It Takes A Church...

The Best Investment Possible

Back before we even had kids, we had a friend who told us that she and her husband made a commitment to homeschool their children for one year when each child reached the 6th grade.  She told us about the advantages of having your pre-teen so bonded and connected to you as parents before they entered the teenage years, and of the creativity and fun you can have because the curriculum never really fills a whole day of work.  She warned us that it would be quite an investment of time and resources, but assured us that it would be worth it.

Beth and I decided then and there that when we had a family, we would do the same.  Later as our kids got closer to the sixth grade we also decided that during the year, each of our two kids would go on a mission trip with one of us, as well as take another educational trip with the other parent. It has been an investment indeed.

Beth put her career as marriage and family therapist on hold to be able to teach them.  We rearranged our lives and saved our pennies for the trips we would take (especially this year with the economy such as it is.) 

But the connection and time and experiences we have had with our kids are already demonstrating the immeasurable value of this commitment. 

When our son Brooks was in the 6th grade (he is now a sophomore), he saw the American historical sites of the east coast with his mother and then went to Malawi with me on the "set-up" trip for the whole Y-Malawi ministry.  Those who have followed this blog for awhile might remember the series of posts that I wrote about the experience and how it changed both my and my son's life.  When he returned to public school the following year, he arranged the first student-led Bible study at the Junior High and has been a leader in our youth group.  Tuesday he joined a bunch of our church members and kids to feed Thanksgiving dinner to a Marine Regiment.  If you see his Facebook page, you'll know that he loves Jesus, he is a "friend" of the Senior VP of World Vision, and has a passion for seeing the world "put to rights" as only God can do. 

Now our daughter, Ali is in the 6th grade and recently returned from a trip to South Africa to visit Acres of Love (a ministry that provides homes for children orphaned by AIDS), with a stop in Paris on the way to see some art and history. And once again, we have witnessed an amazing burst of growth in compassion, perspective and sensitivity in our child.  She was guided and mentored by a young woman who grew up in our church and now works with Acres of Love in Johannesburg.  Ali spent so much time with children whose lives have been tragically altered only to experience the grace of being truly "saved" by Christian people who love them dearly.  She and her mom spent a day touring Soweto and learning of the massacre in a church and the uprisings that took place because of Apartheid.  She saw the boyhood homes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu and she hugged a lot of children.

Ali returned from South Africa, made a PowerPoint presentation and was offered the opportunity to speak at our church for two different groups.  When a World Vision gift catalog appeared at our house telling of how $200 could buy a goat and ten chickens for a family in Africa, Ali decided that she had the time to do so as a homeschooler, so she committed to doing a yard sale at our house and running/walking the Turkey Trot 10K. 

She sent out word to our family and friends, I put some information up on Facebook and she held the yard sale.  And then yesterday, in the pouring rain trudged the 6.2 miles to make a small difference in the world.  Beth told me that she and Ali spent the whole walk/run talking about how many eggs could be produced for families because they were out in the rain.

Yesterday Ali added up the total she had raised just from some give away items and generous friends and today she'll "go shopping" on the Y-Malawi and World Vision website so that animals that will sustain people will be sent to Africa, including the Nkhoma Area Development Project that her big brother had helped establish four years earlier. 

As I said, she hoped to be able to raise $200 to buy a goat and ten chickens, as of last night, she had raised $1000.

Now the list looks like this:

2 goats
10 chickens
20 fruit trees
1 cow
1 sheep

It sounds like one of those commercials doesn't it?
Traveling to Africa, rearranging your family life, the time to teach your kids at home, putting career aspirations on hold:  Pretty darn expensive.

Seeing your kids become leaders in making a difference in the world: So priceless that you can't type the words without tears in your eyes. 

(Here is something you and your family can watch and here is something you can do this Advent, if you'd like to take a small step now.  And if you'd like to follow further adventures of my daughter's year and what she is learning and seeing, click here.)

Bringing Africa to you.

Readers of this blog know of my experiences in traveling to Malawi, Africa. It was a life-changing experience for me and my son, as well as the beginning of a larger partnership with Y-Malawi and World Vision for our church.   We have now sent three teams and committed over $100,000 seed money and have over 350 children being sponsored in Nkhoma, Malawi.

Even more, a group from our church are even running the Chicago Marathon to raise money for our Malawi Ministry through World Vision.  (To get info on sponsoring our team, click here.)

But even many those of us with great passion for the plight of our brothers and sisters will find it hard to travel to Africa.  So, between today and Wednesday, July 18, our church is hosting the Aids Experience from World Vision. The local paper ran a front page story and people from the community our joining other churches and our own church Community going through the exhibit. It takes about 20 minutes and it immerses you in the life of one person: a young woman, a child, a boy, and then tells you of both the heartache of a continent and the hope of Christ that is being offered.

If you are anywhere near San Clemente in the next few days, please just drop in.  It is not the same as traveling to Africa and meeting the people, but it may almost touch your heart as much.

Fires by the Side of a Malawi Road

Craig Williams, Pastor of Trabuco Presbyterian Church, wrote a reflective piece on his trip to Malawi earlier this summer.  This is good grist for the spiritual mill for all of us who too easily believe that God's "burning bushes" always come in big ways.

I believe that God reveals himself most readily, not in the bright lights of the city or in the billboards of powerful advertising or in the events that consume our headlines and bylines and storyboards in media meccas - but at the side of the road. He is burning brightly in the backwater, out of the way places of the world and you and I are being asked to go and see and do what God asks of us. As long as we stay on our hurried and focused path, we may well miss the voice of God...

Our world has many Malawis, places where God is at work away from the bright lights and agendas of the movers and shakers of the world. It could be in your neighborhood, it could be half-way around the world from where you live. The key for you and me is that God is at work quietly, slowly, powerfully in places like this.

The reminder and call to me is to slow down the train of my life, pay attention, turn aside from my agenda to experience what God is doing, where his kingdom is on fire.

In many ways, this has also been my hope and intention this summer in my travels and sabbatical (for which Craig himself has been a kind of quasi-mentor).  Today I leave Manila to drive through the Philippine countryside to where our conference will be held this week.  Who knows what God wants to reveal to me along the road, but I'll be on the look out.

(Trabuco Presbyterian has recently joined our Y-Malawi Project as a new partner.)

Africa, Saddleback and an Admirable Vision

I'll return to my Kingdom musings soon, but thought I'd leave some links that I found both interesting and encouraging.  Readers of my book, It Takes a Church to Raise A Christian know that I have profound admiration and at times some genuine ambivalence about megachurches and the pastors who have built them.  While I am sometimes dubious about the amount of genuine life-transformation that comes in such a setting, it may be ironically that the vision and confidence for world-transformation is best nurtured through the experience of being part of seeing God grow a "mega-church" out of nothing.

Further, because of my commitment to seeing our church be part of God's work and leading in Africa, through our Y-Malawi Partnership, I am completely without ambivalence when I pray for what God is doing through Rick Warren's PEACE plan.  I encourage you to check out this and this from CT online and have posted one of my favorite passages. 

In 2003, Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez author now ministering in Johannesburg, South Africa, invited the Warrens to help lead an HIV/AIDS conference with his own wife, Darlene. The Warrens agreed to go. He led a Purpose Driven conference for 90,000 African pastors, using digital satellite downlinks.

After it was over, Warren said to his hosts, "Take me out to a village. I want to meet some pastors." They took him to Tembisa, a huge and desperately poor township outside Johannesburg. Local evangelists there often plant new congregations, using large blue-and-white striped tents. In many instances, homeless widows and orphans live in the tent during the week and also worship there on Sundays.

When Warren arrived, the tent church pastor boldly walked up to him, saying, "I know who you are. You're Pastor Rick."

"How in the world do you know who I am!" Warren exclaimed.

"I get your sermons every week."

The pastor told Warren that once a week he walks 90 minutes to a post office with an internet connection. He downloads Warren's sermons from Pastors.com and preaches them on Sundays.

"You are the only training I have ever had."

Cut to the heart, Warren says, "I burst into tears. I thought, I will give the rest of my life for guys like that—the real heroes out in the bush." That night, Warren sat under the African sky and prayed, "God, what are the other problems that you want to tackle?"

Sponsor a Child in Malawi

I don't think that we should be choosing between whether a young girl has immunizations or water, or between whether her mother and father are alive, because they have access of treatment for AIDS, or whether she has a meal at school, or whether her father and mother, who are farmers, are able to grow enough food to feed their family and earn some income. Those all strike me as quite doable and practical things that can be done at once. Jeffrey Sachs, Interview.

If you are looking for a doable and practical way to make a difference in a world of poverty and pain, let me encourage you to consider sponsoring one of the children in our Y-Malawi Partnership with World Vision.

For more information click here.

To understand more about our project in Africa you can read this series of posts.

AIDS in Africa: What you can do...

Readers of this site know that I recently returned from Malawi, Africa to help set up a ministry working with a community that has been ravaged by disease, poverty and AIDS.  We met people who are as inspiring as they are in need.

Today, I am offering you a chance to be personally involved in this life-changing work by sponsoring a child in the new Nkhoma Area Development project.

To recap: San Clemente Presbyterian Church has committed to be part of the Y-Malawi Partnership with nine other churches, World Vision, Opportunity International, the Nkhoma Synod Presbyterian Youth Department, the Evangelical Association of Malawi and Fishers, Trainers and Senders Ministry of Malawi. 

As part of this partnership we will be regularly sending teams to Malawi to partner with these ministries in sharing the love and care of Jesus Christ in a beautiful land of beautiful people who are feeling the tragic effects of poverty, disease and AIDS. 

As part of our commitment to this partnership, we are inviting people to prayerfully consider becoming a World Vision Child Sponsor for one child in Nkhoma Area Development Project (ADP) in central Malawi. 

The cost of the child sponsorship is $35/month.  Your child sponsorship helps provide clean water, nutritious food, health care, AIDs prevention training, care for the sick and dying parents, educational opportunities, Spiritual nurture, HIV/AIDS counseling and general wholistic support for the Nkhoma Area of Malawi.

While the sponsored children will not be identified and available for approximately one year, we are going to start the sponsorship phase immediately.  Because the need is so urgent, we have asked World Vision to expedite their plans for starting this ADP.  The churches of the partnership are giving the funds for the start up phase immediately and we are asking you to begin your child sponsorship will you await the “adoption” proceedings for your child. 

This is how it will work:

• Starting today you can sign up become an Nkhoma Area Child Sponsor and make a monthly contribution by credit card. 

• You will receive regular e-mail updates on the progress of the partnership.

• Until the specific children are identified, all contributions made through this web link will go to San Clemente Presbyterian Church for establishing the World Vision Nkhoma ADP and the Y-Malawi Partnership.  The contributions for Child Sponsorship will only be used for the start up costs for the World Vision Nkhoma ADP and the Y-Malawi Partnership. (You will receive a tax-deductible statement of your giving at the end of the calendar year from SCPC.)

• Once the specific children are identified, you will be invited to a big “Meet Your Child” event at SCPC (or notified online) so that you can “pick up” your child’s photo and information, fill out a new registration form and begin directly contributing $35/month to World Vision.  Until the “Meet Your Child” event, all contributions through this website will be dedicated gifts to SCPC Y-Malawi Partnership for establishing the ADP and the Y-Malawi Partnership, and used only for that purpose. 

If you'd like to be part of this exciting partnership, click here to go to the SCPC website and sign up today. if you want to read more information about the great need in Malawi, click here.

Sin's Crushing Blow: An MK USMC Perspective

In the midst of an discussion about how much scholarship money we'd need to provide for people in our church who want to take short-term mission trips to places like Malawi, one of the more thoughtful members of our church sent me this letter.  Jon Moran is a US Marine and grew up as a missionary kid in Zambia.  His wife Sheryl went with me to Malawi and serves as our church representative on the Y-Malawi Steering Committee. I asked for permission to reprint his post here as food for thought on "sin's crushing blow" both at home and in places like Africa.

I’ve come to believe that God created the world to be a bountiful provider of all of our needs; that material and social inequalities exist (class structures, monstrous differences in salaries, opportunities, and options, etc.) as a result of sin; and that God directed occasional redistribution of material and real estate that would be seen as good news to the poor—and be a source of restoring dignity and relationships within the community.

The Team’s report from Malawi indicated that sin’s crushing blow to that country was in the form of poverty and disease. Over generations, Malawian communities you visited have sought God’s grace through worship in spirit and in truth.

God has given them a joy that seemed to be the defining observation of every team member. God’s grace has given them the freedom to live beyond the crushing power of poverty and disease so that materials and sickness no longer control their lives—reliance on God’s grace does. God has now given us the opportunity to be a part of His hand of continued grace to Malawi—and the Malawians have given us a glimpse of their joy in Christ, and we have an opportunity to partake in that joy through relationship and involvement.

Additionally, we have a need to address one of sin’s crushing blows to US—too many options, overwhelming abundance, and a wealth that all to often blinds us to the difference between needs and wants. We are only just beginning to seek God’s grace through worship in spirit and in truth in the face of this abundance. We are only just beginning to experience the joy that freedom from the oppression of having more than we need can bring...

Potentially, I suppose, more people may consider participation on a short term mission trip if healthy "scholarships" are provided—but perhaps we also risk minimizing the potential for members of our congregation to grapple with the crippling effect of sin in our country and of its impact on our choices, attitudes, perceptions and actions.

I believe that God desires to fill us with the type of joy that the Y-Malawi team reported as being evident in the lives of the Malawi communities they visited. I don’t know the path to that joy, there may be more than one, but it seems to me that it would involve seeking God’s direction to undo the power of sin in our lives—and that usually means some hard choices. Choices that might actually involve me giving up one of the things I "need" in life to "afford" to take a trip so that God can show me something I really do need in order to be a healthy part of His Body.

Maybe facing the fact that I can’t go it alone, pay for it out of my own pocket, but need to seek the support and prayers of others—maybe this will also be part of realizing that God wants me to go, or maybe does not want me to go but wants me to support or pray for someone else this time. If making a sacrificial excursion to another country is no more costly than an extended senior trip (which no one really considers NOT going on), but we can’t see a trip to Malawi as a crucial part of the Sojourn that God has called each of us to make (or we simply see a few representatives making the trip for us)—perhaps this highlights the extent of sin’s oppressive hold on us.

Just as you could discern the difference between communities in Malawi that had turned to God to allow Him to deal with the crushing blow of sin in their lives and those communities that had not (Sheryl has related some experiences with people in the cities and marketplaces that were in opposition to your experiences in the rural communities), so I’m sure that visitors to our country can discern whether or not we as individuals and as a community have turned to God to allow Him to deal with the pervading effects of sin in our lives. I’d like to be a part of the community that is a witness to God’s power in our midst--if for no other reason than it will help me deal with the brokenness in my own life.

Semper Fi, Jon G. Moran

Africa Malaria Day

I just found out from reading "Under the Acacia" blog, that today is Africa Malaria Day.  It's hard to overstate how devastating this disease has become in Africa, and how frustrating it is that the main reason that this is so, is simple, painful poverty. Most African people cannot afford $2 for a malaria net, let alone the cost of anti-malarial medications. (Please go to Keith's site for a brief overview and for some possible solutions and the obstacles that hinder good efforts.)

As someone who has just finished one course of anti-malarial medicine and is starting another for a trip to the rainforest in Belize, I am grateful that I can afford it. Without the drugs, I wouldn't be able to visit such places, let alone take my family.  But I am now more and more keenly aware of all those who don't have the means or options. 

No call to action from me here. (I don't feel qualified to offer such opinions just yet) just a desire to be more aware of how many ways poverty kills.

Everybody Should Do This Once in Life

“You know, Tod, Brooks is going to talk about this at your funeral.”

That was my best friend talking to me before we left for Africa.  He and I had talked about how important it was for me that my 11-year-old son, Brooks, was going with me on this trip.  Beth and I had been planning this trip for years. We home-schooled Brooks for his 6th grade year so that we could have the chance to bond with him more during the crucial pre-teen years.  We each took a trip with him; Beth to the east coast to see American historical sites, me to Africa for a mission trip. 

We spent the year preparing Brooks.  He and I prayed together every night for a year about where God was leading us.  We looked up Africa and Malawi and Zambia and World Vision and AIDS and poverty on the internet and learned together.  He attended all of our team meetings, even one at La Jolla Presbyterian Church where Steve Haas, Vice-President of World Vision, took a lot of time to help him understand holistic ministry.  (Steve: I am betting that someday Brooks will be coming to apply for a job.  Last night he told me he wants “to do what Steve Haas does”.)

And then we took off.  Not a day went by when I didn’t get choked up at the privilege of being in Africa with my son.  When I see pictures of him shaking hands with African children, when I think of him clapping along in a worship service in a language that he doesn’t understand, when I remember him jumping in my arms with excitement because we were going out on a game drive, when I remember the first time we saw lions together, when I think of him lying next to me in bed and saying, “Dad, I am going to remember this the rest of my life”…well, I am getting choked up now. 

On our trip was also a great guy named Brad.  He spent his 50th birthday (here with his roommate Bernie when they "dressed up" for Brad's impromptu party) visiting a brave woman and her daughter who has AIDS, meeting a young man named William who went from being a child sponsored by World Vision to graduating with a college degree in Environmental Science.  For his “birthday present”, Brad received a copy of William’s diploma.  I know he missed being with his old friends and family, but he did have his new African friends bring him a birthday cake. 

I want everyone to have a birthday like Brad’s.  Just one time,  I want everyone to stand with their son or daughter in a church in a third world country and then go find wild animals together.

Brooks and I didn’t take this trip together because I am a pastor, but because we are Christians.  (My friend Phil Jemmet took his 17 year old son Tyler, too. Here's Phil, in the blue shirt, getting up close and personal with an elephant.  Tyler's behind him on the left.) 

I want everyone to have this experience.  And I really think that with some commitment and rethinking priorities they can. 

So, in our church we are going to start challenging people to “Tithe Your Vacations”.  Just one year out of ten—one time while the kids are in school, one time in the empty nest years, one time with grandkids—skip the trip to Maui and go to Malawi.  Pass on Disney’s Magic Kingdom and do something for God’s Kingdom.  Just plan for it, pay for it, and pause and think about it the rest of your life.  For those of you who attend my funeral someday, let Brooks have a few extra minutes, he has some great stories to tell.

I am going to bring my series of reflections on my trip to Malawi, Africa to a close….for now.  I really can’t help myself.  I just think about what I learned and saw so much that I will inevitably revisit it over and over again.  You see, a once-in-a-lifetime experience lingers for a lifetime.

The Many Faces of AIDS

When a lot of us think of AIDs, our first image is of Tom Hanks in the movie, Philadelphia.  When we were back in Hollywood, my wife, Beth and a friend named Ron ran a support group for men with HIV.  Today they are all dead.  As a chaplain intern I sat with a 26 year old man when he died of AIDS.  I have performed funerals for others, and recently, one member of my family died of lung cancer after a long struggle with HIV/AIDs. 

Sometimes the images are a bit more encouraging, Magic Johnson comes to mind. Another friend of mine was diagnosed nearly twenty years ago and he is still living a meaningful life.  When most of us picture the face of AIDS, we think of it as a male face.  And in most cases it is. 

As we traveled around Malawi, the lack of young men was evident. In Malawi, AIDS is so widespread amongst teenagers that it has brought the life-expectancy down to 38 years old.  A haunting and burgeoning industry is “24 Hour” coffin shops.

But, in Africa, the face of AIDS is more and more female.  (Worldwide about half the people with AIDS are female.) And even more devastating, it’s the face of a child.  For years there has been a rampant myth in Africa that the way a man gets cured is to have sex with a virgin. 

While in Malawi, we met a woman named Olipa who discovered that she has HIV when she went to give blood to her then anemic newborn.  The baby was diagnosed with HIV also.  While the story of Olipa and her baby Miriam is heart-rending (Miriam is only expected to live another year), it is also inspiring. 

Olipa has become the face of women who are making a difference in waking the world to the widespread effect of AIDS.  Using only a diet of fruits and vegetables that she grows, her health is actually improving.  Ignoring the social stigma that often sends people with AIDS to die alone, often from starvation, outcast from their communities, Olipa started support groups for others.  She now speaks to young people about the disease and how to avoid it.  Her World Vision sponsors even sent her to the World AIDS Awareness day in Australia to speak out to gain support for those who are struggling with AIDS. 

Olipa spoke to our group with eyes filled with both pride and sadness, with a soft, strong voice and with a the flash of a smile.  She said that she thanked God for AIDS because it gave her a chance to help others.  A World Vision newsletter article about her had this to say, “Olipa doesn't know how long she, or her small daughter, will live, and she is sad for her son's uncertain future without her. But she says that visiting the sick gives her strength to go on as long as she can. (Olipa adds,) ‘There are so many people suffering alone out there. By assisting them I am doing better work than if I had remained a farmer. I wouldn't have reached where I am if I didn't have HIV."

As our group prepared to leave, we flooded Olipa and Mirian with hugs, and gathered around her in prayer.  From now on for me, the faces of AIDS includes a fragile little girl and a very strong mother.