So how do we move past church as a cheap country club membership where we come together to feel good about our “Christian life”? Because even though it may seem like I am totally against church from my last blog, I am not against it. Im actually desperate for it and crave it more than anything. Obviously, since Christ set it up as something we need and have to have. So what does it look like to move past the thing “we are supposed to do”?
(Community-the key to church)
Genuine love. Seems simple, but as I have been realizing the last couple months on the race, genuine love can ONLY come from Christ because I don’t love people very well. Especially people I don’t know. And it’s hard to love people we barely know. Christ has to show us how to love them the best that we can. But I think we can indirectly love every person in the world through another person.
I should probably explain that one. The rule of “6 degrees of separation”. This rule says that everyone in the world is within 6 people of knowing every other person in the world. I am within 6 people from knowing every single person. It’s a stat that’s been studied and shown to be true. Every person is within 6 people of knowing everyone. Crazy, right?!
So how does that tie in to genuinely loving every person indirectly through one person? In my head this is making sense, and I hope it does to you too. But this works when I fulfill my duty to love my neighbor as myself and in return, my neighbor loves their neighbor, and if we do that 6 people away, the whole world is loved. (this is probably the hardest blog ive ever written, because I hate math and am convinced Satan invented it.)
(Funny scene from the show Community-it fits cause im talking about community)
Even though I hate math, I love this option. And it seems to make sense, because the gospel is so relational. Sometimes it works, rarely, but I don’t think we are meant to stand on street corners and pass out tracts. I am passionate about NOT handing out tracts, so I may be biased, but I think God made the Gospel so relational so we don’t have to use things that piss people off more than convert them. Sometimes tracts work, but its purely by the grace of God and I believe work in that individuals life before the tract was put in their hand. But anyway, relational. The Gospel was made to be relational. Its why Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. If all of us who called ourselves Jesus followers would do this the way we are called to, through the 6 degrees of separation, everyone would be loved. You are a neighbor to a person in Asia, and a person in Asia is a neighbor to someone in Africa, even though they may never meet. Crazy to think about right?
Im going to give you an example, not because I think I know it all, but because ive experienced it and its worked. Back home, before the race when I didn’t like church and decided against going a lot, I also decided that if I am not going, I am being. So, my friend Pete and I started this thing we called breakfast club. We invited people over to our house and made breakfast and just sat around talking about life and having a good time. There was, for the most part, not much preaching. No responsive readings, or people asleep in the back row.
There was, however, peoples prayer requests being heard, community coming behind each other. Through breakfast, we learned the needs of people by interacting with them in close quarters and being friends with them. Saved and not saved. We saw people who loved Jesus being encouraged by it, having their needs met and growing closer to Him because of it. I also became friends with more non-Jesus freaks than I ever have in my life. This is because church was a group of people being relational. We moved closer together, and learned how to love people as they are. We had Christians growing closer to Him and to each other through it, and at the same time, we saw non-Christians coming to know Him. There were no separate times for evangelism and discipleship, it was happening all at the same time.
And what’s mind blowing is that somehow, if we take the same love that we shared in that house and each person shares it with their friends, love is shared with the entire world. And if you are married, your outreach expands that much more. Mind blown!
Coming on to the race, I can’t say I was the biggest fan of “church”. Many times, when I said I wasn’t a fan of church, the looks I got were looks of disapproval. How can I guy who wants to be a missionary call himself a missionary if he doesn’t even like church? I don’t know, but I didn’t. But I decided to give it one more chance. I wanted to see if the church around the world was different from the one I saw in the states. I wanted to see if it was the same as what I saw and had come to dislike so much. The answer: no.
Let me begin by saying this isn’t my declaration of hatred for anything, but a desperate plea for a powerful church to do something greater. A yearning for the body of believers to step up and change OUR world wrecked with hurt and disaster.
In a world where women are sold as objects, kids are blinded for punishment, and people live in communities where no one has family because the world around them is tearing apart, we come from a comfortable church known more for its political views on homosexual marriage, entertainment, if we need air conditioning, and what color our next set of chairs is going to be. We worry more about if we fit in and are “doing the right thing”, to be seen as a Christian as opposed to living like one. And let me just say, I’m not hating on people who have money. I love people who have money. It gives hope to a world that looks like it does. Hope that if we act on the love of Christ instead of acting on our political urges, we will be seen for who He is instead of seen for who we are, which as we can see right now, isn’t getting us anywhere fast and the people who need Christ as their Savior even farther in to nowhere, faster than we are going. It’s a harsh reality, but a reality at that.
And in my travels around the world, I have still seen the senseless traditionalism that plagues the church in America here as well. I have seen the influence of our “church” that leaves people bored and lonely passed along to a world desperate to follow after Christ, but instead follow a model that has people running and screaming, “ I don’t feel worthy”. What kind of place is that?
But there is hope. So much hope. There is a church that is moving. A church that depends on the Spirit instead of models that don’t work. A model of being instead of doing. A model where the suggestion isn’t “come to the church because you obviously need help” but “ go to a world that so needs My help.” A model where a missionary I met was too busy being the church to go to church. Where money truly was God’s and gave it away as freely as it was given to him to support his family. A reality that if we thought about it would make most of us upset. Too busy being the church instead of going to church? In our minds it sounds right, but lets be honest, if we saw that in America, we would wonder why they are wandering away from church.
Im reading a book right now by Shane Claiborne, and he says in his book that “there are so many things the church tells us to lay down, but what are we supposed to take up?” A pretty crucial part we are missing, isn’t it? So much of our Christian life is what not to do, that we forget what we are supposed to pick up when we “accept Christ”.
Picking up things like unconditional love and compassion on the wounded around us and around the world. Picking up the call to love the poor and take care of them when they can’t take care of themselves. A call to take action instead of aimlessly sitting in a congregation for the sake of a social club or to be seen as “doing the Christian thing.”
This isn’t a call to get rid of church. It’s a call to see us move past our complacency as a body of believers. It’s a call to finally believe that we are the hands and feet of Him who died for us. A call to see the church as it really is: a place for us to find community, but to move past doctrinal strife and become the part of Him who takes the steps to bring heaven to earth. A call to believe and act as though heaven can be brought to earth, because it can and its what we are called to do. And it’s a call to believe that the hypocrites that make up the church can move past being hypocrites and be moved by grace to seek and to save those who need Him desperately. And, Lord, let me be the first hypocrite to step forward…
It’s almost that time. It’s almost time to get back to the states and get back to “real life”. Coming back to the states, I am not sure I can even begin to tell you what that means. I don’t think I can even try. But as we get ready for what the World Race calls “Re-Entry”, they leave us with a packet to best help us prepare for life back in the States. Its something I haven’t experienced yet, and harder than many people can imagine. Coming off the Race, where you can see so many different things in such a short time, Re-Entry is tough! It can be hard on racers to come back from a life of community and surrender to a place where people crave their independence and strive to get as much stuff as possible. All these situations where we find the Spirit, we now go back to life before the race with only the people who were with us to know what we are looking for and what we need. Its scary, but it can be done. And its what I plan on doing! Coming back to the states, I look to integrate what I have learned here in to my life back home.
(My flight out the day I left for the World Race)
And as I look at the packet given to us by the World Race, one of the questions they ask you is, “What have you seen this year that breaks your heart and you are not okay with?” Well, lets see. There have been the kids in Bolivia who are addicted to huffing glue because it keeps their stomachs full, and since there is no food for them, its their only option. There has been the families who live their lives in a trash dump because that is where they find the best sources of food. So they scrounge all day in the dump, just to look for enough food to get them through the day. And they don’t have any drinking water unless the local church brings it to them.
There are the people in Cambodia who we prayed over for healing, many cases could have been prevented if they only had clean water to drink instead of the nasty swamp water they use to drink, wash clothes and dishes with.
(The woman whose legs were healed)
There are the refugees in Thailand who have been displaced from their homes and lives and even their families. We did a refugee drill at training camp with our teams where they closed off all the exits, turned on war sounds so loud, we had to shout to hear each other. And on top of that, we were all blindfolded. The task: to find your teammates among the 200 people screaming, looking for their own teammates while you are looking for yours, all the while there are sounds of explosions going on everywhere around you. To be honest, at the time, I thought that exercise was completely pointless. I had no idea what they were trying to prove to us. That’s until the men of W squad set foot in the refugee villages of Thailand. These people had that very exercise become their reality. Being chased from their home country of Burma because their “race” wasn’t “equal” to the strong “race”. Bombs and mortars going off around them, they make their way to the border to try to get them and their family across, alive and safe. And they had to have enough clothes or goods to get their whole family across, because they didn’t dare allow only their kids to cross or their wife, because if they did, they would most likely be sold into sex slavery. A life not any more pleasant than their limbs being blown off their bodies or dying. That stupid, pointless drill at training camp became a reality while I sat in the jungles of Thailand. And it broke my heart. And I’m not okay with that.
(The kids from a refugee village in Thailand)
There are the woman in Thailand as well that are kidnapped, drugged and forced in to sex slavery. Told to go out every night and not let a man pass without offering their bodies as a pleasurable service to everyone. To make money for them and their families, it’s the only option they have.
So yes, there are many things that I have seen this year that have broken my heart. Many things that will keep my life from being the same when I go back to the States. Many things in the world that aren’t right and need to be changed. Many places where I have seen the church in hell, trying desperately to bring heaven to earth now. But want to know what I have seen this year that breaks my heart more than most of those things I have this year? …
Almost 24 years to the day, my mother, Susan Kinney, became the greatest mother of all time. Not because I am her son, although that plays a big part, she became the best mother of all time by simply being herself. My mother, which she says she doesnt like being called, but secretly she does, is probably the greatest woman of all time, with my grandmothers following shortly after.
In this video, I say a couple things I love about my mom, but a lot of them got cut out, so I thought I'd share with the entire world what I love about mi madre:
Her laugh
The fact that she got kicked out of Pensacola Christian College( my greatest bragging rights)
Her wonderful cooking and baking skills ( my first job was a professional cake taster, since she is a pro cake maker!)
We share the same favorite color (purple)
Her patience and love for everyone, especially me!
She is the hardest working person I know!
Our talks when I first get home that lasts way past my mom saying she needs to go to bed 4 or 5 times.
Her chocolate chipless cookies.
Im not sure she gave them to me, but I do have webbed toes.
And many many more things!!
About the video, I was highly sick and could barely hold myself up. Im sorry my full self couldnt have been in the video, mother. I love you and hope you enjoy the video. Love you!!!
This month is the next to last month on the race. It also happens to be probably the toughest month of all. We are serving in a small village called Dork Por, Cambodia. Its literally in the middle of nowhere. When we came in to this month, we thought we would be working with Teen Challenge Cambodia, but when we got here, we found out that would not be our ministry.
When we got here, we got settled in to our legit tree house that is our home for the month. We walked up and put our stuff on the floor, because there are no beds. So we set up our sleeping pads under the fan because it is hotter than anything I have ever experienced in my life. Some days it has reached over 110 degrees and the humidity is so high that you sweat all the time. I have workout clothes sitting on the railing still soaked in sweat even after sitting there for a week trying to dry out. That is how hot and humid it is here.
After we settled in our tree house, we sat down with the sweet sweet family we are staying with. One of the sweetest families you will ever meet. They don’t speak any English, so we have a translator named Samuel, who is also one of the best, most quality people you will ever meet. We found out the pastor would like us to build relationships with his community, which suffers from a lot of spiritual warfare and demon possessions. It’s a spiritually heavy month, and almost everyone is physically ill from spiritual battles going on around us.
The spiritual background of Cambodia is not at all in the favor of Christianity. But the Christians you find here are on fire and passionate for His Kingdom. In a culture where Christians are persecuted, you cant fake Christianity. It has to be a deep deep passion, or else you would be crazy to follow it. Buddhism is the biggest and most popular religion here. A religion that believes in reincarnation and working on ridding yourself of any desires to reach the point of Nirvana. Its deeply rooted in the culture and people aren’t too concerned about holes in the theologies. They believe it because all other believe it and because its what has always been taught.
So how do you reach a country where the intellectual side of their religion can be questioned, but it doesn’t phase the people because that doesn’t matter to them? By God showing up and by loving on them. It’s the ONLY way.
And that’s exactly what has happened. So far, we have done a youth conference and taught a pastors seminar, but God and His Spirit have shown up big time in our house visits. We have seen one salvation and 6 or 7 healings in 5 days of ministry! All to the glory of Christ and His Spirit and power! We have prayed victory over any spiritual darkness in the village in Jesus name and that victory has begun in the physical healings we have seen. You cant say its not Christ when He shows up and heals someone! But, greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done here! Pray alongside me as we go out and build relationships with the community here!
***Please read and pass along my other recent blog Finding Lance! Its extremely important!***
One week ago, a friend of mine from back home went missing while on family vacation in Maryland. He was there with his parents, his girlfriend and his daughter. His last known wherabouts was a bar on the boardwalk around 1 AM, 6 days ago. No one has heard or seen him since. Please be in prayer for him. Lets use the World Race community to spread the word and help keep our eyes open for him! Thanks for all the help and prayer!
So this month has been MANistry month. A month where the men of the squad come together and do ministry. Its been an amazing month, one where we have seen so many things most people will never see, and have learned more about ourselves and who Christ is and the role His Spirit plays in our lives.
At the beginning of the month, our contact, Ray, challenged us to “be men”. It was simple put in to words like that, but it goes so much deeper than at first thought. He said a lot of guys don’t grow up to become men, they just stay boys. So what does it look like to become men?
We have had no better contact to show us what that looks like. Ray is one of the most Spirit-lead men I have ever met in my life. And he yearns for it. He seeks out words from the Spirit and is willing to invest every ounce of his energy in hearing from Him so He can then pour it back out.
And that’s the one thing I have learned this month and Easter season. That being a man is one who seeks out the Spirit in everything. But it’s a lot harder than it sounds. It’s a choice you have to make every day, just like any relationship. And its hard to wake up every day and choose to try and hear from the Spirit over your own desires. But that’s what a man does.
As I was reading the story of Christ’s death, it’s a beautiful beautiful story of Christ’s unlimited love and pursuit for us. The reason why people choose to be missionaries. And as Jesus sat there with His disciples, He told them that its better for us for Him to go and be back with His Father in heaven. Im sure this was a shock to His disciples, who loved Him dearly. How could this be better?? That seems absurd.
But Jesus goes on to say in John 17 that not only is His reason for going to give the entire world salvation, which is beautiful enough in and of its self, but also because the release of His Spirit will be better for us and allow us to do even more than He did on earth while he was here. Even more miracles than He did while He was here. More healings, more supernatural ways to bring His Kingdom to the world that He loves so much He gave His Son AND His Spirit for.
So as we remember Christ’s death and resurrection this Easter, remember not only that, but that when He left, He gave us a Spirit to do even mightier works. And all we have to do is seek out and pray for that Spirit to be released upon us to change the world around us. People are begging for it and people are yearning for Him. We cannot neglect the power His Spirit can have through us if we only believe in His power and ask for Him to work through us. It build up His body and those outside the body. Remember that this beautiful day Christ defeated death and began a greater work in us.
It’s a massacre. The longest civil war in history still going on today. 60 years. The murder of those whom the military don’t see as worth the same as themselves. And we don’t know anything about it back home, because we have no political interest here. It’s a sad sad story.
Its whats been going on in Burma for the last 60 years. This may sound silly, but if anyone has seen the newest Rambo movie(its graphic, but I recommend everyone watch it), it was based on realistic events of whats going on, and it was based in the city we are doing ministry in this month. The government army has been killing people of mixed race and people who live in villages that have resources they want. They abuse and rape women, literally rip the guts out of the men of the village and just leave them to die. Its horrific and heart shattering.
This month, the men of W squad are all doing ministry together while the women are loving and seeking out women who have been sold in to sex trafficking. Please pray for the women and the men the girls of W squad come in contact with, because it’s a dark and disgusting world. Also be praying for the women. And please, also be praying for us as we are ministering to the refugees of Burma who have fled from the country to escape being tortured and killed. We have worked with a safe home for kids who have escaped the country or have been bought by the ministry from their parents. We went to a refugee village yesterday that stretched for miles and miles. Miles and miles of small bamboo shacks where families live while their names are put in to a lottery for hopes of being able to be placed and start life all over again.
It has been a tough month of seeing hard things. But there is hope. And honestly, it sounds cliché, but Jesus Christ really is THE ONLY hope for these people. They literally have nothing and are being hunted. But the Spirit is starting to move here, and the men of W squad are here for a very specific reason.
For the first time in a very long time, there has been a cease fire. There is only one way this could have happened, and that is Christ starting to move in this place. And we are here at a very important time to see these things continue and to bring the Spirit here to continue to change the lives of these people. We are here during a time of change for this country. On Sunday, the Burmese people will be voting on a new leader who hopes to bring democracy to the people of Burma. If this happens, it is a huge step towards the genocide that’s been happening for over 60 years in this country. If this leader gets elected, its hope, peace, and evidence of the Spirit moving in this country that has been held captive by darkness for so long.
So here is my encouragement, and my plea. Pray for strength for us men, and pray pray PRAY with passion and yearning for the election this Sunday. Join us in prayer that Burma will move on step closer to peace. One step closer to not having to walk down the streets of Thailand and see displaced people cursed with persecution and brokenness. I have seen these faces and have felt a small fraction of their pain. And these people need and want Jesus and peace. So please, I beg you, from now until Sunday, pray for this election, pray for the people, and pray for the killing to stop and Christ be brought to this country.
Just so everyone knows, in case you were wondering, we are still alive and well here in Swaziland. We have no real internet access this month, so communication with the outside world is scarce. But I thought I would quickly update everyone on where we are and what we are up to. This month, Team I-61 is paired with two other teams to work at the El Shaddai orphanage in the beautiful mountains of the Kingdom of Swaziland. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and Im not just talking about the landscape. The kids here are beautiful and full of joy.
We are working in the pre-school, the baby house, the grade school, and doing some construction during our month here. We have been here two weeks already, and before you know it, we will be in our last three months of the race. Here are some pictures of this month so far.
To be honest, this month has been pretty dry for me Spiritually in what I am learning. After a month of Father teaching me things left and right, its weird to be in a month where the learning is slow and the silence is deafening. In times like these, I am curious as to what Father is trying to say and looking for something to learn in every little corner. And I realized today that what I am supposed to be learning this month is to realize when ministry gets in the way of Father. Being a ministry major at college, times like these were always talked about, but I never had a real picture of what that looked like. When ministry becomes so much of a priority, you lose focus on resting and being with Father. So today, I took the entire day off for the first time in a while solely to focus on Father and listen for His voice during the day.
And it didn’t take long before I heard Him speak, and realized rest in Him is a time of learning and is more important than ministry. A lot of times on the race, we get so lost in ministry that we forget one of the main purposes of this trip is OUR relationship with Father as much as the people we come in contact with. If we are not focusing on hearing from Father in our own lives, it makes it hard to keep speaking it to those we come in contact with.
As I sat down this morning and read and really listened to what Father wanted me to hear, this is what He said. He gave me a list of things to always remember and focus on first thing every day. To pray these things and remember them:
1. I am proud of you for living another day for My Kingdom. Your effort to wake up and devote to Me communicates your willingness and love for Me. Before you have even done anything, your mindset makes Me proud.
2. Acknowledge your worldly nothingness to Me. In this acknowledgement, you are saying that your sin and imperfections are not greater than My love and forgiveness. In your nothingness, you see My everything perfected in your life.
3. Acknowledge your heavenly place in My Kingdom I made for you through your surrender and My Grace. Being confident in your Heavenly place is the only place worth being confident in.
4. ALL hope and faith only come through Me, and no one else. EVER! You have hopes and dreams of love, perfection, grace, and all other things, and putting that hope in Me is the only chance of those things coming true.
5. Compassion and love are My character. No matter what, My Love is ALWAYS bigger. No question.
They may seem simple, but the fact that we take time each and every day to remember what Christ says about His children is key. Without remembering those promises, our life has no hope.
