Mike’s Sea2sea Blog

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: http://www.urbana09.org/program.webcast.cfm)

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?