will be overcome by frustration.

The answer is to keep our eyes forward, looking forward towards our expectations, moving forward towards stated goals, thinking forward in the direction of our vision, focused on where we are going, not where we have come from.

Expectations are powerful, we should set them high and shoot for them, and as long as we stay focused on that, then at some point our expectations will become our reality. Frustration can destroy that from happening.

Overcome frustration. Focus on your expectations.

David

He Cared

As a preachers Kid I grew up in church. Yes, I’ve seen a lot of things; I’ve seen the positives and negatives in people and church life on extremes, most good, but some bad. I’ve seen imperfect people behaving imperfectly. I’ve seen the same thing in families, on jobs, and in neighborhoods that I’ve lived in. It’s human nature.
To help people get into a relationship with Jesus we don’t have to be perfect, non Christian people are not expecting perfection from Christians, they’re just expecting honesty. Wanting us to be true to who we say we are. They are looking for authenticity and sincerity. It’s ok not to be perfect, but it’s not ok to be pretentious.
I’ve seen hypocrisy and pretension at its height in my life growing up, and in my adolescence I was confused about my identity, who I was, or what God really wanted for me. All I knew for sure, I wasn’t going to be a phony or a hypocrite.
I just didn’t understand grace. Grace is the idea that if we choose to live in relationship with Jesus and commit our lives to Him, He will give us the ability and power to live our lives for Him, Grace is the unmerited, undeserved, unearned blessing and favor of God on our lives.
When I was a sophomore I had a turn around. I decided to give my life to Christ. I was lost and self destructing, truthfully my life was spinning out of control, and it was getting worse. (You might say, how bad could it be, when I was so young, but I had some horrible influences outside my family). Somehow God arrested my attention, and so I made a commitment to Him, and began to follow Him. I started bringing friends to church, and they started bringing friends. Many young people made decisions for Christ in our church. We were actually filling up pews with young people.
Most of the teens who made decisions for Christ were coming without their families, so they didn’t have parental support for this new decision. With no support structure they slowly disconnected and left the church. I gave into pressure and slowly disconnected myself, and decided I wasn’t going to live for God.
I never stopped going to church, thank God, because it was ingrained in me, but I backslid with a vengeance. I attended church consistently but was fading off into the spiritual distance and needed help before I would disappear into a future disconnected from God.
Thank God for a friend named Terry, he was the high school Sunday school teacher in our church. He wasn’t perfect, but he cared. Other people didn’t know what was going on with me, and to be honest wouldn’t have done anything anyway, because it’s intimidating to try to connect with the pastor’s kid, whose messed up, but Terry would call me, and ask me to come to his house and hang out with his family. He cared. He would encourage me, or hug me, or ask me how I was doing. He just wouldn’t let up. He saw I was lost, and he knew I needed help. He saw something in me that I didn’t see myself. Terry cared.
One day I couldn’t take it anymore. I just made a decision, “God, I want to live for you, If you care for me so much that you’re talking to Terry about me, than you must have a purpose for me.”, and from that time until now, I have lived my life all out for God, and trying to do for others what Terry did for me. He cared.
So today, find someone, who has never had a relationship with Christ, or maybe someone who is a prodigal like a was, running from destiny, confused about identity, frustrated about hypocrisy and trapped in sin. All it takes is for someone to care. I’m not perfect, but I am living for God today, because my friend Terry cared about me. Who will you care about today? Over Twenty years later I still Thank God for Terry.
I have a terrific family, an incredible church, a wonderful life, and have been blessed to have the opportunity to minister to thousands of people with the grace and love of Jesus in spiritual and practical ways. All because Terry Cared. I can’t imagine where my life would have gone without his influence.
My life is not perfect, but Gods grace is sufficient to give us victory in every situation.

David

Leadership Lessons learned training for a marathon 1

There are many leadership lessons to be learned when your training to run in a marathon.  I will start with this one.  You can always do more than you think you can.  There is no doubt that we all have limitations, the problem is we think our limits are much smaller than they are.  We look at obstacles and make excuses instead of seeing opportunities and finding reasons to stretch.

Doing more than you think you can requires you to think.  Doing more than you think you can requires you to push all the way to the farthest places you’ve gone before and go farther.  When we get to places that are on the verge of beyond where we’ve been before our mind, our will, our emotions rebel against us.  That is precisely when we have to decide to lead, to realize and actualize the fact that we can do more than we thought we could.  Just keep going, stretch beyond, and don’t quit.  The advantage is it sets the bar higher and it makes the normal press seem much easier.

Right now, i am at the 15 mile wall, I have gotten to that point and both times gotten ill and had to stop, I am researching to figure our the problem and will continue to run and build up to i get past it.  I will run the 26.2 and will be able to say, I did more than I thought I could!

Press on!

David

Guest blogger….Amy Raunborg…”There are no Words”

There are no words to describe what we have done in only 3 days.  We’vetaught english classes, prepared sacks for street children with water and small meals, we washed their hands and feet, we gave them first aid, tried lots of Cambodian food, have had great fellowship with Students in the new life dorms, and some of us visited the slums of Cambodia.

We all have so many stories to share with you when we get home!  Cambodia is truly amazing.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  We will see you soon.

Amy

Rewrite your personal History

“Rewriting Your Personal History”

I know it sounds impossible. As a matter of fact it is impossible. No one can change reality by rewriting history, right? The truth is we can’t but God can. We can’t go into our past and change it, we can’t act as if “those things” never happened, because they did, but we can change the direction of our history. What we do in our present determines our future and our future at some point will be our history.

God is capable of taking our lives and making them what he originally intended for them to be. No matter what we’ve done or experienced. He can change the direction of our lives.

Maybe the direction of your life is good, but there are areas in your life that you really want to see change. You want a second chance. The sad part about life is that a lot of times We don’t get a second chance. However that is what is so exciting about God. He is all about second chances. Having a relationship with Him gives us a second chance.

Do you remember the story in the Gospel of John chapter two and three where Nicodemus and Jesus are talking and Jesus tells him? “You must be born again.” Nicodemus asked, because he was thinking physically not spiritually, “can a man go back into his mothers womb and be born again?” Jesus response was man must be born physically and spiritually. When we come to know Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him, we are “born again”; we are given another chance, a chance to rewrite our personal history.

If you’re like me, every once in a while you think about your legacy. What will your children will take from your life as they go into their future? I want them to take principles of vision, hope, and discipline that will give them a promising future, a faith in God and His promises for them that will assure their success as a Christian and in life.

Can this really be true, though? Can we really get a second chance? I think of the apostle Paul. He wrote two thirds of the New Testament. He was one of the greatest New Testament figures, and many historians say was one of the three most intelligent men in history. He was an intellectual Jew, who belonged to the Sanhedrin and purposefully opposed Jesus as the Messiah. He stood by and watched Stephen be stoned to death, for professing Christ as the Messiah. He was fighting the Christian Cause with such passion he was having Christians thrown in Jail.

He was on one such journey, when Jesus revealed himself to Paul, and asked him what he was doing. After this encounter he committed His life to Christ, with such passion that even though he was persecuted, defamed, challenged, and ultimately executed for the cause of Christianity, he gave himself completely to it.

If you read Paul’s writings you read about a man who was full of Joy, who kept preaching even after being placed in prison. He wrote, he taught, he sang, he breathed this great gospel. God rewrote his personal history, and a man who would have been nothing more than a religious zealot opposing the Christian movement, was rewritten into a man that changed the world forever with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have a relationship with Jesus, and he has rewritten my personal history, and yes there are constant revisions that need to be made, but my end will be better than my beginning I have no doubt. So let God Rewrite your personal history, and turn things around in your life.

What is your story?  Please share.

Thanks

David

A Special Family…

Alex was the young man of 24 years whom we met at his shoe shop on the strip not far from the house we were staying in.  When I say shoe shop, it is a small area in front of a store front.  He started with 3 pairs of shoes and now has about 15 or 16 pair of shoes.  a good day is if he sales at least one pair, two or three pair would be a great day for him.

Alex, became a follower of Christ about one year and a half ago.  He was totally changed.  We saw pictures of him from before Christ and he doesn’t look like the same person.  Ive never seen anyone so physically changed as a result of conversion.  He looks mean and hateful before and now has visable joy and such exuberance in following Jesus.

He has the responsibility to care for His 18 year old sister, his 67 year old mother and his 10 month old daughter.  He was married but as soon as the baby, “praise” was born the mother ran off and they have not heard from her sense.

After doing ministry on the streets that night, he asked if we would bring a bible to his mother and share Christ with her.  We did so and took the a lot of food.  We road the botah (motor bikes) to their home, down some fairly treacherous roads, in the drizzling rain.  We arrived and walked down the alley, and into their home.  It was a small one and a half room home, but they were so proud to have us there and kept a very nice home.  We came in and brought them some food like sausages in a can, and crackers and cheese, as well as some sweets, and candy.  They were very happy.  There is not a lot of money to go around so sometimes they have days where they cant eat.

We gave them some other gifts as well.  His sister “Lukiah”  was a beautiful young lady and had a brilliant mind.  She spoke fluent, and articulate English.  I ask her what grade she was in and she said she had completed secondary and had tested to go to university, she had high marks and was accepted at the highest level.  I asked her when she started, she looked sad, and said, “no money.”  I was so upset, in this nation it is very important and really the only way above poverty is to get an education, which is a no win situation because the people who are in poverty can’t afford an education.  There education to us cost very little.  I was heartbroken, here is this brilliant young woman who is stuck.  She said, its ok, my brother, and she spoke of him and looked at him as if he was the worlds greatest hero, is looking out for us and if he can do that, i can watch the baby and take care of mother.  She had been going to school, but has had to come home, as a result of mom not being able to work because of health reasons, and this has truly effected their finances.

So Tyson gives her a bracelet, and then several more and said, “these are for your friends.”  She immediately dropped her head, began to cry and said, “i have no friends”, she explained to us that when she had to drop out of school all of her, “friends” began to make fun of her and not hang around her anymore.  There is a real stygma with being poor not getting an education.  They said she was cursed.

she really began to cry, She said, its ok, and she pointed to praise, who was sleeping in my arms, and said “praise is my friend, the baby is my friend.”  She said we will make it.  You must understand this girl was really sharp, she was so dynamic, so strong, Tyson and I were at our wits end to see her future robbed from her.  We said we will be your friend, which is little consolation.

So we all prayed together, and of course we are going to try to help her.  We had a chance to bless the mother and share the love of Jesus with her and she was so responsive, praise God.

In this nation, if she gets her education it could really change their entire situation.

So when you think about it, you might say a prayer for The mother, Lukia, Alex and Praise.  They are trying very hard, and working very hard, and I believe that God is going to bless Him and he is going to use us to do it.  Remember there are a thousand cases just like this and there is hope for the people of this nation wrapped up in the arising generations, lets do what we can to help them take that next step.

Lets not let poverty rob them of their future.

David