Colorado: Day 6

I woke up on Wednesday feeling much better than I had the day before. The group ate breakfast and met to pray and talk about the day. Then Josh, one of the Horizons staff, led us in a Bible study. Honestly, I do not remember a lot of the details of the study, but I do remember that at one point he talked about different cultures of the world. He said that we live in a world that tries to preserve cultures because we think they are good and unique and beautiful. He also presented the idea that sometimes cultures can be unique and beautiful and go against the word of God as well. Just because a culture had historical significance and value does not make it good. He used the American culture as a prime example and then went on to different cultures around the world.

After the Bible study we broke as a group and ate lunch. The food at Horizons was always wonderful and we always enjoyed it to the best of our abilities, sometimes even by going back for seconds.

After lunch, we went up to clean the upper room. Personally, I think it's awesome that they actually have a top floor called the upper room. It was basically the attic and had a lot of random stuff laying around. For the next few hours, we moved cabinets around, trashed old junk, and organized files. After that, the upper room was a little more presentable. After cleaning, we broke off and all did separate things. A few of the guys went to the mountains again, a few of us hung around Horizons and played games or read, and some of us took much needed naps for a few hours.

The guys that went up to the mountains came back with one of their party missing. Riley had decided not to ride back in the van with the guys, but to walk back down the mountain to the Horizons house by himself. We all thought he was insane and were kind of worried about him. But at dinner our prodigal son returned and was received with raucous applause.

That night after dinner, we went to CU to hear another speaker. This particular speaker did not bring a message of peace and tolerance to his audience. He had a reputation of being a very outspoken Muslim leader from the area. His talk was titled "The Glorious Qur'an" but he spent the night pretty much just bashing the Bible and the Christian God, saying that the Bible had many errors and could not be believed. Personally, I like to hear people give their honest opinions about what they believe, but this guy was not simply giving his opinion. He was mocking Christianity and actually laughing off our beliefs as foolishness. A few of us had to leave and go out to the lobby to pray.

After hearing this guy, we stayed for a bit and talked with some of our Muslim friends we had met before making our way back to the Horizons house. We met as a group and talked about how we felt about the speaker. All of us pretty much felt sick to our stomachs at the blatant disregard of respect. It is a hard thing to sit for an hour and a half straight listening to a guy laugh and smirk about how stupid your religion is. It was a hard night. We prayed for a while and went to bed, feeling discouraged and angry.

Tour Guides

I've been reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell recently, and it's been a very inspiring read. He had a few interesting things to say about telling people who don't know Jesus about Him. Here are some quotes.

"Perhaps we ought to replace the word missionary with tour guide, because we cannot show people something we haven't seen."

"So the issue isn't so much taking Jesus to people who don't have him, but going to a place and pointing out to the people there the creative, life-giving God who is already present in their midst."

"Tour guides are people who see depth and texture and connection where others don't. That is why the best teachers are masters of the obvious. They see the same things that we do, but they are aware of so much more. And when they point it out, it changes the way we see everything."

Colorado: Day 5

Tuesday was a bad day for me. While everyone got up, had devotionals and breakfast and met as a group, I was sick in bed. I woke up in the middle of the night shivering and then sweating, and decided not to meet with the group that morning. I got a couple more hours of sleep before I pulled myself up and got around for the day. After a few minutes of sitting in the Horizons house's wonderful couch room, the group came back from meeting and praying. We all sat in the couch room, reading articles about Islam and Christianity before we had lunch. I was drifting to sleep while everyone else was reading, and apparently, Seth was too.

After lunch, the group left to go for a hike in the mountains, led by Jacob and Tom. I decided not to go since I was still sick, and sat in the couch room reading the first chapter of Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis. The group seemed to have a very nice, if exhausting hike. The pictures they took are some of the best of the week. They seemed to have had a good time.

After they came back, most of the group took naps and cleaned up. We met in the lecture room and talked about the speaker that we would be going to later. Then we prayed for God to lead us at the University that night. We had dinner, (I think it was beef brisket that night) and left for CU.

The speaker that night was the mother of the president of the CU Muslim Student Association, or MSA. She referred to herself as a White Anglo-Saxon Muslim. She had attended CU years ago converted to Islam from Christianity. She met her husband at the University and had eight children with him. Much of her talk dealt with how people perceived her and treated her and what it was like being a white, converted Muslim. Her theme echoed the previous night's panel's theme of "we can all get along". It was interesting to hear a full story of a Muslim's conversion, but she was not the greatest of speakers.

Afterward, we met a lot of people and had some very good conversations with them. Jim, Chelsea and I met a man named Ahmed from Egypt. He worked for a television studio in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates running a show called Third Eye. It is a documentary show that has some very intriguing topics. They were filming Islamic Awareness Week for an episode called "Muslims in America". He was a very interesting and nice guy that we kept up with as the week went on.

We trekked back to the Horizons house and met as a group to talk about our experiences and thoughts on that night before praying and heading for bed.

Colorado: Day 4

As per the usual plan, most of us got up at 7:45 for devotional and/or a shower and ate breakfast in the dining room at 8:30. I woke up kind of sick that day and picked away at a muffin, which was delicious. After breakfast, we met as a team and went up to Georges' office. For the next couple of hours, we listened to the story of his life and his testimony. We listened to how he grew up in Lebanon and was raised Greek Orthodox Christian, and how he was kicked out of his school when he started attending a church that taught of a more personal, loving type of Jesus. He told us of how he was involved in gangs for a time and how he came back to Christ. He also told us of his twelve year struggle to translate a new version of the Bible into Arabic. After much political opposition, he was finally able to get it done, and now there are millions of copies of his Bible all over the world. It was very inspiring to listen to Georges talk in the quiet of his office. He is a very gentle, soft spoken man who has gone through a lot in his life, and God has worked in him in very powerful ways.

Afterward, we went into another office and talked about what we would be doing that day. We decided to go to the Islam exhibit at the college and then return later that night to listen to a panel of Islamic students. We prayed for God to be with us that day and for the students that we would encounter.

We walked over to the University of Colorado (CU) and went to the exhibit, which included many posters that informed people about the religion and a movie about the hajj, or journey to Mecca. It was very informative and helped us learn a lot about Islam before we attended the week's events.

After the exhibit, we drove into the foothills above Boulder and climbed up to some large rocks and sat down looking over the city. We each found passages from the Bible to read to each other and explained why we chose the passage and discussed it with each other. It was very insightful and engaging, and we got to learn even more about each other as God was preparing us for the week.

We came back to the Horizons house and ate dinner before leaving for the college again. The panel was made up of eight Muslim students, four guys and four girls. Two of the girls were converts to Islam from Christianity, and one was white. It was a good mixture of backgrounds. People submitted their questions and the panel answered them as best as they could. They explained the basics and origin of Islam and the five pillars, and pretty much rehashed everything that was on the posters in that room. The overall theme and message that they seemed to want to get across, however, was that Islam was very accepting of Christianity and Judaism and that there was no reason that we couldn't get along. This, I believe, was said more or less to attract college students to Islam. Any hard questions were answered with hesitation and shallow answers. This panel did not contain the best speakers of that week.

After they were finished, we went around the room talking to different people about their thoughts on what the panel said. There were a lot of different opinions and viewpoints and we got to know a lot of people that night.

We went back to Horizons and talked about what we saw that night and how we felt about the panel and the other people's thoughts. All of us had very interesting conversations with a number of people, some Muslim, some not. All in all, the night was rather sobering. We prayed again for the people we met that night and for the rest of the week. At this point, we were all pretty exhausted from the mountain climbing earlier and went to bed.

Colorado: Day 3

We arrived at our destination, Horizons International, at 6:00am Sunday morning. We found our bedrooms quickly and went to sleep. Three hours later, we were up to go to church. Matt and Riley, who had driven the most the night before, stayed in bed a got a couple more hours of sleep while we went. The name of the church is Indian Peaks Community Church, and is pastored by Georges Houssney, who is also the director of Horizons. He gave an interesting talk about remembering important things that Jesus has done in our lives. He gave the story about the yeast of the Pharisees in Matthew 16, and how the disciples had assumed Jesus was still talking about bread and not of deeper issues.

After church, we went to the store and purchased some food for lunch and for dinner that night. We went back to Horizons and made lunch: Salad and Spaghetti. It was delicious. After lunch, Matt, Justin, Alicia, Chelsea and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had in Colorado (It was in the 50s and 60s all week). So we walked down the street to a local cemetery at the base of a foothill and proceeded to hike up the first few hills. It was a muddy and slippery ordeal and I still have some red mud on my shoes from that day. The hill was pretty steep, and due to the lack of oxygen at that altitude and the fact that I was starting to come down with a cold, I felt like I was going to faint by the time we got to the top of the hill. I spent most of the time up there with my head between my legs and holding on to Chelsea while we posed for pictures. But eventually, I regained my strength and was able to enjoy the fantastic view of Boulder from the hill. You could see the entire city from there, and the mountains stretched as far as you could see to the North and South.

We returned to the Horizons house and met as a group. We went around the circle and took turns telling everyone what God had done in our lives as per Psalm 66:16. It was very interesting to see that God works in everyone's lives in very different and powerful ways.

Afterward, we had dinner (stir fry, again delicious) and chilled for the night. We talked with new friends and played pool and Foosball for a few hours before most of us went to bed. Matt, Riley, Justin, and Jim went rock climbing that night and they seemed to have a lot of fun. Eventually, we all ended up in bed, ready to begin the first real day of the trip.

Colorado: Day 2

I awoke in the church sanctuary on Saturday morning at 7:45, got dressed and had my devotional near the front door. Matt and Justin had left earlier to get the part and help Eric fix the van. Mike, the youth pastor, arrived around 8:30 while we were finishing up our devotions and getting dressed for the day. We sat around the table in the youth room talking about seminary and the differences between working with junior and senior high students. Pastor Greg came in about that time and gave us a $100 gas card, just one more blessing from these wonderful people.

A couple of their Sunday school rooms needed to be painted, and we had just so happened to have brought painting clothes. So we changed into them and put the first coats on three of the rooms. We took a break for lunch and ate Subway that Carol and Joyce had brought the night before. As we ate, we talked about our parents and our varying relationships with them. It was a very good conversation and we got to learn a bit more about each other through it. We finished up our painting and chilled for a few hours before the guys called to say that they were done with the van and it was running. About an hour later, they returned with the van in full working order. Eric didn't ask for any payment for his troubles, but we gave him a gift anyway. It was not nearly enough for what he did for us, but it was the least we could do.

So at 5:00 pm eastern time, we loaded up the van and car and took off for Colorado again, 30 hours after we had arrived at that great town of Genoseo. The sun set only about an hour after we had gotten on the road again, so most of our driving was in the night. But the full moon lit our way down I-80. The highway was open again. We had heard reports that 15 people had died the night before in the terrible road conditions. But today, the roads were fine, save for a few patches of ice. Driving through Iowa, we counted at least one hundred cars that were in the ditch. Most were facing the wrong way, some were sideways, others were completely upside down. Jackknifed semis passed in the darkness, and some just lay on their side by the road like a carcass. It wasn't until we saw these things that we fully realized God's intervention in our trip. If our van hadn't broken down the day before, we could have easily been one of the many that were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

We passed the time by sleeping and talking and playing the alphabet game through the night. Once we got deep enough into Colorado, a slight mist lined the horizon. You couldn't really make the mountains out, but you could tell that they were there. We arrived in Boulder at 6:00 am local time. As soon as we parked in the Horizon's lot, the sun peaked up from the east. We unloaded our stuff and found our beds quickly. Laying down, we were all very grateful for God's protection and provision for His children. I don't think any of us had trouble falling to sleep after that long drive.

I Am Orion

Just a few minutes ago, a dear friend of mine suggested that I take a look at the stars. I decided that this was a fantastic idea, so I put on my jacket and went outside. I stared at the night sky for a few minutes and thought about the past few weeks. When I looked at Orion, hanging there in the south on a quest to slay the bull with his faithful dog behind him, I saw myself.

I saw myself in Orion, reaching for the star, my heart's desire that is ever beyond my reach. And there behind me is the bright star, God, running after me, trying to get my attention. I have my back turned toward Him, focusing completely on what I want so badly.

God's been dealing with me lately. I am understanding my selfishness in putting my desires before Him. Slowly, but surely, I'm starting to learn how to love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.

Colorado: Day 1

At 6:00 am on Friday, after praying over our trip in the frigid morning air, our team left in one van and one car for Boulder, Colorado. Our team consisted of nine members: Allie, Matt, Justin, Kenny, Chelsea, Alicia, Riley, Jim and myself.

The roads were rough starting out. At that hour, it was still dark and cold and ice covered the roads. After the sun came up, however, the roads got a little better and the only major problem for a few hours was the harsh winds tugging on the van.

But then tragedy struck in Illinois. The check engine light came on in the van and the engine started to misfire. Matt decided that we had better find a repair place in a local town. The next exit was for a small town called Atkinson, but unfortunately, the town's only repair shop (on its dead end main street) was full for the day. They instructed us to drive to the next town to the Dodge garage and having no other options, we did.

The garage was located in a slightly larger town called Genoseo, IL. While they diagnosed the van's problem, the nine of us waited in the local Culver's for the next four hours. The staff was great and the people were wonderful there. At one point, in passing, Matt noticed a couple guys sitting at a table reading a book that he had read. Matt struck up a conversation and found that they were the pastor and youth pastor of a local church. He told them our situation and the pastor gave us his card in case we needed anything. a couple hours later, while the nine of us were trying to decide where to go if the car could not be fixed, a couple of ladies named Carol and Joyce overheard our problem. Carol was a retired social worker and invited us to stay at her house if we needed a place to sleep that night. She was deeply concerned about our welfare and had heard that the weather was so bad that they had actually closed I-80 past Des Moines.

We prayed for the trip and read Isaiah 33 and found some striking similarities to our plight in the chapter. There were also a lot of things that had nothing to do with our situation, but that's not as fun to talk about. Just as we were finishing up, we got the call from to garage. They estimated about $700 to fix the van. Since we did not have this kind of money, we decided to keep driving the van to Riley's grandparent's house and see if we could get it fixed there somehow. After driving just ten miles, however, the van started stalling out on the highway. So we turned around and headed back for Genoseo. We called the Pastor from Culver's and made our way to his church. We also got a severe scolding from Carol when we called her and told her what had happened.

We pulled into Geneseo Evangelical Free Church and sat in the lobby for a few minutes. It turns out that Pastor Greg was just about to meet with a guy that could fix our van. I believe his name was Eric. The church was gracious enough to invite us to stay the night in their building while we got the van fixed. We set up our headquarters in the youth group facility in their basement and met the Youth Pastor, Mike. We had some very stimulating conversations with him and enjoyed a rousing game of Settlers of Catan, which I am now addicted to.

Many people came by with food for us, and word kept going around about the highways being closed and horrible traffic accidents ahead of us. Outside, the wind was blowing so hard that the snow was falling almost completely horizontal. We called Carol and told her that we were safe and staying at the church and she and Joyce arrived a few hours later with enough food to feed us for a few days. They brought McDonald's and Subway, as well as packs of milk and cookies and all kinds of snacks. This was after some nice women from the church brought us sloppy joes and scotcheroos. We thanked them many times for their graciousness and thoroughly enjoyed their blessing.

We found out that Eric would be able to help us get the part and fix the van for only a couple hundred dollars. We would be on our way again the next day. We came together and shared with each other of God's great provision for us in our distress. We also went back to Isaiah 33 and found more similarities to our situation.

After praying for God to bless all those wonderful people of Genoseo that helped us in our time of need, we put our couches and sleeping bags together and went to bed in a place we never would have dreamed we'd be that night.

Back From Colorado

...And I'm back. This last week has been a very interesting one, and I plan on giving a day to day overview on what happened over the course of our trip to Boulder. I just need to say that the team that God picked out was a good one. My favorite part of mission trips are the bonds that grow between the team members as the trip progresses.

Off to Colorado

I'm off to Colorado, people. I'm going with a campus church group called The Gathering to Colorado University. Next week is Muslim Awareness Week, and we're going to meet with international students there in Boulder. It should be a very good experience. I look forward to relaxing over spring break and enjoying my time near those beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Jacob VII: Day and Night

Gen. 32-33

Daybreak. Jacob stood looking out toward the horizon. The morning sun had risen from the east and was casting long shadows onto the field before him. This is the day, he thought. He was about to make his second confrontation of the day. This is the day I die.

The night before, he had sent his family past the river and went by himself to sleep at the foot of a poplar tree. He sat thinking about his life, his family, his actions. He sat there quietly by himself while tears slowly ran down his face. What have I done? I knew that I wouldn't get away with it. He's going to kill me. I deserve it. I deserve to die.

Day. I deserve to die, he thought as he gazed across the field. A wind came over it and the lentils danced in its tumult, frolicking without a care in the world. Jacob knelt down and grabbed a pinch of dirt between his fingers and brought it close to his nose. He smelled the earth and then let the wind take it all, returning it back to its place. Again, he turned his gaze to the horizon. He'll be here soon. My brother is coming to kill me.

Night. A snapping branch awoke him. Jacob jumped up from beneath the tree and slowly walked around to investigate. Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his neck from behind. "What is your name?" the man demanded. Jacob kicked the back of the man's ankle and was let loose from his grasp.
"Who are you?" Jacob asked, "Did Esau send you?"
"Your brother is not my business tonight. Tonight, you are what I come for. Now, tell me who you are."
Jacob bent down and ran at him at full speed, ramming his chest and taking him to the ground. The man rolled over onto Jacob, pinning him down. Jacob forced him upward with all his might and kicked him in the gut, causing the man to cry out and fall backward. Jacob tried to stand, but he grabbed his leg and brought him back to the ground again. As he fell, he shifted his weight so that his elbow came down on the man. Jacob lay on top of him, his arm pinning him down by the neck. He looked directly into his eyes.
"Tonight," he said, "You're going to tell me who I am."

Day. The sun was higher now. A messenger ran across the field and met Jacob. "Esau and his men are just beyond the mount, sir. He should be in sight any minute now."
"Thank you. Go and tend to my family." The man ran past him. He continued to stare at the horizon, willing his brother to appear. I sent him gifts, he thought. I gave him a peace offering, but that was not enough. I took his life, and now he will take mine.

Night. They wrestled for hours as the stars spun above them in their eternal symphony of light, rolling back and forth, exchanging power again and again. They rolled back toward the tree. Jacob's head hit a root and there was a flash of blackness before he came back into dizzying consciousness. "Ble.. m..," He whimpered, barely getting the words out.
"What was that?" the man said.
Jacob wrenched his arm from the man's grip and lunged at his throat, only to grab at the air as he repeated his demand, "Bless…me."
The man's fist came down on Jacob's temple, sending him back into blackness.

Day. A blurred line broke from the horizon and began to take form. Four hundred men marched toward Jacob, his brother at the head of the van. Jacob attempted to stand straight, but an overwhelming heaviness seemed to overtake him. He hunched while his stomach turned sour. It is almost time.

Night. Still recovering from the blackness Jacob spun his way out of the man’s grip. Jacob was free just long enough to stand and kick him in the ribs. The man cried out and suddenly sat up, pain covering his face. He climbed up his leg, touched his hip, and Jacob went down. White spots flashed in front of his eyes as pain slid up his side. He cried out in agony.
The man spoke, breathing laboriously, "Let me go, the dawn is breaking."
Jacob stared into the man's tired eyes. His grimace of pain turned into one of determination, "I will not let you go until you bless me," he said. The man sat there, staring into his eyes. "Bless me!" Jacob rasped.
"What is your name?"
"Bless me!"
"Tell me your name!"
Jacob fell back and lay down, staring up at the purple early morning sky and sighed a sigh of surrender. "Jacob," he said, "My name is Jacob."

Day. As Jacob stood there, watching his brother’s army approach, he thought back upon his life. I was always running, he thought. Just once, I wanted to rest. Just once, I wanted to relax. He had never been happy to simply be himself. He had always wanted more. Twenty years ago, he stole Esau's inheritance. Jacob took everything of his brother's and made it his own. Then he fled his brother's wrath and went into the service of another man that he could deceive over and over. That was who Jacob was: a deceiver. It was a title that was placed in his very name from birth. I just wanted to know who I was.
He walked forward, bowing down to the approaching men as he went. Jacob winced with every step on his right leg. His brother's men stopped marching, and a single figure ran toward him. He's coming for me. Esau will kill me himself.

Night. The man stood, clutching his side, breathing heavily. "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed."
Jacob tried to stand, but his leg gave out on him and he stumbled to one knee.
"Please tell me your name," he said.
"Why is it that you ask my name?"
Jacob hung his head. He knew whom it was that he had wrestled with. The man gently touched Jacob's chin and lifted his face toward him. There, on the very ground of their struggle, He blessed him.

Day. Esau ran at Jacob. Faster. Faster. Jacob stood as tall as he could with all the weight of his guilt on his shoulders and faced his death. Esau ran to Jacob. Each step made Jacob's heart pound harder. They met. Esau wrapped his arms around his brother's neck and cried as he fell on him. Stunned, Jacob returned the embrace. Esau kissed his brother and then looked behind him. He stared into his eyes. "Who are these with you?"
Jacob coughed to remain composed as tears began to form in his eyes. "These are my family." Tears of joy streamed down Esau's face and he fell onto Jacob once more. Jacob began to cry as he held his brother in a tight embrace. He was forgiven. He had a future.

He was Israel.