After a couple days of "civil unrest" (a euphemism for riots and tribal warfare) things in Conakry finally calmed...well, maybe not to a state of calm but at least to a state of retreating to regroup. I was glad...and I wasn't. Because somehow, the break in the fighting doesn't feel like peace. It feels like halftime.
My friend Al is from the Susu tribe, who are the indigenous tribe to Guinea, and also the ones who have stayed out of the fight between Malinke and Peul. I heard experts give their assessment, but no one summed it up as well as him...and he barely speaks English. "Malinke love power. Susu love power."
Yep! That's about it.
Yesterday another local friend and I were talking and commenting on the brief calm we're in right now, he said, "They will fight until they get hungry. Then they stop. It is when they are not hungry, they make trouble."
Ouch. This leads me to the other thing that has been weighing my mind lately. Back home in the good ole' US, some of the churches I adore are in hard times. They may not realize they're in hard times, but they are. They are attacking other parts of HIS body, parts of HIS body that truly love and serve the FATHER. It makes me angry. But my African friend hit the nail on the head. "When they aren't hungry, they make trouble."
and the American church is not hungry. Not yet.
We're rich and fat and church is a club... because it can be. It costs nothing to be a devoted church member.
So, with full stomachs and lack of need, we cause trouble. We complain and pick one another to death and get mad when they won't dance to our flute. We have our precious law (our rules of the club) our doctrine, our denomination and we have made the KINGdom of GOD a matter of talk. And oh do we talk... But JESUS said that the KINGdom is a matter of power.
This sounds harsh, doesn't it? Dang it. That' not what I want. I don't feel harsh... I just feel sad. I really wish I could sit and tell you this post face to face instead of as words on a screen. I wish you could hear the love I feel for the body of JESUS in America and the sorrow I feel at our failing. I want HIS church in America to get that being the church means that your life is JESUS. And life in HIM is infinitely greater than a political party or a denomination or a religion. I long for us to be hungry for JESUS, to be totally consumed with loving the brothers, to find our fellowship in the SON...just the SON...not in our preferences or personal convictions.
I long for us to stop devouring one another.
It's ironic, isn't it? That it usually takes persecution, need and hunger to make us stop eating one another.
A hungry church won't spend their time nitpicking others in the body and tolerating personal sin. They are too busy fighting the real enemy! They are too hungry for REAL FOOD to waste time with the empty snacking on other believers...they want bread that satisfies---the UNLEAVENED BREAD. The BREAD that brings fellowship and unity and brings us back to the simplicity and reality of life--JESUS. Beautiful, Satisfying, JESUS.
GOD make us hungry
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
If you read this blog...
and have grown to love Guinea as I do---pray for their peace right now. Conakry has erupted in tribal violence and it is spreading so quickly. Pray for HIS people to wear their boots of peace right now and cause it to cease. Ask GOD to protect HIS people and show HIMSELF great.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The Mouths of Babes
These are wild days we are living in. The Bible is reading like the front page of the newspaper. And in this generation where HE is so actively revealing HIMSELF, and the plans HE determined before the creation of the universe are playing out in real life, something else very marvelous is happening.
HE is showing up in our children. I am seeing GOD display HIS greatness through small children and the uneducated, simple, reliant lovers of GOD in Africa.
In the GOSPEL of Luke, from an overwhelmed heart, JESUS' burst out with, "I thank YOU, FATHER, LORD of Heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children!"
That's how I feel lately! HE is doing things in my kids that blow my mind! They know things, see things, experience things, understand things that GOD alone has revealed to them. I love it!
HE loves it!!
HE gets all the attention when simple, humble people are the outlets of HIS glory.
Isn't that so freeing? We can study and chase after GOD for the simple joy of knowing HIM better--not to be more qualified. HIS qualification is a humble heart!
There is nothing in my life I feel more urgent and passionate about, nothing I pray about more, nothing I talk about more, nothing I want more in all of life than this: for GOD to pour out HIS SPIRIT on and in my children.
I ache for the people of Guinea to come to JESUS. I ache for my friends and family members who are not under the LORDship of JESUS CHRIST to come to HIM. I want to minister to those around me but I don't even want any of those things more than I want my own three little blessings to belong to and love JESUS with every fiber of their being. It would break my heart to end my life having won many people to the LORD if it meant I ignored the three that GOD planted right in my own home. Sometimes I wonder if that's wrong.
See, I told you I was passionate about this.
I know that many of you recognize what GOD is doing, the urgency of HIS call on us to prepare our children, to train them, to be intentional, to raise up lovers of GOD (not church kids). It is for you, that I share these verses, they are constantly part of my conversation with the FATHER for my own children.
GOD is doing this thing, y'all! HE is using little children---let's be part of what HE is doing and pray pray pray that our own children may be included!
(Discovering them yourself is half the fun. Happy Hunting!)
Ephesians 1:17-19
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
Psalm 112:2
Joel 2:28
Isaiah 44:3
Isaiah 28:26
Jeremiah 1:5-9
1 Samuel 2:35
Deut 30:6
Isaiah 49:1-3
Isaiah 54:13
Psalm 8:2
Psalm 90:16
Isaiah 59:21
Isaiah 61:9
Gen 28:13-15
John 4:24
1 Cor 1:9-12
Eph 3:14-19
Philippians 1:9-11
Go on! Talk to GOD about your kids. HE has plenty to say... and then say it all back to HIM <3
May GOD be shown beautiful to the world and HIS body through our children!!!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
All Aboard
Thursday afternoon I stood in Starbucks and drank a caramel latte.
18 hours earlier:
We received a last minute email inviting us on a tour of the Mercy Ship. It had arrived in Guinea the previous week and greeted the city by inviting its sick and wounded to be screened on September 3rd. In something straight out of the GOSPELs, over 3000 diseased, deformed, crippled, tumored, burned and blind people descended on the People's Palace for their chance at healing.
I wasn't able to be there, but many of my friends and colleagues were. One of them had the task of escorting out the ones who couldn't be helped. She said she cried disappointed tears with them the entire day. Many of them would return to the end of the line and try again. One mother brought her baby for help to my friend *Tammy who told me she could literally see the baby's exposed heart beating. They couldn't help her. She left.
The Mercy Ship is a floating hospital staffed completely by volunteers. Every sailor, crew member, nurse, surgeon, doctor and specialist pays to be on the ship, high profile surgeons even flying in to help for short periods. Some of the crew have lived on ship for years with their families. This particular Mercy Ship, the "Africa Mercy" is set up to perform plastic surgery on burn victims, orthopedic surgery on children with deformities, cataract surgery, hernia surgery, and tumor removal. They have created an extremely organized system that allows them to reach and help thousands of people in West Africa.
My Man and I walked aboard the ship the day after receiving the invitation. We were immediately led to a cafe to visit with crew members. And by "cafe" I mean a Starbucks. There, I talked with people from all over the world who live and work on the ship. The chef of the ship told us how he had been a restaurant owner turned musician who toured the country living the party life...until JESUS captured his heart. He worked in California at Teen Challenge and then ended up aboard the Mercy Ship.
This wild JESUS lover full of humility and joy still looked a little like a rock star.
(That's what HE likes, you know. Loving HIM, worshiping HIM in our own weird, wonderful style. HE doesn't just like it---it is HIS way!)
We went to a meeting room where the Captain of the ship briefed some diplomats, the press and a few oddballs like me about the work of the ship. He showed us before and after photographs of people they had helped. Blind people given their sight. Crippled legs were straightened. People who were so deformed with tumors and injuries that they looked inhuman, were given faces and smiles and restoration. My heart was full--I thought of JESUS. Believe me, I know HE heals miraculously. HE does it every day. But as I watched this, I also felt the joy of the LORD when HE chooses to use people to heal others. There is something so glorious about human beings being allowed into the healing work of GOD.
The photos ended and the Captain spoke again. It was then...there, with all those "important" people and swarm of media and oddballs that he said they had come to Guinea...
in the NAME of JESUS.
My eyes filled up. Do you remember the scene in "Elf" where someone mentions Santa to Buddy and he screams with surprise and excitement? I wanted to do that! I wanted to yell, "JEEEESUS!! I know HIM! I know HIM!!!"
I love this wild GOD. I love HIS wild followers. This is where making the KINGdom of GOD a matter of talk, a matter of doctrine and matter of theology prove to be so failing. It's a matter of power! Following JESUS is a life. It is a reality--it's so much bigger than words. It's life. It's the kind of life that takes you from drugs and parties to cooking for people in West Africa. It's the life that takes rich surgeons from lush homes to Conakry, Guinea to open blind eyes for people who have nothing.
And I thought the latte would be the best part of the day...
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Getting it
Something exciting is going on.
It isn't the large exchanges of gunfire that went on outside our gate yesterday. Although that does have its own measure of excitement.
It isn't the return of football season and watching Texan's games at midnight...although there is about to be plenty of that as well.
No, this is even better! I am finally figuring something out. Something that is setting me free and making me think that GOD may just be significantly cooler than I even thought. (surprise surprise)
You know by now that I am a former "church girl". You know the type--good girls who always go to church, who know all the hymns, who don't say unpleasant things and who have the bible all figured out. They know exactly what GOD likes and what HE doesn't and they never miss a "quiet time" or they miss GOD's blessing for the day. That was totally me!
Beth Moore says that the Word of GOD was not meant to make us scholars, it was meant to make us victors. As a church girl, I knew the Scriptures. But, if I have to be truthful, I wanted to know them to be smarter. I wanted to have a better grasp on my faith...not on my GOD. I would approach the Bible firmly tied to my religion so that I knew exactly how to interpret everything I read. I liked controlled, quiet, ordered services and would say it was because GOD is a GOD of order. Really, it's because I was uncomfortable with what I felt was not a controlled setting. I wasn't realizing that when GOD is controlling a setting it may look very different than what I am comfortable with.
A couple of weeks ago, GOD shined HIS purifying light on a couple of areas where a religious spirit was still hanging out. At first, this freaked me out. HE was starting to get into some hard and fast (so I thought) parts of my life in HIM. And one of them was a biggie----prayer.
Since childhood I have been conversational with GOD--I talk HIS ear off throughout the day. Why not? HE is my best friend! Unlike many others in my childhood, HE never told me I talked too much. I like that.
But for years I have carried around a secret---I suck at prayer. I do it...not always very successfully, but I do it. I have read many books about prayer--great and helpful books... but in the end, I am sitting back in my quiet time with my list and my routine. I would pray but I did it because I knew I was supposed to and I truly desired the things I was bringing before HIM and I know HE talks about prayer and its importance and I want to do what HE wants. And after all, this is prayer, right? Right?
Recently, things got bad. I didn't want to pray that way at all. I didn't want to sit with my eyes closed for an hour going down a list. It was boring and unlike any other part of our life together. I would talk to HIM the rest of the day, but in the morning, I stopped pulling out my list. I gave up. I was confused. How could I seemingly "get" HIM in so many things but fall flat here.
Then something happened.
About a week ago I confessed to HIM that I just don't like prayer. I don't get how to do it. I decided that this morning I wouldn't close my eyes, or get my list. I was just going to talk to HIM and listen for HIM to talk to me. Fear began to penetrate. What if I didn't hear HIM right? What if I failed?
I had to go for it anyway! And that's what I did. I just talked to HIM. HE even talked back (don't get scared, church girls! GOD does talk to HIS people!) HE told me things. Things about my kids, things about me. It was as if I was talking to a friend on the other end of my couch. It was a real conversation. I wasn't talking "at" HIM. I was talking with HIM. At one point I started to plead with HIM to pour out HIS SPIRIT on my children...and just as I was saying those words, HE interrupted me and said, "This is prayer". I was silent (shocking, I know). This? This is prayer time? But this is fun!!
Then, a picture came in my mind. I believe it was from HIM. It was the top of Mount Sinai. There was a raised ridge that once you climbed over you were in a small little area on the top. The ground was sandy. There was a rock and there was GOD sitting across from the rock. The rock was for me! It was my seat facing HIM. I could just picture myself sitting down there and talking to HIM. I sensed HIM say, "I AM always here to talk to you like this."
A few days later a friend came to see me---one of those friends who knows JESUS really well, a woman with grown kids who has walked the crazy wild life of loving JESUS. I told her about my discovery and she laughed. She understood. For some, the eyes closed, long list is how GOD does prayer time with them. HE is a FATHER. HE knows how to converse with each of HIS kids. But that's not me. I want to really talk to HIM. I want to pour out my heart. I want to pray HIS list. I want HIM to decide what's on the agenda. I want HIM to tell me what to pray so that I can pray it back to HIM. HE is real! So why did I just talk at HIM like HE was a genie in the sky? Why did I enjoy a real PERSON the rest of the day and then treat HIM like a statue in the morning?
So here's the moral of the story, kids. Let GOD rock your world. These are important times in the KINGdom. Let HIM strip away everything that was built up by religion and not by HIS TRUTH. Don't be scared of what HE will do. Learn, study, devour the Word and do it without an agenda. Hear what HE has to say. Be ready to let HIM change your mind.
Not that life is all about fun, but life is really really fun. And where GOD is, there is life!! So, give HIM free reign to invade all the safe, religious areas of your life and fill them with HIS GOD life!
This is not a safe journey---but it is an exciting one! I want to walk this adventure with my LIVELY, UNTAMED LION of a GOD. Besides, walking with a PERSON is so much more fun than walking with my lifeless church girl checklist. And the conversation is significantly better...
It isn't the large exchanges of gunfire that went on outside our gate yesterday. Although that does have its own measure of excitement.
It isn't the return of football season and watching Texan's games at midnight...although there is about to be plenty of that as well.
No, this is even better! I am finally figuring something out. Something that is setting me free and making me think that GOD may just be significantly cooler than I even thought. (surprise surprise)
You know by now that I am a former "church girl". You know the type--good girls who always go to church, who know all the hymns, who don't say unpleasant things and who have the bible all figured out. They know exactly what GOD likes and what HE doesn't and they never miss a "quiet time" or they miss GOD's blessing for the day. That was totally me!
Beth Moore says that the Word of GOD was not meant to make us scholars, it was meant to make us victors. As a church girl, I knew the Scriptures. But, if I have to be truthful, I wanted to know them to be smarter. I wanted to have a better grasp on my faith...not on my GOD. I would approach the Bible firmly tied to my religion so that I knew exactly how to interpret everything I read. I liked controlled, quiet, ordered services and would say it was because GOD is a GOD of order. Really, it's because I was uncomfortable with what I felt was not a controlled setting. I wasn't realizing that when GOD is controlling a setting it may look very different than what I am comfortable with.
A couple of weeks ago, GOD shined HIS purifying light on a couple of areas where a religious spirit was still hanging out. At first, this freaked me out. HE was starting to get into some hard and fast (so I thought) parts of my life in HIM. And one of them was a biggie----prayer.
Since childhood I have been conversational with GOD--I talk HIS ear off throughout the day. Why not? HE is my best friend! Unlike many others in my childhood, HE never told me I talked too much. I like that.
But for years I have carried around a secret---I suck at prayer. I do it...not always very successfully, but I do it. I have read many books about prayer--great and helpful books... but in the end, I am sitting back in my quiet time with my list and my routine. I would pray but I did it because I knew I was supposed to and I truly desired the things I was bringing before HIM and I know HE talks about prayer and its importance and I want to do what HE wants. And after all, this is prayer, right? Right?
Recently, things got bad. I didn't want to pray that way at all. I didn't want to sit with my eyes closed for an hour going down a list. It was boring and unlike any other part of our life together. I would talk to HIM the rest of the day, but in the morning, I stopped pulling out my list. I gave up. I was confused. How could I seemingly "get" HIM in so many things but fall flat here.
Then something happened.
About a week ago I confessed to HIM that I just don't like prayer. I don't get how to do it. I decided that this morning I wouldn't close my eyes, or get my list. I was just going to talk to HIM and listen for HIM to talk to me. Fear began to penetrate. What if I didn't hear HIM right? What if I failed?
I had to go for it anyway! And that's what I did. I just talked to HIM. HE even talked back (don't get scared, church girls! GOD does talk to HIS people!) HE told me things. Things about my kids, things about me. It was as if I was talking to a friend on the other end of my couch. It was a real conversation. I wasn't talking "at" HIM. I was talking with HIM. At one point I started to plead with HIM to pour out HIS SPIRIT on my children...and just as I was saying those words, HE interrupted me and said, "This is prayer". I was silent (shocking, I know). This? This is prayer time? But this is fun!!
Then, a picture came in my mind. I believe it was from HIM. It was the top of Mount Sinai. There was a raised ridge that once you climbed over you were in a small little area on the top. The ground was sandy. There was a rock and there was GOD sitting across from the rock. The rock was for me! It was my seat facing HIM. I could just picture myself sitting down there and talking to HIM. I sensed HIM say, "I AM always here to talk to you like this."
A few days later a friend came to see me---one of those friends who knows JESUS really well, a woman with grown kids who has walked the crazy wild life of loving JESUS. I told her about my discovery and she laughed. She understood. For some, the eyes closed, long list is how GOD does prayer time with them. HE is a FATHER. HE knows how to converse with each of HIS kids. But that's not me. I want to really talk to HIM. I want to pour out my heart. I want to pray HIS list. I want HIM to decide what's on the agenda. I want HIM to tell me what to pray so that I can pray it back to HIM. HE is real! So why did I just talk at HIM like HE was a genie in the sky? Why did I enjoy a real PERSON the rest of the day and then treat HIM like a statue in the morning?
So here's the moral of the story, kids. Let GOD rock your world. These are important times in the KINGdom. Let HIM strip away everything that was built up by religion and not by HIS TRUTH. Don't be scared of what HE will do. Learn, study, devour the Word and do it without an agenda. Hear what HE has to say. Be ready to let HIM change your mind.
Not that life is all about fun, but life is really really fun. And where GOD is, there is life!! So, give HIM free reign to invade all the safe, religious areas of your life and fill them with HIS GOD life!
This is not a safe journey---but it is an exciting one! I want to walk this adventure with my LIVELY, UNTAMED LION of a GOD. Besides, walking with a PERSON is so much more fun than walking with my lifeless church girl checklist. And the conversation is significantly better...
Monday, August 20, 2012
Keepin It Real
Let me start with the disclaimer---I love Africa. I ached to come for ages and I know GOD sent us here. But lately, I feel weary of it.
I am tired of...
* everyone asking me for money.
* explaining and repeating and repeating...and repeating instructions and when the work is done...it's still wrong.
* having nowhere to go for fun. (That's not exaggerating.) There aren't any parks, playgrounds, bike trails or even one single fast food restaurant in all of Conakry.
* our family jumping from one illness to another.
* trash.
* rain
* slow internet (i miss youtube)
* buying everything online
* mice and lice
* did I mention trash
* crazy expensive prices (think 60 dollars for a pound of cheese)
* being cheated at the market...or at least the attempt to.
* my uncut, uncolored hair.
* having no place to drive to when I am angry and just want to be alone.
* not driving at all...having to rely on drivers to go anywhere
This is how I feel...but as I've been learning lately in Ephesians--the reality is that I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. So even though these are frustrating parts of life in Africa, I can know that in the midst of them, I am lavished with blessing from my FATHER...not in spite of them but in them!
This is where it matters: Believing HIM, I mean. It's easy to believe that I am blessed when I have scenic places to walk with my family, healthy kids, plenty of activity and our family all around us. But if I believe it then and don't believe it now then obviously I equated blessing with my circumstance.
GOD is way too cool to let our blessing be circumstances! Sometimes we see it in them, to be sure. But ultimately, GOD wants to bless us with permanent and lasting things---even if it means I can't actually see them right now.
So..I'm OK with weary and tired...and even with trash. Because I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. I am seated with JESUS!
and from those seats...things look pretty good!
I am tired of...
* everyone asking me for money.
* explaining and repeating and repeating...and repeating instructions and when the work is done...it's still wrong.
* having nowhere to go for fun. (That's not exaggerating.) There aren't any parks, playgrounds, bike trails or even one single fast food restaurant in all of Conakry.
* our family jumping from one illness to another.
* trash.
* rain
* slow internet (i miss youtube)
* buying everything online
* mice and lice
* did I mention trash
* crazy expensive prices (think 60 dollars for a pound of cheese)
* being cheated at the market...or at least the attempt to.
* my uncut, uncolored hair.
* having no place to drive to when I am angry and just want to be alone.
* not driving at all...having to rely on drivers to go anywhere
This is how I feel...but as I've been learning lately in Ephesians--the reality is that I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. So even though these are frustrating parts of life in Africa, I can know that in the midst of them, I am lavished with blessing from my FATHER...not in spite of them but in them!
This is where it matters: Believing HIM, I mean. It's easy to believe that I am blessed when I have scenic places to walk with my family, healthy kids, plenty of activity and our family all around us. But if I believe it then and don't believe it now then obviously I equated blessing with my circumstance.
GOD is way too cool to let our blessing be circumstances! Sometimes we see it in them, to be sure. But ultimately, GOD wants to bless us with permanent and lasting things---even if it means I can't actually see them right now.
So..I'm OK with weary and tired...and even with trash. Because I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. I am seated with JESUS!
and from those seats...things look pretty good!
The Trumpet
Ramadan is over.
I know this because this morning trumpets, drums and other instruments I didn't know were even present in Guinea, shocked us out of a deep, comfortable sleep. Once the surprise of being awoken by a brass band in a third world country subsided, it was incredibly exciting. I went to my kids who were confusedly calling out for me and we all headed up to the top floor to see if we could spot the musicians through the dark. We discovered they were playing outside the gate of our next door neighbor. It was meant to be a joyous alert that their month of fasting was complete.
I am not Muslim, but I still couldn't help but feel excited. The whole thing reminded me of something which is precious to JESUS lovers like myself. One day we're going to hear a trumpet too!
Exciting, right?!
A time is coming when, like my friends and neighbors here, my fast will come to an end. Life is wonderful but if you love JESUS, this is a time and a place of fasting. GOD's SPIRIT in us has made us hungry---really really hungry for things we can't see, for a place where we don't yet live. We hunger and thirst after a PERSON that we long to be with all the time. Truly, HE is present with us here. It is glorious! But I am really hungry. I am hungry to see HIS face and live in HIS KINGdom and walk and talk with HIM in person. For now, while HE is bringing all things into order, it's our time to fast. We eat the temporal food of this world, we endure ugliness and contempt for the NAME of JESUS. WE are ridiculed, criticized and marked as intolerant when the reality is that those who love GOD, love people. But, when the last trumpet blasts, our fast will end and the feast will begin!
When I hear that trumpet, unlike this morning, I hope it doesn't catch me living my life all snuggled up in slumber. After all, trumpets are significantly more enjoyable when you are expecting them to play..
I know this because this morning trumpets, drums and other instruments I didn't know were even present in Guinea, shocked us out of a deep, comfortable sleep. Once the surprise of being awoken by a brass band in a third world country subsided, it was incredibly exciting. I went to my kids who were confusedly calling out for me and we all headed up to the top floor to see if we could spot the musicians through the dark. We discovered they were playing outside the gate of our next door neighbor. It was meant to be a joyous alert that their month of fasting was complete.
I am not Muslim, but I still couldn't help but feel excited. The whole thing reminded me of something which is precious to JESUS lovers like myself. One day we're going to hear a trumpet too!
Exciting, right?!
A time is coming when, like my friends and neighbors here, my fast will come to an end. Life is wonderful but if you love JESUS, this is a time and a place of fasting. GOD's SPIRIT in us has made us hungry---really really hungry for things we can't see, for a place where we don't yet live. We hunger and thirst after a PERSON that we long to be with all the time. Truly, HE is present with us here. It is glorious! But I am really hungry. I am hungry to see HIS face and live in HIS KINGdom and walk and talk with HIM in person. For now, while HE is bringing all things into order, it's our time to fast. We eat the temporal food of this world, we endure ugliness and contempt for the NAME of JESUS. WE are ridiculed, criticized and marked as intolerant when the reality is that those who love GOD, love people. But, when the last trumpet blasts, our fast will end and the feast will begin!
When I hear that trumpet, unlike this morning, I hope it doesn't catch me living my life all snuggled up in slumber. After all, trumpets are significantly more enjoyable when you are expecting them to play..
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