Thank you, DRIME!

These past few days, Gary and I have been super blessed to be able to host Lillian's DRIME team in our home (all nine of them!). From this strategic location, the DRIME-ers were able to spend two days doing ministry in San Francisco, as well as teach a drama workshop for the youth at our church here in Concord.

They were the first official houseguests in our home, and I have to say, now that they're gone, the house just feels waaaay too empty without them. Something about a full house that just makes it feel more like a home... leaders chatting in the corner, boys on the internet in the back, half the girls engaged in a full blown Scrabble war, while the other half learn to play fetch by Billy's rules. Their time here was fantastic, and ended way too soon.

I was able to get a few pictures of the team, mostly of them interacting with our youth at the drama workshop. Check 'em out:

The Canadians are coming!

I’m so stinkin’ excited… I get to see Lillian on Monday! Eeeekk!!!

We met Lillian in Nairobi, Kenya, while we were on the world race, and she was there as a missionary with a Canadian drama evangelism team called DRIME. Their team spent about 9 months in Kenya, working with local Christians to develop a Kenya DRIME base there in Nairobi. It turns out that that they were staying in the AIM base, where the red & brown teams worked the entire month, so they were able to welcome us and help us adapt to Kenyan life. Our teams all hit it off, and we really united as friends during that time.

Anyways, Lillian (and new team) are coming to California tomorrow, to lead drama workshops, and to do street evangelism, and along with some time in San Diego, they are coming up here to the bay area for a few days! So… they’re going to crash out at our place, do some ministry in San Francisco, and spend an evening training our high school missions team to do dramas we can use on our trip to New Orleans!

After a year living in other people’s homes, I am SO excited to return the favor and host a missions team here! It will be great to connect with Lillian again, and share what God has been doing in our lives since September. And, it’s really cool that our students can learn from such a talented and experienced team. Woo hoo!

(Miss you Mark & Shelley)

Fair Oaks Teen Takes the Stage

Every couple of weeks, our church produces a news letter called the "Oakleaf." My goal is to write stories highlighting youth group activities or celebrating the achievements of our teens for every issue, and it makes sense to share these stories here on the blog as well, so here is the story I wrote for the "Oakleaf" last week. I hope you enjoy it!

On Friday, February 2nd, a group of Fair Oaks junior highers and youth workers gathered together to watch one of our own take center stage. Fair Oaks eighth-grader Ashley Nichols performed the title role in King’s Valley Christian School’s production of Excerpts from the Diary of Anne Frank.

Playing to a packed house filled with parents, teachers, family and friends, Ashley gave a charming and mature performance, highlighting the difficulties Anne and her family experienced while living in hiding from the Nazis, yet allowing her joy and her irrepressible spirit to shine through.

“It was cool to play [Anne],” Ashley said, “because she’s inspired so many people all over the world. I learned a lot.”

The play depicts the true story of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who kept a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. After living in hiding for two years, the group was betrayed, arrested, and sent off to concentration camps.

Anne’s diary chronicles this entire span and includes her reflections on living in hiding and being a Jew living under Nazi oppression. Though Anne was only 13 when she started the diary, her writing is filled with maturity and insight, and her diary has become widely read around the world. In fact, Eleanor Roosevelt once described Anne’s diary as “one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read.”

A veteran stage performer, Ashley has been acting since the fourth grade. She has played parts in numerous shows, including My Fair Lady, The King and I, Annie (lead), Oliver, South Pacific, and A Christmas Carol. Ashley hopes to perform on Broadway someday.

When asked why she enjoys acting, Ashley said, “It’s really fun to be someone else; the accents, and the costumes, and everything.”

Awww...

So far, this blog has consisted more of my random musings than anything that actually pertains to youth ministry! We'll have to remedy that... (or not)! It's been an interesting first month here, in that we've been trying to get started in a new job, in a new city, while simultaneously trying to keep Gary's cold from developing into full-blown pneumonia. (We did finally get him to the doctor, btw, and he's doing much better on his new antibiotic regimen)

Despite the temporary setback, we've still been able to have a lot of fun getting to know our kids and their families. Small groups, basketball games, many many dinners, ice cream, sunday school, even cheering on the star of her school play... each day we count our blessings yet again, as God shows us what a great community of believers He's brought us to! I've especially been encouraged by the great number of parents that are really involved in their kids' lives, and by the way these kids can PRAY! (Hmm... wonder if those are related somehow?) Man, God is at work here, and I feel so privileged to be a part of it!

With that, I want to share some pics of 'my' kids with y'all. They sure can "cheeze!", can't they?

Hallelujah!!!

For all of you who have joined me in prayer for my search for Western Tzutujil New Testaments, THANK YOU!!!! God is opening doors! After numerous dead-ends, I received the following e-mail this morning from the publications coordinator of SIL Peru:

Hi Katherine.

Thanks so much for your interest in the Western Tzutujil people and bringing this need of a New Testament reprint to our attention. We will pursue the possibility directly. We will need to have some information before we can proceed with a reprinting. Perhaps you have access to some of the answers or can let me know of some contact so we can proceed with the reprint request.

What is the current status of the Western Tzutujil church?
How many believers are there? How many church attendees?
How many local congregations are there?
Is the church growing and at what rate?
How many of the Western Tzutujil people are literate and could use a copy of the New Testament?
Is there an ongoing literacy program in the Western Tzutujil language?
How many New Testaments should be printed?
Who would be willing to handle the importation, storage and distribution of the shipment of New Testaments?
Would the Western Tzutujil church be able or willing to contribute to the cost of reprinting?

You can imagine that it would be important for us to find the strategic answers so we can commit to the effort of republishing this New Testament. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. We will also investigate other sources.

Thanks so much.

Obviously this is not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new one. I am so encouraged, though, to find that a reprinting is definitely possible! Please continue to pray more than ever that God will continue to open these doors and put scripture into the hands of the Tzutujil believers of Atitlan, Guatemala.

Conflict(ed): Where Would Jesus Shop?

Have you seen the new product (red) campaign? Launched by Bono, the idea is for major companies to donate a portion of their sales of certain items for AIDS relief in Africa. A couple of nights ago, Gary and I were walking through the local mall and saw that the GAP had filled its windows with various red shirts included in the campaign.

I have to admit, I’m not sure what to make of it all. On the one hand, I appreciate that the AIDS crisis is being recognized so publicly, and that people are being encouraged to put their money where it can make a difference. I sincerely hope that this campaign will help hurting people. Plus, the shirts were pretty cool.

However, the commerciality of all this that leaves such a bad taste in my mouth… if we make supporting AIDS fashionable, what happens when the trends change? Does the fact that the new GAP shirts are (red), released just in time for Valentine’s day, mean that the campaign is timely, or exploitative?

My reading in Bonhoeffer this morning only served to stir the proverbial pot. “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven.” Jesus says in Matt. 6:1. But then Jesus also says, “Let your light shine before men” in Matt. 5:16. Soooo… which category applies to shopping preferences???

I’m inclined to think that God would care most about our motives. If I wear a (red) shirt just to show the world what a great activist I am, look out! No heavenly reward for me! But if I do buy a GAP shirt with the intent to help fight AIDS in Africa, and encourage and remind others to get involved as well, that’s good, right? Right? Right?

What is going on?

The CDC released a new report today stating their findings that rates of autism in the US have been skyrocketing; experts estimate now that 1 in 150 children have the disorder (for comparison’s sake, 1 of 800 children are born with Down’s Syndrome). Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that there is a wide range in type and severity of symptoms. While specialized teaching can help, there is no cure for autism, and the cause is unknown.

According to the CDC:

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities defined by significant impairments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests. Many people with ASDs also have unusual ways of learning, paying attention, or reacting to different sensations. The thinking and learning abilities of people with ASDs can vary – from gifted to severely challenged. ASD begins before the age of 3 and lasts throughout a person's life. It occurs in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups and is four times more likely to occur in boys than girls.

The topic is of particular interest to me, since I worked for a few years in a program for autistic adults at Southside Art Center in Sacramento. I’ve seen firsthand the challenges that autism can present to individuals and their families. Though I don’t know if this yet constitutes a “national crisis” (Peter Bell, Cure Autism Now), there is no doubt that the high rates of autism will have an effect in our schools and church youth groups.

The question is, how will we respond?

SYMPTOMS OF AUTISM

• Social skills. People with autism may not make eye contact with other people, have trouble understanding other people's feelings or have other problems interacting with other people.
• Speech, language and communication. About 40% of children with autism do not talk; others may repeat words or phrases they hear. Some can speak very well but have trouble carrying on a two-sided conversation.
• Repeated behaviors and routines. People with autism may repeat behaviors, or they may want to have set routines so they know what to expect.
• Development. Children with autism develop at different rates than other children their age. For instance, a child with autism may be able to put together a complex puzzle but be unable to talk.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

How do you buy a Bible?

Last February, when we were in Guatemala, we lived with a pastor, Antonio Moxnay, and helped him and his family to do ministry at a church he had just planted the month before. Pastor Antonio’s ministry was unique in that though most churches in Guatemala will only teach in Spanish, he was intentional about teaching in the native language of the people in his village. Tzutujil is a Mayan dialect spoken by about 40,000 people living in the villages that dot the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan.

Pastor Antonio shared with us that about thirty years ago, missionaries came to Atitlan to learn the language, translated the New Testament into Tzutujil, and distributed printed copies of the book. Since the project ended, however, the missionaries have gone home, and no new copies have been made available. Pastor Antonio is fortunate enough to own one of the rare copies, but sees the people around him desperately hunger for the word of God. He asked us to pray that God would provide new bibles for his people in their own language.

At the time, the world race kept us constantly moving and I didn’t have a chance to research the possibility of acquiring more Tzutujil New Testaments. Since returning home, however, I have remembered the need of the church and have begun to pursue a way to meet this need. Turns out, this is a more difficult quest than I would have imagined.

The organization that did the original translation, Wycliffe Canada, doesn’t provide the resources they have translated. The publisher, Hosanna Publishing House, does not have a web page, and the only phone number I could find was disconnected. Wycliffe Associates, American Bible Society, Hosanna-Faith by Hearing, Summer Institute of Linguistics: all were dead ends. I’m still hoping to hear back from USCWM as well as Multi-Language Media. Perhaps they will have a lead for me.

There is one resource that IS available: a verbal reading of the Tzutujil NT on audio-cassette. Of course, that probably means providing tape players and batteries, which would not be a cheap proposition. Another idea I’m working on is to bring a scanner to Atitlan and manually scan the pages of Pastor Antonio’s bible, then come back and have copies printed more cheaply in the U.S.

Please pray that God would open the doors to providing the Tzutujil people with scripture in their own language. The translation work has already been done! It just needs to get into their hands. If you have any leads, resources, or ideas, or would like to get involved in this project, please let me know.

Thanks.

Exactly One Year Ago Today...

After traveling all night through Mexico and Guatemala, my team arrived at Lake Atitlan just in time to see the sun rise.

It was one of those moments when God reveals the beauty of His creation in an extraordinary way… when your heart begins to pound and you can’t help but laugh out loud in the joy of spontaneous worship.

It was the first of many times throughout that month that Guatemala would imprint itself on my soul, marking itself as one of those places to which I know I must return.

Beautiful places in nature have a way of doing that - touching my soul, gently reminding me of the majesty and power of our Lord.

Perhaps this is why they call to me - to be in the outdoors is to be standing in the midst of God's creation, celebrating what He has made, what He is in, being more fully in and aware of His presence.

True Love

Over the past few months, I’ve been going through The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as somewhat of a personal devotional. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor in Germany at the time that Hitler came to power, and was martyred at the age of 39 for his active role in opposing the Nazi regime. I find his teachings to be extremely deep and challenging; they never leave me without something to ponder.

I just finished a chapter about the passage where Jesus talks about loving your enemies (Mat. 5:43-48). Though Jesus’ intentions are clear (to love), how to actually practically live this out is not so simple. I loved this passage:

‘Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.’

“…Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God. Jesus does not promise that when we bless our enemies and do good to them they will not despitefully use and persecute us. They certainly will. But not even that can hurt or overcome us, so long as we pray for them. For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition upon ourselves, and pleading to God for them. We are doing vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult they utter only serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.”

This concept of love isn’t some kind of warm and fuzzy infatuation, but an active pursuit of the best interest of another, even at the sacrifice of one’s own ‘rights’. What a beautiful and perfect picture of the love of Christ… appealing to the Lord on behalf of the unworthy.

WeeMee in London

Create your own WeeMee...

(Thanks to marko for the link)

Playing Through the Pain

My friends, I am in a bad way.

This was my first week at work, but it didn't really go the way I saw it in my mind, mostly because this cold I've had for the last three weeks is still making its happy home in my lungs. Pausing to hork up a small puddle of something that resembles liquefied peas is disgusting enough at home, much less in the company of brand new coworkers.

And it gets worse. Monday, my first day on the job, I was carrying a box of stuff for my office into the church from our house next door. As I'm carrying the box, I am seized by the worst fit of coughing I have ever experienced in my life. By this point, I am convinced that I will cough hard enough to turn myself completely inside out.

But do I put down the box to get control of myself?

No, no I don't.

And so the coughing forces the muscles of my chest and arms to involuntarily bear down...hard. So when the coughing hysteria had finally subsided, my eyes red and bleary with tears, I noticed that the left side of my chest kinda hurt. I took a deep breath and immediately came to notice that it felt like someone stabbing me in the ribs with a pointy stick.

Well, that's odd, I thought to myself. And then I promptly decided to ignore it.

That was three days ago. Each day, the pain has gotten worse. It doesn't hurt all the time; only when I get into certain positions, or sleep on it, or cough, or breathe.

So now, I have this really lousy decision to make several times a day. Do I allow my body to cough and expel the greenish-yellowish goo I'm carrying around in my lungs, or do I fight the urge to cough to stave off the inevitable pain that coughing will bring? Oh, the humanity!!

So just as I was about to feel really, really sorry for myself, I read my Ever-Lovin' Wife's post about Job. Dangit, she's right, I thought. I ought to praise God for His goodness to me, not bemoan my temporary discomfort. He's brought me here to shepherd some amazing teenagers, and he's given me some amazing volunteer youth leaders to shepherd alongside. His blessings are great, and His grace is sufficient for me.

So, I'm off to bed, with a song of praise in my heart. And you know, the pain seems less now; somehow more bearable. Thank you, Lord, for your grace.

That being said, if you feel the urge to pray for my complete, immediate, and total healing, please don't let me stop you.

Caught in the Middle

Part of doing any kind of ministry is to understand the culture you are ministering to. As a youth worker, I have been interested in familiarizing myself with the emergence of postmodernism in America: the reality is, the students I teach are growing up in a very different cultural environment than I did just fifteen years ago.

There is a growing movement, calling themselves ‘emergent’ or ‘the emerging church’ that is seeking to evaluate the changing culture, and examine how ‘church’ as we currently know it will relate and function in a postmodern world. Concepts such as absolute truth, identity, personal experience, and spirituality are being held up to the light and examined on all sides.

The emergent church describes itself as in pursuit of a conversation, not a theology; and though I don’t necessarily agree with all the answers, I appreciate the questions they are asking. I am currently reading a book, handed me by a fellow youth pastor, called “Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church”, by D.A. Carson. I loved this quote, as I found it an interesting summary of some of the differences between modernism and postmodernism:

Modernism is often pictured as pursuing truth, absolutism, linear thinking, rationalism, certainty, the cerebral as opposed to the affective – which in turn breeds arrogance, inflexibility, a lust to be right, the desire to control. Postmodernism, by contrast, recognizes how much of what we “know” is shaped by the culture in which we live, is controlled by emotions and aesthetics and heritage, and in fact can only be intelligently held as part of a common tradition, without overbearing claims to being true or right.

Modernism tries to find unquestioned foundations on which to build the edifice of knowledge and then proceeds with methodological rigor; postmodernism denies that such foundations exist (it is “antifoundational”) and insists that we come to “know” things in many ways, not a few of them lacking in rigor.

Modernism is hard-edged and, in the domain of religion, focuses on truth versus error, right belief, confessionalism; postmodernism is gentle and, in the domain of religion, focuses on relationships, love, shared tradition, integrity in discussion.

I really see myself in this passage as one of the ‘moderns’. I love the black and white, truth is truth, take it or leave it. But I see people around me, my age and younger, (especially those who did not grow up in the church) really resonating with the postmodern view. I see hunger for a spiritual experience, not just knowledge. And while yes, knowledge and truth are important, didn’t Jesus come to Earth so that we could have a relationship with God? This stuff challenges me, moves me from thinking about the importance of memorizing scripture to the necessity of living it. After all, what I know is not the sum of who I am.

Africa whispers...

Do you ever get the feeling that God might be trying to tell you something, yet you just can’t quite grasp it? It’s an indescribable mixture of excitement, confusion, peace and frustration.

I sat down for my morning quiet time the other day, and as I prayed through the normal things, my heart suddenly turned to Africa. I remembered the special people we met in Kenya, South Africa, and Swaziland, and the great need of the communities we lived in while on the World Race last year. My heart broke for the millions living in poverty, for the AIDS orphans, for all those missing out on the hope in difficult circumstances that only God can provide. I cried out to God to remember them, to provide for them, and to send them laborers (Mat. 9) to comfort them.

When I had finished praying, I wandered over to the computer to check my e-mail. Lo and behold, I had received an update from the McClungs, missionaries we’d met working in South Africa. Next, I read my daily blogs, and Seth Barnes had posted a powerful youtube video about a Rwandan pastor dealing with AIDS in his community. By this point, I was completely in tears. I miss Africa SO much, and all this just reminded me of my desire to return and work with the people I love so dearly. Since we left Africa to come back to the states, I’ve felt an ache in my soul, a ‘homesickness’, an innate knowledge that I’ve left an irretrievable piece of my heart on that beautiful continent.

Early the very next morning, our telephone rang while we were still in bed. It rang a couple of times, then cut off before I could awaken and make it across the whole house to pick it up (we’re still in the process of moving in – no phone yet in our room). Whoever it was didn’t bother to leave a message. I went back to bed, more than a little grumbly. About ten minutes later, just as I was settling back in to a nice snooze, the phone rang again. I jumped up, determined that I was going to talk to whoever was waking me up!

I was astonished to hear the voice on the other end of the phone… ‘Katherine, how are you? This is Pastor Mike!” It was Mike Igunza, our Kenyan friend calling us from Nairobi! I had e-mailed him our new contact information, but certainly wasn’t expecting a phone call. “I am here with Pastor Levi, Pastor Jackson…” click… the line went dead. Oh no! I’d wanted to talk to them so badly. I waited for them to call back, but no luck. I do have his phone number, but first would have to look up the country code for Kenya, as well as buy some sort of calling card, since we’re not set up for long distance.

I can’t help but wonder if the pastors were calling me with a specific prayer request or need. I can’t help but wonder if the events of the past few days are more than a coincidence. I have no doubt that I will be connected to Africa for the rest of my life, but as for what the next step will be, I am just waiting, and listening, and praying. Lord, when You call me, help me to hear Your voice, and help me to be ready.