Fear and Loathing in Piedras Negras

For those of you wondering, our mission trip went well, and here is the piece I wrote about it for the newsletter:

On March 7 a small team of five left San Antonio, TX and headed to Piedras Negras, Mexico. It was a short two and a half hour drive, but to hear the media talk about it, our team was risking life and limb to enter a battle zone. Mexico had been captured by drug lords and corrupt cops, and was allegedly on the brink of civil war. You can imagine our shock when we were greeted with a warm smile and bear hug by a Danny Devito-esque Mexican priest, Padre Miguel.
Padre Miguel is the priest of El Buen Pastor, a congregation that has grown exponentially and considers its mission to be very simple: tell people about Jesus and help whoever you can. This church stood in stark contrast to everything we had been prepared to encounter in Mexico. Where we were expecting to see pain, suffering and death, we instead encountered hugs, smiles and vibrant life. The whole time we kept thinking, these people live where we are afraid to go.
Our team spent four days in Piedras Negras building relationships in the church and digging a ditch that will be used to lay the foundation for an addition to the church. This addition will be used as a computer lab/ sewing center and will give El Buen Pastor even more ways to serve its city. We saw the living conditions of many of the poor, the dirt floors, the crate walls, no heat, and no water. Even these poor welcomed us, and rather than being angry or dejected they were hopeful that perhaps these American Christians could help.
Maybe we can help. That question has haunted me since we returned to San Antonio. Maybe we can help. We should be able too. We have the means, the talent and the energy. But we are also gripped by fear. Unlike past years, the overwhelming response to this trip, was, “Don’t go, its too dangerous.” We took the media descriptions of violence to be gospel truth. We took general government warnings to be specific calls on our life. Maybe we can help. Maybe, but it is going to take trusting Jesus more than our local news anchor, and loving our neighbors more than we love our own safety. Maybe we can help. Our team prays that we can.

Oooooo...Mexico

Update on Jaurez

Here is just a quick update on the Weight Off for Jaurez Campaign. So far the response has been really positive. I have about 11 people, so far who, are participating with me, and three sponsors. Plus, many of those 11 are seeking out sponsors, and one of the participants is giving up smoking, which seems like a good idea to me. As this moves forward, I have started another blog for more updates, and as a place for other participants to keep us all posted, an that site is: wo4j.blogspot.com
Not much there yet, but we should be adding more as we get closer.

Weight Off for Juarez

As most of you know, this last Spring I was in the hospital a bit and diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. While this sounds like lots of fun, I assure you that it in fact is not. Almost as much fun as colitis is the initial treatment for it which is a strong dose of prednisone. Besides the rash of pimples, fits of rage and lack of sleep, prednisone also has the fun side effects of bloating and weight gain. All of this to say that at my appointment at the end of August I weighed in at a whopping 229 pounds, which puts me conservatively at between 60-80 pounds overweight. To be fair to fine makers of prednisone, I was well on my way to this problem anyway, as I had managed to put on about 50 pounds of non-muscle since I was married 8 1/2 years ago, but the rapid wieght gain (30 pounds) over the summer has been enough to spur me to action.
If you know me at all, you will also know that losing weight just for the sake of losing weight makes sick to my stomach (and not in the helpful losing weight way). I am convinced that our host culture has made an idol out of body appearance and "health" to a point where "health" is now almost undefinable apart from the icon of the six-pack abs and worshiping at the gym. Here's some really interesting (and already outdated) data on consumerism and weight loss:
Taken from the Margo Maine book, Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies,
"The dieting Body Wars are great for the economy, as the majority of discontented dieters repeatedly invest their resources in shedding pounds. Figures from the late 1990’s showed that Americans spent $50 billion annually on diet products. This exceeds the projections for the entire federal Education, Training, Employment and Social Services budgets by five to ten billion dollars. In fact, this figure is the equivalent of the gross national product of Ireland. The price per pound lost is enormous, with one study of Optifast dieters reporting the cost to be $180 per pound."
Here then is the rub, the call of Christ on my life will not allow me (I believe) to be one of those people who is so obsessed with food, exercise, etc... that they can not help be overly self centered. This sounds a bit harsh, I know, but there it is. The flip side, of course, is that the call of Christ on my life means I must not be so lazy and ignorant of health that I become equally selfish in my poor eating choices (insert fair trade arguments against fast food here, more on this piece in a later blog).
So then, how can I put these pieces together, recognizing a base level call to take better care of the gifts Gd has given me, without becoming so myopic that I believe my body to be not the temple of God (in conjunction with the rest of the Church by the way) but simply my temple. The answer for me is two-fold: 1. Stop making excuses for being unhealthy. Done. 2. Make health less individualistic. This is where all of you, and hopefully more, come in. As an attempt to connect my own health, to my family, to my own Christian community and to the Church in the world, I have created "Weight Off for Jaurez".


This is essentially a fund raising program for the next six months, with the goal of raising money for our mission trip this spring to build a house (or perhaps 2) in Jaurrez, Mexico for a some needy families. There are several ways you can participate in WO4J:
1. Pray. Covenant to pray for me as I attempt to strike this balance and try to lose this weight. Pray for my family as they have to live with me while I attempt to lose the weight, and pray for my church as they participate with me. Also pray for Jaurez, Gateway Mission Training Center, and the families who need these houses.
2. Pledge. Pray about donating money for every pound I lose. My goal is to lose between 30-50 pounds before March 1, and every little bit helps. This works like a walk-a-thon, and I will keep you posted throughout the next six months.
3. Participate. This is an option some members of our church are picking up. If you have extra weight you wanted to get rid of anyway, use this as a chance for accountability and to do something bigger than just lose weight. Also, I know that many of you do not need to lose weight, or already participate in healthy practices, and for those of you in this boat I commend you, and ask that you think about ways of participating. Ask for donations for the number of miles you walk, or bike, or run between now and March 1. One interesting number is that it is 560 miles from our church to Jaurez, so some of you may be able to "Walk to Jaurez" before March. Either way, keep up the good work.

A great comic strip

This is from one of my favorite strips, and this is a pretty good one. I wonder if this is how most books on youth ministry get written. Have fun:

In the books

Mark the 30 Hour Famine down as completed. The fast and the lock-in went very well, we had a blast with The 71's and were challenged by the Scriptures to respond to poverty and hunger. On Sunday we will collect on the pledges, hand in our money and thus will conclude the Famine. My real hope though is that this does not end this weekend, but that the practice of fasting, and the sharing together of teaching and lives will spur on our youth to further growth and faithful living. My prayer is that through this weekend, our youth come to God better and are challenged to take their faith seriously. I think for some of them that happened and continues to happen. One of the great joys for me this week was watching our church respond with an outpouring of prayer for our youth and for this event. A very ecclectic group of prayer partners joined together and held up this event before God, and I am incredibly encouraged and thankful for their prayers.
As the famine drew to a close, Nicholle Franke, challenged the youth to put into practice what they have heard, and gave them a sort of quiz on the different things they had heard from our talks throughout the night. Our youth responded with flying colors, I felt as though they were really beginning to grasp the significant challenge of the gospel. May God continue to work, and continue to draw us to himself. Many thanks to the prayer partners, and the leaders, particularly Kate Spencer and Diane Walding who modeled a servant love and were a huge blessing. Please continue in prayer.

Halfway home! My stomach is officially grumbling about this fast now. As I was reading through the story of Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, one phrase jumped out at me this time, from Matthew 4:2, "he [Jesus] was hungry." For those of you fasting right now, Jesus knows exactly how you feel, and so do the rest of us. Stick it out. Continue in prayer, and ask for strength. A prayer:

God of the hungry, Shelter of the homeless, we are in need of your mercy. We ask your blessing on children everywhere who are in danger today. Bless all who are hungry and homeless, all who suffer from injustice. Provide them with the food they need; shelter them in the warmth of your love, and safeguard them from the evil that rages around them. Turn our eyes and hearts to their needs. Give us courage to act for their good. We ask this, relying on your compassion and confident of your love. Amen.

8 Hours In!

The fastest eight hours of our famine have come and gone. As we turn now torwards one of the harder stretches I wanted to share with you some prayer requests and some verses to be thinking about and praying through. First, a passage all about food, fasting and holiness (I have highlighted a few points:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Now for the prayers:

be praying

• for The 71s, the awesome band who is coming to lead us tonigh, the concert starts at nine, but they will be getting here sometime after five.
• for set up of the church today, that we could have everything ready for tonight (more on this later in the day).
• for all the youth participating in the fast, that their righteousness might be seen in Heaven, and that God would provide them the daily bread they need today in a form they are not used to.
• for all the hungry in the world
• for Jenny Mason, our missionary to Gautemala who is preparing herself to be a faithful minister to poor and hungry there.
• for God to do amazing things in the lives of our young people today and tonight.
  

Last pre-30 Hour Famine Post

With one hour left and a wonderful feast behind us (thank you to the Woody's for hosting) it is time for sleep.

Father, we pray for those who go to bed hungry tonight, and awaken hungry with no hope of being satisfied. We pray as we hunger tommorrow in solidarity, that you might provide us strength and remind us that we do not live on bread alone, but on your very words. Let us hunger and thirst for rigteousness as we hunger for food tommorrow. Amen.

30 Hour Famine: T-Minus 9 Hours

We are getting close. I am about to head home, play some football, take a nap, and then off to prepare for the pre-famine feast of pancakes, sausage and bacon. Some of the sound equipment has already arrived, my talk is almost ready to go, and all the details are settling in. Continue to pray for the hearts of the youth who are participating, that God would work in amazing ways through out this fast.

Isaiah 58:3-12

‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fightand to hit with a wicked fist.Fasting like yours this daywill not make your voice to be heard on high.5 Is such the fast that I choose,a day for a person to humble himself?Is it to bow down his head like a reed,and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?Will you call this a fast,and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:to loose the bonds of wickedness,to undo the straps of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free,and to break every yoke?7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungryand bring the homeless poor into your house;when you see the naked, to cover him,and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,and your healing shall spring up speedily;your righteousness shall go before you;the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’If you take away the yoke from your midst,the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,10 if you pour yourself out for the hungryand satisfy the desire of the afflicted,then shall your light rise in the darknessand your gloom be as the noonday.11 And the Lord will guide you continuallyand satisfy your desire in scorched placesand make your bones strong;and you shall be like a watered garden,like a spring of water,whose waters do not fail.12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;you shall be called the repairer of the breach,the restorer of streets to dwell in.

30 Hour Famine Countdown T- Minus 17 Hours

We are now only seventeen hours from our 30 Hour Famine, and I am getting excited. The list of things to put finishing touches on continues to slowly dwindle, and today and tommorrow that list should completely disappear. Three parts meetings, one part talk for 30 Hour Famine, one part big feast pre-Famine and hopefully two parts rest and family time, and you have my recipe for the day.

For those of you who don't know, our youth group is doing a 30 Hour Famine, and is raising money for a missionary I went to High School with named Jenny Mason. She is going to be doing some amazing work in Gautemala, helping to grow a variety of food, and embody the love of Jesus in a small town there. Check back in throughout the day, today and tommorrow, for updates and prayer requests.

be praying

• For the youth participating
• For my talk on justice and fasting
• For my health, to shake this cold
• For the hungry in the world
  

One of those days

I woke up with a headache that made me want to hollow out my brain like a watermelon in hopes of removing the pain. The day continued to be one of those days where you just never feel comfortable in your own body. On top of this surreal feeling, spiritual I just felt assaulted and irrelevant. Not irrelevant in the "I am too old and don't understand culture" sort of way but in the God is going to judge his church, and almost everything I do has no eternal significance sort of way. This sense was only heightened by our city wide youth meeting where we discussed programs and visions of Jesus. We closed with the speaker pointing out that it may be more virtuous not to see Jesus clearly, but to just have a sense of him as we get older and accumulate stuff (not his exact words, but a fairly accurate summary). So rather than lament a loss of vision and lead us to confession and the creeds (which gives us language through which we can see the world) we sort of merrily joked our way through the Eucharist. Father forgive me.
The evening ended on a far better note, as God gave Abby and I a glimpse of his kingdom through a group of young Catholics who live together and attempt to love their neighbors. Blessings on the house on Bradford Street. My prayer I suppose is that in the youth I work with God might draw them to himself in such a way that they can not even imagine living lives that do not lament the loss of vision, but rather live in a community where they intentionally listen to God in the voice of their neighbors always.
As always, pray for peace.

Encouraging

As I have been reading and praying in the last month or so I can not seem to shake my calling as a Christian to care for the poor and the hungry. Normally I can be challenged by it, and then simply move on a couple of days later. It seems however that the Revised Common Lectionary is conspiring against as it continually places Jesus' most difficult (for me anyway) teachings on poverty as the gospel lessons for Sundays. On top of this, yesterday was World Hunger Sunday and I was again challenged by food habits and choices. The problem for me is not apathy, but rather inaction. Last night as a youth group we re-read the gospel lessons from the last month and I asked the kids to draw som insights and themes. Much to my surprise they were incredibly perceptive and challenging. One of the clear observations from a sixth grader was, "Following Jesus means following him with your whole life." May it be so.

Truths I tell myself

Now for my first fairly controversial, and dare I say it vulnerable post. About two and a half years ago, I sat down in a McDonalds after a long day of driving and job hunting and tried to figure out two things; what do I really believe? and what am I really called to do in relation to what I hold most true? The following is what I came up with. I go back to this from time to time, and I thought this may be a good place to begin some discussions:

Things I know to be true:

God is real. He not only exists, but He creates existence and intervenes in history on His behalf.

When God breaks time and reveals Himself, He does so through His word

The word of God is Jesus Christ

The Bible is the Word of God when God chooses to transform it into Jesus

Jesus is the norm for all Christian, faithful action

The Gospel is that Jesus Christ has acted on behalf of the world which could not act rightly nor adequately on its own behalf

Jesus' action comes in the counter-cultural, subversive form of cross and resurrection

The Church has been called to practice, model and proclaim the Jesus of cross and resurrection

The Church practices cross and resurrection in the sacraments of baptism and communion

The Church models cross and resurrection by being an alternative community committed to caring for a world that is incapable of caring for itself

The Church proclaims cross and resurrection in the life of its members particularly in the areas of marriage, singleness and economic faithfulness

Economic faithfulness is primarily concerned with the ways in which Christians make and spend money

Naming a vocation:

My call is to serve the Church as a reminder of her calling as already laid out

This call may best be accomplished by reminding the Church of whom she has been and proclaiming God's vision for who she may be, and can not be done in isolation.

To fulfill my call I must be of sound mind, fit body, and pure heart

To be of sound mind I am committed to continual study and the discipline and rigor of consistent thought

To be of fit body I am committed to marital purity and excellence

I am committed to exercising physical habits (such as running, eating, gardening) that remind that me that I am a creature

To be of pure heart I committed to rejecting the lies of my nature and culture

I am committed to fostering healthy relationships

I am committed to fathering children in such a way that they learn the truth intentionally

Peace is better than violence but some peace is violence

Patience and perseverance are virtues that must shaped by cross and resurrection as opposed to goal orientation

I am not a business man. I am not a comedian. I am not a writer. I am a devoted follower of Christ with glaring deficiencies and a clear calling

My deficiencies include but are not limited to selfishness, lust, pride, greed and laziness

3-23-04