Loving God in Uganda

(Mary Kate traveled to Uganda with Global Expeditions)
God worked in so many ways this summer during my time in Uganda (Kampala and Gulu). We partnered with the local church called Makerere Community Church. This church amazed me! The services were 5 ½ hours long, and so on fire for God. The Pastor and various members went with us everywhere we went and became not only our translators but our good friends. Because of the AIDs epidemic in Uganda, one of the ways Makerere Community Church is trying to fight HIV, is through teaching about purity and abstinence. The majority of our ministry revolved around a God-centered abstinence program called “True Love Waits”. Before we left for Uganda, we learned and practiced the program in Texas during a few days of intense training. In Kampala and in Gulu, we presented the program at many secondary schools. I was amazed at how easily some of the girls opened up. They asked all sorts of questions about relationships, anger management, parents, friends, faith and so many other topics. There were times when I had no idea how to answer, but God gave me words of encouragement that these girls appreciated.

At one school we presented the program and our leader shared the Gospel. The girl who was sitting next to me said that she wanted to accept Christ. After the presentation, I was able to talk to her and pray with her. She is 17 years old and like many people in Gulu, she was affected by the war in Uganda. She had friends who were abducted by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). I was able to give her a Bible and welcome her into the Family of God. She is now my sister in Christ and the smile that lit up her face when I told her that was priceless!! I gave her my email address and hopefully I’ll be able to hear from her again sometime soon.

We also went to an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp in Gulu. It is a camp for war refugees. While some people were starting to return to their home village, many people were still in this camp. There were many elderly people. Some of the members of my team and I were able to help an elderly man clear his front yard of rocks and fill in a hole. It was a very unique experience, but very rewarding when the man told us, in his few words of English, that he loved God. Each day presented a new exciting challenge. It was awesome to see God at work!

Great Alumni

In this post I thought I would profile some great alumni that are making a difference in the service and mission world. Many Messiah alums are making a positive difference in their own ways, but these folks are carrying on the particular kind of work I do in this office beyond graduation.

Peter Greer - President of Hope International

Peter graduated with me from Messiah in 1997. After years of international development work in Cambodia, Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of Congo and an MPP from Harvard, he joined HOPE in 2004. HOPE is a Christian faith based non-profit dedicated to alleviating spiritual and physical suffering through microfinance.

Peter is also a co-author with Phil Smith of The Poor Will Be Glad:Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty, to be released in November by Zondervan. He's kind of like Bono in a dress shirt. And he might hate me for writing that.

Melissa Davis - President of Jesus Politik

Melissa graduated from Messiah in 2006. While here she led the International Justice Mission and Invisible Children chapters through the Agape Center. She also worked with several NGOs in Thailand and led stateside service trips for her fellow students through the Agape Center.
"JESUSpolitik works with local missionaries overseas in areas where there is a lot of need, and often, not a lot of resources. We connect them to larger human rights and missions groups that want to reach the same people in the same area and we get the word out about these collaborated projects in America."

Greg and Bethany Glidden - Priority One Ministries

Greg and Bethany graduated from Messiah in Before joining the P1 team, they taught English in China for three years, earned their Master's Degrees in Missions and Intercultural Studies, and taught in a public school.
"Priority 1 Ministries is a Christ-focused, Bible-based, interdenominational short-term missions ministry providing cross-cultural mission trips for Christian youth through adults who have a sincere desire to assist with the greatest "search and rescue" plan in history."

Come back next month to see 3 more service and mission alumni featured!

Mucca Pazza - The Unlikeliest Missionaries

The 15 member punk-rock marching band entered the Student Union in mismatched uniforms with individual loudspeakers strapped to their hats. They marched in front of the stage and then turned to face the audience; playing loudly. In a single broad line, they advanced toward the 70 or so students in attendance, who appeared to not know what to make of this spectacle. When they got to the edge of the "crowd" they didn't stop. They marched. Stepping up onto tables or anything that was in front of them and stomping their way into the audience while tactfully avoiding fingers and toes. Everyone laughed. The performer/audience barrier had been breached.
Being on the "sending" end of the missions experience I am deeply aware that we need missionaries as badly as the people and countries we are sending teams to. Mother Theresa used to speak of the spiritual poverty of the West. Sometimes I see spiritual poverty here at Messiah too. It manifests itself in insecurity and complacency among other things.

Mucca Pazza played at one of Messiah's Wednesday Night "B-Sides" concerts that showcase artists that haven't quite "made it." Its not hard to see why on one level. MP could have a unique appeal. I was at the Union talking with representatives from Food for the Hungry when they marched in. I only stayed for 10-15 minutes, but I was delighted with what I saw and heard. Here's what happened...

Mucca Pazza continued to play (loudly) and to intermittently march around the Union. They were always making music together, but sometimes they were literally together and sometimes members of the band would take off through the crowd on solo missions. One fellow was the "cheer-leader." He wasn't cross-dressing. He just had pom-poms. This guy would get in people's faces, shake his pom-poms, dance, and grin like a maniac. At one point he was standing on top of a wall, by himself, 15 feet up, shaking the pom poms like crazy (I heard about this later, I don't know how he got up there).

At first, 5-10 students moved to the front of the stage and sat down. Other students were texting and twittering away and the Union filled up. So did the area in front of the stage.
People were laughing and smiling.

NOW, you have to understand that at the few "B-Sides" I've been to (the concerts start at 10, so unless I'm on campus for a missions meeting... I'm out) the usual protocol seems to be 5 enthusiastic fans up next to the stage and everyone else hanging back. Their mouths are rigid horizontal lines. Their heads bob slightly in rhythm. It's like everyone is too cool to show that they are enjoying the music. Mucca Pazza blew that apart.

They were so fearless about what they were doing that students seemed to drop their own insecurities. By the end of the show (this is hearsay again) EVERYONE was on the floor in front of the stage, jumping up and down and dancing with enthusiasm. The whole spirit of the thing was positive, communal and free without being rebellious or hedonistic and Mucca Pazza set the tone for that. These crazy people were ROLE MODELS.

Christians need to be as fearless, uninhibited, joyful and encouraging as Mucca Pazza was that night. We need to break down the us-them barrier and involve people in the Christian life, even if they aren't "part of the band."

After they finished their second number, one of the band members got on the mike and said:
"Thank you Messiah College, for inviting us and having us here. We really like you. And thanks for being SO into us!"

I shouted back: "NO! Thank YOU!" and walked out of the building.

Come back any time Mucca Pazza, you were the unlikeliest missionaries, but I was blessed by your coming and by what I saw happen in the student body.

Missional Living Requires Connection

I believe that humans are called to live for others. I believe that connecting to God on a daily basis is part of the whole health of any human being. We are selfish creatures in my experience. Okay, fine. I'm a selfish creature. I need to connect to God to awaken me to the fact that I am not the center of the universe.
Notice how limp Adam's hand is in comparison to God's in Michelangelo's famous painting of the creation of Adam? In the Christian scriptures there is a sense that God is the constant animator of life. Paul, quoting a Greek philosopher, states that in God "we live and move and have our being." But in this, we are relatively passive.

My desire is to try to be a more equal partner with God in God's animation of my life and the working out of God's desires for the world. By "partner," I mean that I would not be working against (passively OR actively) God's purposes, but for them. By "more equal" I mean that maybe instead of a 1,000,000/1 ratio of God's work to my partnership, maybe we could reach a 1,000,000/2 ratio (which would double my personal investment). But achieving this takes "mindfulness;" a conscious attention to God's presence and a discerning of what role I might play in God's will for a situation.

I think the reason that I don't make it a priority to connect to God some days is not a lack of time. Time is there (see below). I think it is because I don't always believe that it will matter, or make a difference for me. This means that I am seeing the connection to God as a self-serving device for my gratification or assistance, rather than the possible benefit that might be passed on to those around me if I am more connected to God. Sometimes, I neglect this connection because I am experiencing what Buddhists have called "monkey-mind." I may WANT to connect to God, but my brain won't stop grabbing at things (that I "need" to do, want to do, or am worried about).

Interestingly, the bathroom is the primary place I go to make a brief connection with God every day. It is really the only place where my children MIGHT respect my privacy and need for quiet. It also has a fan, which creates great white noise.

The following "advice" could make me sound like a "real spiritual person" but I assure you...
Well, lets put it this way... I didn't really do any of the following this morning, and when Beth got up, she looked at me and asked: "Are you mad about something?" One nice thing about being alive is that there is always another day to get some small thing right - like in Groundhog Day.

Before kids, I had a pretty rigorous "spiritual" regimen, that sometimes resulted in my falling asleep face-down on my Bible. These days, my connection with God usually amounts to 4 things.
In the morning:
1. Try to be aware of God's presence. This often involves willing myself to belief that God is truly everywhere, no less in my bathroom than in my favorite church or on my favorite hiking trail. It involves rejecting an impulse to look upward for God or to direct my thoughts in some direction.

2. Submit my day. I say something like: "God, take my life today to use as you will. Free me from bondage to self so that my life will show others your love, your power, and your way of life.
Give me wisdom and insight to know you, sense your presence and do your will."

3. Read something thoughtful and think about it. For me this means scripture or something related to scripture.

At night:
4. Thank God for the day and recite either the 23rd Psalm, the Lord's Prayer or something else I have committed to memory, until I fall asleep.

You could also build other connection points into your day. I'm hoping to try a few of these myself:
1. Make it a habit of connecting to God as you go in or out your door. Religious Jews often keep a text of scripture in a small box or mezuzah, that they touch upon entering or leaving. You could buy one or create your own practice. Think to yourself "Let's go!" as a way of reminding yourself that you aren't leaving God at home. Your family members or mates might also appreciate it if you reminded yourself upon arriving at home, that God is still with you all.
Put meaningful statements on your dashboard, refrigerator or bathroom mirror.
Look for things for which to be grateful. The world would be a better place if we recognized that for many of us, it IS a better place than all our complaining would seem to indicate.

2. While you're waiting for anything. Why not just offer up your anxiety or impatience? Some people like the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

3. With friends (and maybe enemies). C.S. Lewis, keeping in mind the idea of being created in the image of God, said, "You will never meet a mere mortal." I certainly experience God through other people, whether they know it or not. When you are with other people, briefly invite God to be present also. God IS present. Inviting God is just a way of reminding us and setting our mind to the "welcoming" position.

4. Taking a breather. Is it possible that the frenetic pace we keep is less productive than a pace that allows us to step back, breathe and say a quick prayer before we continue?

5. Twitter God. Just whatever you might feel like saying. God can handle it. Your friends might not "get it" but who cares? It might be the most interesting twitter all day. If you don't Twitter (I don't) just write whatever you might want to say to God in reply to the most annoying spam email of the day. The point isn't to publicize, and certainly God knows what's going on with us. The point is to be mindful of God by actively directing our thoughts to God at various points in the day.
6. On the drive home. What else are you doing? Minimally, you could say thank you for the music you are enjoying or ask for God's mercy and grace to enter whatever situation you are hearing about on the news.

I hope some of this inspires you to set the bar LOW. You don't need to start some rigorous devotional schedule. Maybe someday you'll want to (and so will I), but it is said that God says:
"When a child of mine comes to me walking, I am already running."

and:
"The Lord knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."

Give yourself, your loved ones and the world a gift today by trying to make some sort of connection to God.