leadership is universal…

This year again I am so blessed by the pastors and leaders here in Rwanda, they truly want change, and are hungry to know better how to lead and develop leaders.

We had a great conference today, we have with us a friend from Uganda Pastor Samuel who brought a team of guys that sing and dance. They are amazing! High Energy. Just the way we like it at harvest.

Owen spoke for a few minutes on radical change, we are being flexible as our itinerary seems to be the most fluid thing here. Its really funny they are trying to get us into as many things as they can.

I spoke a message this morning on the heart of God. This afternoon on a spirit of Excellence. We had a Q and A which never fails to amaze me. Their questions are intense and they are hungry for true training and answers.

The leaders here are like leaders everywhere else. They need validation, they need encouragement, they need inspiration, and direction.

So what’s next? Tomorrow more leaders conference, then we go to an orphanage and fit them all who need it with glasses and take them food. Then tomorrow night starting at 9 pm our Next generation meeting. Which we found out today is an all nighter. Fortunately we get to go back after a few hours to sleep for the next day of conference. We will be in different churches on Sunday. Monday starts the medical clinic and Owen and I get to meet with the rector of the nations leading Law School, more to come. Please continue to pray for the teams strength. We are having a great time.

Please respond when you read these and be blessed.

Listening….

I’ve noticed that if you listen you will here things that are remarkable. I am setting here at “the hotel Rwanda” and listening to my friend Pastor Jackson Tell my team his testimony about how he started his church, how he went from being an accountant to being a pastor. He just started helping people, he started putting together proposals to govt and to governments in other countries to build programs to help kids and families. I noticed as we came over on the plane listening to lots of people who were coming over to africa to help the African people. There are so many people helping others in the world. We will visit the museum and an orphanage tomorrow, testing kids for HIV. We will be starting the leadership conference tomorrow. Pray for us, there are so many leaders and pastors over here who are hungry for teaching and training. They want help, they want to grow, they want to make a difference, especially the young generation.

take a minute and listen to those around you and see what you hear. You may hear what God is doing in the lives of others. Take a minute and let me know what God is doing in your life.

Day 2 and 3 Servolution….Personal Impact

Saturday and Sunday on harvest MWC Campus our projects were an absolutely no cost car wash, and an outreach to “Manor Care” a local nursing home facility.

we have had a good number of volunteers in all our projects. The car wash was Fun and interesting. People would pull in we would give them a couple of gifts, a bottle of water, and a car wax product and applicators, then we would wash their car. It was amazing to me, how many people wanted to give us money, and when we said no, it was as if they couldn’t grasp what we were doing. They really were having a hard time understanding this totally free, no agenda car wash. Once they got it they were really appreciative, wanted to know where we were from, and why we were doing this.

It shocked me at the response, and to be honest made me a little sad. I was sad because it is so foreign for someone to do something kind like this just to be kind, and not have an agenda or want something in return. It has really challenged all of us, to live our lives serving others, every day. Coming out of this, it will no longer be an event but a lifestyle.

We washed one lady’s car who lived in the neighborhood close to the wash, and her family were obviously impoverished, didn’t have a lot, but a few minutes after we had washed her car, her little son came walking up from their house, his hands full of change. He said “we wanted you to have this” If we had been raising money they had no clue what it was for, but were so moved by our generosity they were ready to give. Our youth pastor told the little guy, you take that money back to your mom, and tell her we just wanted to bless you guys.

I pray that the church becomes known in the community, not as the neediest, but as the most generous. Let the world know that Jesus Loves them, and his people stand ready to show it.

On Sunday we had great services and that afternoon we went to the nursing home. We took adults, teens, and children with us, and we sang songs, we gave out gifts and we just sat down and talked with these wonderful, beautiful elderly people. Honestly our hugs and hand shakes were the best thing we could have done. My girls, Sydney and Taylor set down and talked to a lady named Pauline. She was so sweet, obviously her memory was affected and she had a hard time putting thoughts together, so we just begin to tell her about ourselves, and she loved it, she loved my girls hugging her, and holding my hand. It was interesting watching my girls in this setting, they have so much love to give and i am glad to be teaching them that this is what Christians do, they show the love of Jesus in a practical way. My oldest has decided that after church on Sunday we should make it a regular journey to see Pauline, and my youngest just cried, visably moved at the loneliness of an elderly person in her situation.

Love goes farther than we can imagine, its a touch of sincerity, a hug that says, I don’t even know you, but I care, a heart that is overflowing with compassion, not even knowing what to do but to say, I love you.

What we are finding is serving people can be inconvenient, and serving people can be awkward, but serving people is the mandate on our lives and the expression of our faith, and the love of our Savior.

Our culture, our people, our families, and our lives are changing, I feel forever. We have always done things for the community on some level, we have branched out in the last few years locally and globally, but I feel we are moving to a whole new level of love, and compassion for people. A revolution means a complete turn. This has been a complete turn of serving. A Revolution of Service.

More to come….honoring and appreciating our Dept of human services employees today. They’ve already begin to thank us, and we haven’t even done it yet. Just the thought moved them.

Remember its not about what we are doing, its not about, how good we are, cause we all know better, its about one thing. Expressing the Love of Jesus to people in all walks of life. Thank you Jesus, it’s all about you.

David

Relationship is the key

A blog i wrote while in Rwanda april of 2008 and never published….

Relationship is the Key….

We just wrapped up our three days pastors conference, it was phenomenal. Lives were changed. All of our team preached, and taught on many different leadership topics. It was life changing for the pastors and their teams and it was life changing for me and our team. We had right at one hundred pastors representing over 50 churches.

One of the things I taught them is a Jon Maxwell maxim, which is to say, “Leadership is influence, and influence comes through relationship. I have just read Pastor Kirk’s notes for this weekend’s services and that is basically what he is communicating. We can lead, “persuade,” “Influence” others without having relationship.

I love it when we are able to teach something and exhibit it all at that same time; it creates such an authenticity that everyone is impacted by it. I have made some great connections on this trip, and begun some great relationships. I have to say Rwandese people are the most resilient people I have every experienced personally. The team and I were discussing one night about the fact that sometimes we in America have something happen to us in life, and it shuts down our future we cease to be functional people, and here we are standing in front of young men and women, who have suffered the worst of travesty’s and they are praising God, they are testifying of His power. They’re not perfect and they have their issues like everyone else, but they just keep moving. Keep your eyes on Rwanda, God is starting something wonderful. I truly believe what is happening there will impact the world.

Like it does usually when you go to a third world country it brings things into perspective and it makes us realize how good we have it, and reprimands us for whining so much. What I am saying is not to de-legitimize real problems In your life or mine, but it is to say, take a look around, you don’t have to look very far to gain perspective.

I taught on relationship and how important it is, and God set me up with some great new friends. Friends that I will have for the rest of my life, young men and men my age who have a heart to change things. These men don’t think like the average person in Africa, they have a new way of thinking, it’s a new breed. Pastor Jackson, the man who worked as our point person for the Rwanda portion of the trip. He is a go getter by anyone’s standards. I say this without equivocation he would put a lot of pastors I know in the states to shame in vision, passion, faith, tenacity and plain old bull dog persistence.

I won’t try to put all of his stories in this blog, but I will put them in later blogs. They will encourage you and build your faith. I also, met a young man who interpreted for me, he is one of the best interpreters in the nation. He is a brilliant young man named Henry, he has stories as well that will make you want to stand up and shout. I also, began a relationship with a young man of 26 years of age who has a real heart for unity in the church and orphans, he is one. His Dad died in the war in Rwanda in 1990, and his mother died when he was born. He has real compassion on orphans. He has an organization called together as one.

I received the great privilege of speaking a special session just for them. I walked in and wanted them to speak to me. It reminded me of our church. They were all young adults and some teenagers, and they are absolutely passionate about making a change. They are renting an office building themselves and they have three goals. One is to evangelize, use their talents of dance, singing and preaching to impact the globe, many of them are orphans. Second, they are working on getting land and building a children’s home. Third they want to bring Christian Television to Rwanda, and with that host and coordinate big conferences. They have already invited me to bring our worship team and come back and speak in the big stadium which they believe they can fill 20,000 people.

They had such passion, such grace and humility, and they are serious about changing the world. I was so inspired! They are not talking about changing the world, they are changing the world. They aren’t victims they don’t think like that at all, they think it is their responsibility to do something and so they are.

My relationship with them, and theirs with our team and the relationship we built with the rest of the pastors, has given us influence with them, and affected them and us. Relationship is key, and if we are going to reach people, if we are going to lead people in a positive way, we must not be afraid, or threatened, or fear to take a risk to have a relationship.

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

The week that changed our lives…update from Cambodia…

I don’t want this to be long so I will try to be concise.  However, it is hard to describe all that we’ve done in the last week.  I haven’t written sense last Sunday before we left the capital City to go to the province.  What a great trip it was.  It has been non-stop action.  We planned this trip well and it has gone according to plan.

I don’t need to review what we did last week because you can read the previous blog and it will get you up to speed.   We left Phnom Penh last Monday morning and headed to the Kampong Cham.  Last year our team held a huge festival in Kampong Cham, and thousands of people came, we also built a hope center.  The hope center is headed by a wonderful Pastoral Couple, who love God, people, and children.  They have a church they pastor, and oversee several others equalling about 400 people.  Last year his home was functioning as house, church, and orphanage, and there was not near enough room.  So we built the hope center to house the orphans.  He has taken in 15 so far.  15 little cambodian children, who would otherwise be on the streets, prey to all kinds of vulchers.  Instead they are receiving love and care.  They are being educated, their medical care taken care of, and the spiritual lives are being encouraged.  We went to the hope center and really didn’t know what to expect.  I wondered if it would be as nice as we left it or would it be worn down over the year.  We were pleasently suprised they had taken great care to finish it out and make it a wonderful place to live.   They had recently put a playground with swings in the back yard, however it gets very hot and certain parts of the day the kids can’t go out and play because of the heat.  So we built them a nice overhang shade.  They were so excited, and we had a great time with them.  We bought the materials and built the shade, it looked great and was fully functional when we left.  We also saw that they needed a walk way between the buildings so we built one and it is beautiful.  We also landscaped the back and front of the buildings and truly made the place beautiful.  We took each orphan a back pack and filled them full with school supplies.  We gave them painting sets, and coloring books, and instruments and soccer balls.  It was truly a blessing to them.  We also were able to get them several bibles that Pastor Hong could give to believers in the church that cant afford to buy a bible of their own.  Once our mission was complete there, we had dinner and invited pastor Hong and his wife, and lavished them with gifts and appreciation for the hard work they do in the ministry and watching over these kids.

After a good nights rest, we got up, and began our journey to Kampong Thom.  We arrived just in time to meet with Pastor Sochan and Esther and their brand new baby girl Christina Joy, and went out to one of their feeding sites.  Pastor Sochan is a young pastor who has a real heart for orphans or impoverished kids.  He has 5 Churches that he oversees.  each of them have orphans and each of them have a feeding program.  We went with him out to the feeding program.  The way it works is they feed the kids, while they are there they tell them bible stories and then sing Christian songs with them so they are learning the word of God constatnly.  They also teach them a practical health lesson.  How to clean up, how to brush their teeth, etc.  The reason he does the feeding programs, is because many of these poor village kids, would like to get an education but they can’t because their parents need them to work on the farm or as a vendor, they need the kids to work to make enough money to be able to eat.  So if Sochan feeds them for free then they don’t have to go to work with their families because they don’t need them for extra money, so the kids can go to school and get their education.

We fed them, gave them stickers, they love that, and sang songs and told them stories.  They were beautiful kids, and extremely poor.  Sochan is doing a great work.  We then went back to the hope center and met with the orphans there.  We gave them all their presents (back packs, school supplies, and toys) The older kids led us in praise and worship and then we presented Pastor Sochan and Esther with a gift basket that was put together just for them.  We were also able to resource them to help finish some construction that need to be finished.  They want the kids to be able to play out in front, and Destiny Church in st louis brought a team and built them a beautiful fence, but they needed a secure gate, so we were able to help with that.

After we left the Hope Center, we met with Jenn Garrett, Our International Crisis Aid representative and great friend, she introduced us to the coordinators of the after care program for Hagar.  We went through an orientation to preapare to minister to these precious girls who have come through such extreme abuse.  They are great women, doing a great thing for the Cause of Christ. I will blog about hagar later and about what is being done about the sex trade.

We went to the home, and because they knew we were coming they were so excited and prepared a dance for us.  It was incredible, it was a formal, traditional Khmer dance, we were very impressed and moved that they were so talented.  We met them and intereacted and then went back to our hotel. We met them in the market and bought each of them a new set of clothes, they were so happy and excited, it was a beautiful thing to see. The next day we all got up and headed to Siem Reip, where we took the girls to the “cultural village”, this is a great place where they do several programs that show you how different cultures do different things.  It was a lot of fun and the girls really warmed up to us. Many of them had never been able to go to anything like this, it was a huge blessing for them.  Next day was angkor wat, one of the 8 wonders of the world.  It was amazing and the girls and the team loved it and continued to cultivate a relationship.  We truly were having a week for a princess.  After this day, we came back and a banquet with different dishes that the girls never get to eat because of budget.  At the end of the banquet several girls wanted to tell us thanks so they thanked us for the trips and for the clothes and for all the food.  They were so grateful, so precious, it really was a great moment.  The last girl said, I would like to give my testimoney.  She talked about  how her life used to be really bad, the story is that she was sold into the sex trade by her aunt, and was severely abused, she went on to say that she had the opportunity to join Hagar and get an education and food and medical care.  While she was at hagar she was introduced to Jesus Christ, and she said that becuase of her past at that time she was unable to trust people, but after knowing Jesus she said God changed her and she knew that God is always there for her, it was so sincere and so powerful it left us in tears.

The girls stayed at the hotel and ate ice cream and the team went to prepare to receive hem.  When they were finished they came to the house.  When the bus pulled up, our team was out on the porch with glow sticks and balloons and crowns to put on them.  The house was decked out for a princess party.  We had several stations, one to fix hair, one to do nails, one to make crafts and one to color.  The girls and staff got off the bus and literally ran into the party, it was one of the greatest moments of my life.  It may not seem like a big deal, but if you knew the circumstances these girls have come out of, and the fact that they rarely would get any of the things that we did for them it was a huge deal.  They sang and danced and enjoyed all of the stations and we had a grand time.  After the party settled down, we all took a picture together, and then sang some songs, after the songs we sat down, and I told them the story of Esther, and then prayed with them.  They prayed for us, and we for them.  It is hard to explain what a bond was made in those few days, but it was heart wrenching for them and us to part ways.  I can honestly say that we truly made an impact and i believe that God is going to raise these girls up and bring beauty from their pain.  They will be great leaders in the future.

Be watching for a future blog about sex trafficking and what is being done about it.  Thank God that there are many organizations attacking this problem.

David