Parallel Universe

Last night we went to a wedding which was a fascinating experience. First of all, I didn't know a single person except my wife - the wedding was with an old elementary school friend of Bea's. Second, it was at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles which is a huge, European style cathedral.

Then the weirdest part was that the wedding was at The Biltmore Hotel. This is a super fancy hotel in the heart of downtown L.A. It was a black-tie reception and the parents of the bride spared no expense. It was lavish with fine food and drinks with an amazing band. It was the most expensive seeming wedding I have ever been to.

I have been to this hotel several times, but for a very different reason. I have been on mission trips to inner-city Los Angeles with the Center for Student Missions about ten or more times. On the first night of the trip you take a prayer tour through the city. Part of the tour takes you through Skid Row and then to show you the contrast, takes you into the Biltmore Hotel.

So there I am in this opulent reception in a place where I have been in the park, Pershing Square, across the street and had a snack with a homeless man and talked about God for over an hour. I have been down the street in MacArthur Park a million times talking with people about Jesus over Mexican pastries. CSM gives downtown LA four categories - Big Bucks, Spend Bucks, No Bucks, and Anything for a Buck. This was my real first time in Big Bucks and although it was very beautiful, it felt sad when we drove by a homeless person to have our car valet parked.

Have you ever been in a situation like this?

Crazy Weekend

So I left on Friday afternoon for our church's Men's Retreat. It was a Wild at Heart theme with a couple people from John Eldredge's team coming to do the speaking - one of which is Bart Hansen who is a member/former elder of our church. It was pretty cool actually. I usually think the Men's Retreat is incredibly boring. The whole million video clip method of teaching definitely keeps you engaged. The big thing I don't understand is why we have to have so many meetings. More fun, less meetings. It's like the clip from Jerry Maguire that we watched. Fewer clients, less money. I say, "More fun, less meetings." Am I going to get fired like Jerry? Probably not. We did play Ultimate Frisbee in about 4 inches of snow on a huge football field. Very tiring, but muy fun.

Some of us drove home on Saturday night because we had church responsibilities. I actually preached both services on Sunday. I like doing the Celebration service. It's about twice as big as our Elevation service, but that's not why I like it. It's has less energy and enthusiasm as our Elevation service, but that's not why I like it. I like it because the people love talking about it after the service. I was talking to these three adorable older ladies after the service who just wanted to chat. It was funny and kinda fun. They loved that I teased our Sr Pastor in my sermon about being a germa-phobe.

Then we had Hume Lake sign-ups and had hundreds of people outside the gym. We had a big "cookout" as my southern friends would call it. We raised about $1,500 for the Kenya trip with the BBQ as us SoCal people call it. Awesome.

I left the house at about 6:30am and got home at 2:45pm and I was on my feet the whole time after being on the Men's Retreat. Needless to say, I am exhausted. It's good to be with my family.

P.S. We leave for Maui next Saturday. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Kenya Frustration

I am supposed to be taking about 30 high school students and staff to Kenya this summer to work with people suffering with AIDS or affected by others suffering with AIDS. Our team and their parents are having our first formal meeting this Sunday, but then the US Government just issued this Travel Advisory. It's pretty serious.

February 06, 2007

This Travel Warning is being issued to remind American citizens to consider carefully the risks of travel to Kenya at this time due to ongoing safety and security concerns. This supersedes the Travel Warning of August 10, 2006.

The Department continues to recommend that private American citizens in Kenya evaluate their personal security situation in light of continuing terrorist threats and increasing incidents of violent crime. Terrorist acts may include suicide operations, bombings, attacks on civil aviation, and attacks on maritime vessels in or near Kenyan ports. Violent criminal attacks, including armed carjacking and home invasions/burglary, can occur at any time and in any location, and are becoming increasingly frequent, brazen, vicious, and often fatal. In January 2007, two family members of a U.S. Embassy employee were killed by armed carjackers. Kenyan authorities have limited capacity to deter and investigate such acts.

U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate and random attacks on civilian targets in public places, including tourist sites and locations where foreigners are known to congregate, as well as commercial operations associated with U.S. or other foreign interests.

American citizens in Kenya should remain vigilant, particularly in public places frequented by foreigners such as clubs, hotels, resorts, upscale shopping centers, restaurants, and places of worship. Americans should also remain vigilant in residential areas, schools, and at outdoor recreational events, and should avoid demonstrations and large crowds.

Americans who travel to or reside in Kenya despite this Travel Warning are encouraged to register through the State Department.

Our Missions Ministry at church doesn't want us to go there and I don't think it's a great idea either, but I'm not sure if I should have more faith or patience. The organization we are going with, Christ's Hope, has ministry sites in other countries such as Namibia and Zimbabwe so we will probably be able to transfer the trip to another site. But this is all a big bummer.

Darfur is Dying

I saw this for the first time on Marko's blog and it is a very cool thing that can help students and yourself and myself be more aware of what is going on in Africa, but specifically Sudan. I plan to use this with my Kenya team - fo sho!

So check it out here - Darfur is Dying.

Understand

My pastor said on Sunday that the Greek word for "understand" means "to know experientially and intimately." Wow, that's really cool. He was preaching on John 3 and the whole story of Nicodemus and Jesus talking about being born again. I guess the word was in there somewhere, but that was the only thing I wrote down.

It made me think that to understand the Kingdom of God and to understand who Jesus really is takes knowing him experientially and knowing him intimately. To be intimate with Christ and to experience him is really what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus.

Then I was listening to this old CD of Shaine Claiborne speaking at Axis at Willow and I was blown away by this guy who just bailed on the USA and went to live in India with Mother Theresa and serving the poor. She told him to go home because there are plenty of marginalized people in America. So he did and he lived with people on the streets of Philadelphia and he still serves them there.

Then I'm watching TV tonight while Bea was typing a final for her students and I start to watch "Ghandi" with Ben Kingsley. I didn't really connect all that stuff, but it's so cool how he serves his people. I'm only an hour into it, but I'm loving the radical message of peace, nonviolence, and firm conviction.

I started to write the whole, "It's kind of sad that other people do this and evangelicals don't line" but that's crap. There are lots of people that do this stuff - evangelicals, Catholics, mainliners, emergents, hindus, muslims, mormons, atheists. Religious groupings aren't the issue. I'm the issue. I'm not doing this stuff. I wanted to hang out with homeless people in Hart Park and work at Juvenile Hall, but both didn't really work out. The juvenile hall thing had reasons, but the Hart Park thing was fear. It freaked me out going down there. I didn't know how to act. I need to do something, but I don't know what. I'm going to Kenya this summer for two weeks to work with people with AIDS, but that's not what I mean. I mean something more regular. It's so freaking hard because I have a pregnant wife and a three year old daughter. They have to be my priority, but I have to do something. Man, this stuff is messier than it seems.

But living that kind of life seems to be what it means to "understand" Jesus. To know Him intimately and experientially.

Africa

I'm super excited because I am going to be leading a trip of High School and College students to Kenya, Africa next August. We are working with Christ's Hope International doing Choose to Wait abstinence training/sharing gospel and ministering to people with AIDS and orphans of people who have died of AIDS. It should be pretty intense. If you have seen The Constant Gardener you have seen the exact slum called Kibera outside of Nairobi that we will be going to. We will also go to a town called Kisimu on Lake Victoria. Then we will do the obligatory two day safari.

I can't wait.