Mike’s Sea2sea Blog

So here in the middle of so many people, God grants me the joy of seeing Andy!

Andy was on our very first youth/young adult “exploration” Fusion team to Mexico City. It was a largely a journey of prayer, and of hearing the stories of our International Workers. Lisa Clarke (and Wendy Boon!) and Paul & Cindy Ens shared their hearts for the city. God used that trip in my life to teach me what it meant to share a burden for a people and a place.

I remember being taken by Pastor Arturro to a neignbourhood to be introduced to a family fairly new in Christ. They treated us to lunch and then asked for a testimony. It was Andy’s turn!

“Oh, I don’t have much of a testimony..” he says humbly. After more encouragement he starts out, “well, my grandparents were Christians, and my parents were Christians, and now I’m a Christian too.” Ha! I remember seeing the interest of these new Christians holding on to their faith under very difficult circumstances! Imagine a vibrant faith being passed on from one generation to the next! Andy went on to share about his grandmother’s hope that he would do a missions trip, and had actually saved money just for that purpose without him knowing. When he decided to come, she presented to him.

Seeing Andy at Urbana 09 was great, since he went off to university for the past four or five years and I always felt God had special plan for him. Here he is, sorting out what God is calling him to in the years ahead, putting everything on the table.

I also met Richard, a retired United Methodist pastor from Tulsa, who since his wife passed away has given his time to ministering to students at a university. Richard was a student like Andy at Urbana 67, and shared with me what an amazing time of Biblical study that was with great preaching by John Stott. Then I met 4 people from Montreal; African, Haitian, Tunisian! Go Montreal! It’s pretty cool that the main speaker Ramez has a long history of serving there.

So why was I weeping yesterday morning?

A lady who has been in war torn country very much in the news for the past 30 years, gave an incredible appeal for young people to consider long term missions. Bombs, different brutal governments were constantly part of her family’s experience. I realize that I can’t really do it justice – it was just beautiful testimony of God’s grace in her and her husband’s life. God was sufficient to help them be his light in as impossible a place as there ever was. She told a story of violent extremists coming to the village where they were, confronting local village leadership with being “backslidden” from the tenets of their faith because of their welcome to the foreigners. The local leader stepped forward boldly, confronted them right back saying, “You have insulted our guests. These people have served here for years, eating our food and taking care of our sick. We know why you are here, to change our minds. Get lost…” The band of extremists left, out numbered. This woman and her physician husband remained in perhaps the most dangerous country in the world, because they couldn’t imagine leaving. Like Richard who I met earlier, they committed their lives to God’s service at Urbana ‘67.

Ramez also was hot yesterday morning – preaching on the text where Jesus goes to the temple and clears it of the businesses that were going on in the Gentile courts. It was so good. As he gets near to the end of his messages, he starts to really pour out his heart. He spoke on the tie money has on us, and applied the passage to when our “means” to do God’s work overcomes the “message” we were originally charged with. He shared a story about a young couple at an Urbana in the early 80’s that decided to dedicate themselves to God’s purposes. They wrestled through the promptings of God, and ended up not going into missions. “End of story, right?” says Ramez. They ended up establishing a business, and made steps very early on to live a simple life no matter how successful it got. They pay themselves a very modest salary, and the rest of the profits go to missions. They now give about a million dollars a month to missions, and their lifestyle is unchanged. Ramez gives a few principles on giving that I need to put into a curriculum soon. Then last night Shane Claiborne talked about taking a hammer to our Ipods! (Much nervous laughter – if you know about this guy, that could be an altar call!).

Oscar Muiru’s message last night was also very profound, wise and continued to shatter my stereotyping of African worldviews. I highly recommend it.

Urbana site with all the videos, theatre presentations, sermons of the past 3 days: http://vimeo.com/urbana09/albums

Thank you for all who are praying. On the way in this morning on a shuttle bus, I talked with Joel Sjaarda of Rexdale. We started talking about how God speaks to us. Joel shared some personal and wise reflections, and said to me: “It’s a strange access we have to God”. Oh, man. Tell me about it. But it seems to me that God declaring, stirring, prompting powerfully at this conference. Continue to pray for our many young people to receive it!

Off to day 4!

I am unbelievably privileged.

I am surrounded by 20,000 young people who have gathered to study God’s word and ask him to speak to them about how “The Word became Flesh”, and how that relates to their lives.

On a rainy Boxing Day evening, over a hundred young people from Eastern Canadian District of churches (see the “About” section of this blog) gathered at Rexdale Alliance Church. They were amazing hosts, pulling out a red carpet of food, games, help with registration (Andrea and Priscilla may be in fact angels), while students poured in from North York Mandarin, Emmanuel and Ottawa CAC, East York MAC, Cornerstone, Rexdale,….

Those who know me well, my gifts and weaknesses in particular, know how this brings tears to my eyes. God has made all this possible, through the help of many, many others and also through some  blessed encounters. I’m also realizing there is a ”stirring” going on, which is deeply humbling and mysterious. Stetson Ford said, “I wasn’t going to come, but then I prayed about it….”. Thomas Sarmiento, studying engineering (renewable energy focus) and public policy, is still working on a paper here and is pumped to see all the seminars on “Green” theology. This morning I had breakfast with a young man who writes for Zoomer magazine, and his wife, who is in her 3rd or 4th year of a social work degree. O God, please reveal your glory and then your purposes for these young people.

We’ve walked through the icy, windy St. Louis streets through all kinds of  mighty American monuments – very nobel and striking.

But what have we heard so far? Here’s the best part:

Jim Tebbe, Urbana’s head guy, said God’s plan for us is much smaller than we think: the person next door to us, in our family or across the hall. To illustrate, he had us call to mind a friend or loved one who is not yet a follower of Jesus, write it on our hands (as God has written us on his, and to illustrate how he loves this person), and raise them and say it out loud. Then he said God’s plan for us is also much larger than anything we can imagine — that we have no idea where God will lead us if we will just say “Yes” and keep on saying “Yes” to him. He illustrated with his own life of missions service, now working with InterVarsity. He made this one beautiful comment: “My wife and I have said Yes to many things, and we’re not done doing that by a long shot” (as best as I can remember it).

Ramez Atallah from Egypt was our teacher last night, who simply and beautifully unpacked verse 14 of John 1 “The word became flesh, and dwelled among us….”. He began saying, “Imagine a middle class,  American young couple, who live and work in the garbage slums of Cairo, and find they cannot cross the barrier between them and then poor around them. And so when the young wife becomes pregnant she chooses to have the baby in that most dangerous and unsanitary of places. Why, just to show how much they love the people there…. . He then says that is only a fiction, yet this is what God has done for us. His teaching was plain, straighfoward, and it has stuck with me though I was tired. (Look at this site for his message – Day One – Ramez Atallah)

He finished by telling a true story of young artist who came to Christ, who then shared his faith with a young garbage collector in Cairo. Eventually the young boy came to Christ, and after a couple of years, convinced the artist to come visit his home and family in the garbage slums. He did eventually, and the family received him and Christ into their hearts as well. Soon there were more and they gathered for church, the artist became their pastor. The story that unfolded from that is too incredible for words, and brings tears to my eyes. I hope I can link this story somehow to my blog. Here’s my paraphrase from the video they showed of artist, now a Coptic priest:

“When I first went to the people, they hid from me and would not come. I tried to follow them but my sandals got stuck in the mud. The Lord told me to use boots. It was too dark, so I had light a lamp to find my way around. Still they would not come. Then I would take their hands and kiss them, but still they wouldn’t come, so then I stroked their hair and kissed their heads….eventually they came. All this [these ideas] I recieved from the Holy Spirit…”

I haven’t fully unpacked all this, but I know that’s Jesus – don’t you?

Ezra 10 depicts a weeping priest, Ezra himself, pouring out his heart to God regarding the sins of the people. It gathered a group, and leaders were galvanized to respond. They realized they were living in disobediance to God. “We have been unfaithful to our God…..But in spite of this there is hope for Israel”.

The churches in our Eastern Canadian District are currently in a period of “gathering” to pray. Pastors, leaders, and many others are deciding how to participate in an idea that was chosen by a large gathering of their peers last May. We’re calling it “Provoked 2 Prayer” (click to see our trailer), and it’s an adventure – I’ll bet many are wrestling right now with how to lead the church to pray. We’re hoping to have a continuous chain of praying communities from January 1st to March 30th.

Interesting to find out the the 24-7 people are also promoting a week of prayer in March – right during our General Assembly for the C&MA!  The following is their trailer for their event.

I have been deeply moved by the 24-7 Prayer movement happening in England and Europe, and spreading into the U.S.. We are not doing the same thing, but we can sure learn from this group. It’s so simple, there’s a high participation of young people and yet deeply respectful of history and scripture. It gives me hope. Although I cannot claim Ezra’s grief, surely it is not only I who see the great gap between our radical theology and belief, and our relative mediocrity when it comes to being God’s people in this world.

When I visit an ECD church, and see hearts open, ready, wanting to engage in God’s mission – I want to join them to this type of commitment: love for Jesus — wherever that may lead us. OF COURSE IT WILL LOOK DIFFERENT IN US! But we’re very close relatives to this European movement….I still have hope that in the Alliance we’ll feel this kinship, and that it will cause us to examine our hearts and habits…say “Hey, that’s the way I felt when Jesus called me… how come that flame has dimmed?”.

I’ve hardly mentioned the element of confession when describing the Provoked 2 Prayer initiative in our District. It is a reality, however, that it in the brokeness and full realization of our need for God’s forgiveness that we make a significant shift in direction. I’ve heard the story of Ezra repeated time and again in modern times – confession, repentance, and soon our agenda gets a burial and God’s bigger plan emerges in a way that can be sustained…naturally, it’s his plan and so he makes sure it happens, now that he has his people back.

This past weekend I visited Ottawa Chinese Alliance church. On Saturday night I got to be with the youth – whose time together included a Skype call with Jonathon Mikes in Mexico City!  I really enjoyed watching the youth gathered for games, friendship, learning to play instruments for worship, leaders committing their time…just great to be a part of it.

My challenge for them that night came out of the Matthew/Mark passage where the “rich young ruler”  comes to Jesus.  I’ve got a new favorite Bonhoeffer quote “And if we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us?” That’s where truly missional living begins – after we give our hearts to him, well,  all bets are off. Jesus is just saying “Trust me, leave those other loves, come follow me and see if my reward is not greater!”.

Sunday morning, I was able to worship freely before preaching at the English service at 9:30 am.  Great music team took care of planning things thoroughly and with depth. It was cool seing friend and colleague Dave Nguyen give leadership while the English pastor, Daniel Tjoe-a-long (another friend I highly respect!) was away. Pre-service, there was a prayer meeting people popped in and out of – I got to join in a prayer for their city…honestly, I realized I don’t often hear a prayer for a churches city. An elder showed me the property next door the church is purchasing in order to expand.

Then I had an incredible privilege – after all these years of participating in Chinese Mandarin services, and English ministry services – my first ever Cantonese service!

3 observations: 1) Beautiful, highly practiced choir and music. In the days of my youth at Hillsdale in Regina – this is what I was discipled in! 2) I was reminded by God through both services that the Cantonese congregation is representative of a remarkable group of people who since coming to Canada have had an incalculable impact on the C&MA and Global Ministry. 3)In speaking to an elder following the service, I learned that it is difficult for them to find a Cantonese speaking pastor and that poses a major obstacle as they look to the future.

I felt that brother’s weight of discouragement – where to from here?

I wanted to encourage him…it just seemed impossible to me that God did not have some wonderful future yet for the Cantonese congregation. They’ve planted numerous churches, sent and supported missionaries, launched Mandarin ministries…..Yet I cannot answer. This journey, however, is likely to drive them to prayer and seeking of God’s purpose for them….and that always leads to something beyond what we could ever imagine.

Having a Vietnamese lunch across the street afterwards with some of the 20 somethings from the English service – I have to wonder about their future as well. Socially smart, well-educated, world-travelled (scrolling through the Iphone for pictures from a recent trip to Asia) and likely well-taught through their years in church…what will God do with this crowd?

I actually think it will be the same for these communities as it for many others – that God has called them, with their talents and yes, with their brokeness (alas, we are all broken), to this place and to this time for a reason! It will be specific to them, and no one can discover it for them…it must be in their encounter with God.

Since the most significant thing happening anywhere is that God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ then it seems to me that our mission-minded stance should be: why us, why here, why now? (With everything we have and are on the table!)

What am I sure of? That they (both groups) do not see yet what God sees – all of the potential for incredible influence theycould have for the gospel. That is the condition of many of us today.

Like the advent passage this hope is glorious:  ”With God all things are possible”. I can’t wait to see what will come as God works through these brothers and sisters!