One day a preacher came home and told his wife that two and a half people came to know Jesus Christ that day.  His wife was confused about what he meant by a half a person and asked if her husband implied that a couple and their small child accepted Christ.  He replied, "No, the two and a half people refer to the two children and one adult that chose to follow Christ.  For the two children have their entire life before them live for Christ's glory whereas the adult has already wasted half of her life."  Bareket went on to explain that it is much more difficult for an adult submit to Christ because the adult carried much baggage and believes many lies that must first be dispelled before he will be convinced of the truth of Christ.

Bareket focus on teaching the little children of Christ's love.  He reiterated to me that the gospel is so simple and easy to grasp that it's easier for children to accept than adults because the adults are confounded by its simplicity.  Children know they cannot understand everything and don't need to; however, us adults think we are something greater and need to be able to understand all aspects of everything before we commit.  I'm just glad that we don't live by this mentality for anything else in life - for we'd never commit to anything (name any risk - investments, projects, pursuing new ideas, etc., marriage, children, or our word).

I'd like to caveat the following story for the western mindset.  In America, there isn't witchcraft, voodoo, or other eerie mysticism.  That isn't how Satan chooses to control us; he chooses much more intellectually benign things like busyness, money, status, hedonism, and pride (our own pride in our intellectual ability to reason away the reality of the spiritual).

God opened my eyes to the spiritual world in a very real way one day while I was in a rural Ethiopian village to tell the people about our upcoming clinics and share the Gospel. I walked past a hut where my translator said they worshiped a spirit, and dark smoke filled the air surrounding the home. We also came across a large tree with fabric tied around the trunk, and I found out some of the local villagers worshiped the tree. But the biggest revelation came from two small lemons on the side of the road.

As the translator Jerusalem and disciple maker Haiminot and I walked down the dirt road, we passed another house with smoke coming from it. Jerusalem told me the family of that house worships the devil and tries to put curses on people in the village. As we continued our journey through the village, we saw two small lemons on the side of the road. I thought it was odd to see the fruit in such a random spot in rural Ethiopia, but didn't think much beyond that. I was about to continue walking, when Haiminot stopped to pick up the lemons. Jerusalem told me the lemons were actually used by the family whose house we just passed in creating their potions and curses, and then they throw the lemons on the side of the road. Whoever picks up the lemons or accidentally steps on them is supposed to get the curse. (Sidebar - this is exactly how Satan works, he uses fear and manipulation to control.)

Without any hesitation or fear that maybe he really could get a curse, Haiminot carried the lemons with him throughout the village, playfully tossing them in the air. We continued our walk down the road and Haiminot saw a young farmer who he said we needed to go speak with. We all sat down on the ground, and even though I couldn't understand the conversation between Haiminot and the farmer, it was clear they already knew each other. After sharing the Gospel, the young man didn't want to accept Christ, but said he did want to invite us into his home to learn more. Unfortunately his wife wasn't home so we couldn't speak further, but Haiminot said he'd return at a later day.

During the conversation, the young farmer asked Haiminot why in the world he was holding the lemons when he knew what potential they had. Haiminot replied that because of Christ, he doesn't need to worry about a curse having power over him since Christ rules the world. I later found out that this young farmer was actually the son of the family who throws out the lemons.

Every villager we met had a huge fear of two small pieces of fruit. When they saw the lemons in Haiminot's hands they would take a step back away from us. Children would say, "Dirty! Dirty!" and adults would fearfully shake their heads "No" when Haiminot asked if they wanted to touch the lemons. The two small lemons became a huge testament to the villagers about trust and reassurance in the power of Christ to protect us. After a long day of walking throughout the village, Haiminot went home...and ate the lemons for a snack, confident in the power of Christ.

How amazing is this - God loves me despite of my future.  He loves me right now even though he knows I will reject him, I will backstab, I will lie to his face, I will live an adulterous lifestyle worshiping the things of this world (His creation and not the Creator), I will abandon Him, I will...

This idea isn't too hard for me to grasp until I begin to personalize it.  For, this is intensely personal to God and I need to empathize a little to grasp God's profound love.  So, would I love anybody with such fervor, devotion, and unrestrained selflessness if I know that the object of supreme affection and dedication would betray me in a few short days, months, or years?  How can I love somebody when I know (s)he is going to betray that love?  How can I love when I know that love will be taken for granted, forgotten, rejected, and even scorned?  Would I marry somebody if I absolutely knew all of her flaws, when she would reject me, that she would live adulterously, that she would abandon me, divorce me and marry another, that she would backstab, that she wasn't completely committed, that she would not love in return?  How could I?  I do not know; but, I know it's not possible for me to do that (without the divine intervention of my God).

Here we are, each of us, with the truth that God loves us despite of our future.  He remains completely committed, continuously pouring out himself selflessly.  His love is so deep; it's incomprehensible (like really, give it a try).  He chooses to love when he already knows the future pain, rejection, and heartache he must endure.  What am amazing God we have.  May we glorify His name throughout the world and at all times.

Much of the world's population cannot afford any form of health care or medicine. More than half of Ethiopia‘s population has no access to health care at all; of those that do, most must walk more than two (2) hours to a facility. Preventable and treatable diseases such as cholera, river blindness, yellow fever, dengue, hepatitis and typhoid fever kill thousands annually. It is with this understanding that I am compelled to take action and impact this world.

In August, I will go into Africa to serve the needs of the forgotten. Rather than focusing specifically on orphans this year, as I did last year in Uganda, our team of sixteen (16) will set-up a health clinic in a rural area of Ethiopia to provide free basic health care to a community. We will see and treat many children and adults as well as share the love and message of Jesus with all.

I share this with you because I strive to live in the tension between the American lifestyle and the adventurer yearning to impact the world in the name of Jesus. I ask that you forgive me for messing up, offending, being self-centered, manipulative, and apathetic and for not expressing my appreciation and thankfulness for your involvement in my life.

I invite you to share in this adventure with me in the following ways:

• Prayer: I'd love to have you pray with me for this world to transform into what God intended it to be.
• Encouragement: Let's hang out, go for a walk/run, talk about how to change our world, or otherwise create an atmosphere of excitement and adventure in our own lives.
• Financial Support: The complete trip will cost $3,500. If you would like to help fund the trip, please provide your tax-deductible donations (payable to McLean Bible Church) at http://www.frontlinedc.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=9190.

I will continue to share my Africa experiences at http://africa.jason1365.com updating the website as the journey unfolds. Thank you for your friendship and considering to partner with me to sustain life in Ethiopia.

Give me a call, let's talk soon.

~Jason

Did you know that currently, 77% of Uganda's overall population are youth and of that, 30% are orphans?

On August 3rd I am going to Uganda to start a project that will enrich local communities, rescue child soldiers from bondage, provide orphans with an education and basic healthcare, and give the orphans hope for a future free from poverty.

To achieve these goals, local Ugandans will run an internet cafe to generate a sustainable revenue stream allowing the profits to be used to support the orphanages. My role on the project is to start the internet café, train the employees, and provide business and technical consultation to stabilize the business.

I share this vision with you because I realize that success cannot be achieved without the support from my friends. I would like you to participate in this endeavor through some of the following areas:

• Prayer: If you have a relationship with Jesus, I'd love to have you pray with me.
• Advice: If you have insights, wisdom, concerns, or questions, please contact me. If you have ideas for business in developing nations, regional contacts, or economic models for sustaining this type of work, let's brainstorm.
• Financial Support: My financial goal is $2,500 for my trip with any additional funds going toward the $13,000 start-up cost of the internet café. If you would like to help fund the trip, business, and orphanage, please send your tax-deductible donations made out to Antioch Allocation by:
  • Mail: Antioch Allocation
    6 N. Montague St.
    Arlington, VA 22203
  • Paypal: Credit Card / eCheck

I will share my experience at http://uganda.jason1365.com and keep it updated with new insights and issues as I continue on this journey. Thank you for considering to partner with me to change the lives of Ugandan orphans through business development.

Over the past couple of years, I have come to realize a couple things about my life –

1. First, God has created me with passions and purpose. I see more and more that my purpose is to pursue these passions within me.
2. Second, I desire to help those in need – those afflicted, those rejected and forgotten, the poor and needy. Why God gave me this passion, I do not know. However, I cannot deny my passions or purpose.
3. Third, I have become frustrated with the mentality that somehow God cares about religious stuff and not where or how we spend each day. Working in business development/improvement and technology is another aspect of life that excites me every day. I very much enjoy my job. However, I have begun to think that God, business, technology, profit, faith, employment, and innovative ideas should all come together in some beautiful way. I'm not entirely sure how that looks yet, but I know that I will strive to create this sort of environment.

So, when a friend passed on a message to me that a woman wanted to care for the orphans of Uganda through business development, I saw a perfect opportunity to act on my passion and start to fulfill my purpose. Of course, I've never done anything like this and I'm naive enough to push forward on developing a business in Uganda. As I see it, a missional business in Uganda can have profound impacts on the local community. A missional business could be defined as a business with the desire to honor God and serve others by giving themselves away.

I'm excited to think about the amazing opportunities this provides for the orphans and local residents:

• The orphans will have internet access.
• The profits will support the teachers’ salaries to provide the orphans with an education, hope in the future, and knowledge of God's greatness.
• Orphans can learn technical, business, and ethical skills by working in the internet café.
• The orphans will have work producing goods for the coffee shop integrated in the internet café and running that aspect of the business.
• The internet café can be used for community training.
• Starting an internet café (a business) and stimulating the economy is what Africans both want and need right now.

This step of faith through my Ugandan venture is showing me some major issues in my life. One of which is the fact that I began to think that I could somehow succeed on my own abilities. For a while, I believed that I was smart enough entrepreneurially and technically to be able to do this on my own. However, because God is good, he let me know that this endeavor would go nowhere as long as I thought that this was my project, my goal, and my success. I am realizing that my self-centeredness continues to get in the way of pursuing my passions and purpose. I'm learning that my purpose is to not only pursue my passions, but to pursue them knowing that it's because of God's sovereignty that anything at all can be accomplished.

Ultimately, I hope to grow and be able to see myself as a man who serves his God and those people that I am burdened for, a man who pursues passions to live out his purpose, a man who realizes that God wants to be a part of every part of my life, a man who abhors selfishness and pride in my own life, and a man who cares for the people of the world.

I hope that you have been able to take a look into my life and my heart. If any of this excites, frustrates, or confuses you, then let's take some time to talk about it. I'm always looking to hear input because I know that I miss things and mess up frequently. Please consider partnering with me on this and future endeavors to enrich our world. God is good to bless those who bless others in profound ways – ways in which words cannot describe.

Day 1

Today wasn't very busy; we spent the morning trying to figure out how to adjust 5 hours of time difference. We arrived in Heathrow at 6AM London time, when we left DC at 6PM DC time. We weren't very tired on the plane and then we arrive here early in the morning. So, we napped through lunch and got up at 2pm to visit a Hindu temple (called a Mandir).

The temple was very ornately decorated. There were several thousand volunteers over a three-year period that constructed the Mandir. The Hindus at the temple took great pride in the detail etched over the entire structure of marble. This is a little hard for me grasp, because it is only a building. It will deteriorate back to dust. We had the opportunity to be there when the gods were unveiled at 4pm. This was quite interesting to me, because there were statues of people. These statues apparently are believed to actually be God by many. I watched as Hindus would go and pray to each of the statues and drop money in the box in front of the statue. Maybe it's just foreign to me, but seriously, anybody can carve an image and claim it has powers. This just seems so stupid. It's a manmade image said to have powers of a manmade religion. There is nothing of substance that should make anyone believe that praying to some stone is going to do anything.

We also had a Q&A session with a Hindu teacher. This turned out to be mostly a waste of time, because (as typical with many Hindus [and other eastern religions]) the man did not have solid answers to questions. He talked only in analogies, but could not give a real response worthy of contemplation.

Q: What does one do if he/she has wronged somebody out of selfish motives and feels guilty? A: Karma, there isn't anything that needs to be done. You should do more good to offset the bad.
Q: What about those people born with mental illness or inability to do good for others? A: Karma, it's the punishment from a previous life.
Q: What about those reincarnated as animals that only eat meat? It would seem that these animals could never be reincarnated as anything better, because killing other animals is bad karma.
Q: It doesn't make sense that before the world there was God (an existence of energy with no attributes) that would then create lesser gods (even though the ability to create seems like an attribute) with attributes. If this first God was perfection, why would he/it create imperfection? Then the lesser gods created the universe filled with beings of many lesser levels. Each being was a part of the original God, but is now imperfect. The lesser beings strive for enlightenment and to become part of the attribute-less God again. This makes no sense – why would a perfect God divide himself into lesser beings? How could perfection choose to become imperfect? Why would perfection morph into imperfection only to struggle to get back to perfection?
Q: Since our karma is determined by what we do, what happens when somebody else believes I did something bad yet I believe it was good? How is the karma (credit/debit) system to account for this? It seems that there must be an arbitrator making the final decision as whether our action was good or bad. If not, then bad karma could never exist if I choose to believe I am always doing good. If there is an arbitrator, that arbitrator must be God. The arbitrator must be perfection. If not, then the karma system is worthless and cannot be ultimately kept in check.

Day 2

Today was more of an orientation day again and just getting to understand where we are, the people, the backgrounds, etc. I have a really tough time staying awake in lecture-type environments. The weather was gorgeous today though, so that was a big plus. 

The morning started with breakfast, two sessions discussing more of the Hindu culture along with background about the organization we are working with (World Harvest Mission). After that, we were on a bus to go to Wembley to experience the Hindu environment. This area of London seems to be exclusively for Indians. While there we ate some fantastic (and expensive) food, visited a Mandir (Hindu temple), shopped, and asked questions about the Indian culture to people in the stores and on the street.

We returned to the school, ate dinner, and then had more teaching on the Hindu Sikh religion. I find the history of these religions quite interesting. It seems as if Sikh, Jain, and Buddhism are variations of Hinduism. However, Hinduism is such a broad term describing a vast number of differing sets of beliefs. I suppose to me, that seems suspicious because for anything to be really true, it has to be true for all time. Without a constant, I don't see how real truth or any reliability can exist in the world. If Hinduism was right when it was founded, then the derivatives (since different) could not be ultimately true. If one of the derivatives were true, then the others can't be – not even the predecessor.

I suppose the issue I have with any religion that was ever founded is the simple fact that it's seems unfair. How you may ask. Well, a religion is founded by some teacher at some point in time. Well, what about those people before that point in time? These people had no chance to know the truth. They would be stuck with whatever consequences for not following the correct religion. This is where I find great confidence in having a relationship with the one true personal God and creator. Man existed with God at the beginning of time because God cares very deeply about each individual. Then man chose to reject God, which broke that relationship. But, as soon as the relationship was broken God had already set into motion a plan to restore the relationship. Everyone (from the first man and woman) has had the opportunity to experience this exciting, fulfilling, and confident life through Jesus Christ. There is nobody left out throughout all of time.

I came to a better understanding of this Hindu mindset today. It is very much like our post-modern culture in America. Basically, very few people have any real beliefs. The mindset is that if we do more good than bad, then we are doing good. They seem to not consider the post-death part of life. The goal is to do good, so that bad things don't happen to you. Entirely self-centered motivations for acts of kindness – an interesting twist on kindness.

I still have a hard time grasping how these Hindus come into the temple and bow down to statues. Even more difficult is to see people leaving food for the statues, or pouring water and milk over the head (and mouth) of the statues believing that the god drinks it. Even still, the fact that the gods have a naptime where they put nightgowns on them for a time seems even stranger.

As I watch these people, I have much pity on them. This fear of evil, bad karma, poor rebirth, etc drives these people to perform rituals frequently. What oppression, if only they knew the freedom that is because of Christ. It's no longer about doing things, being good, or anything like that – it's about enjoying a relationship with God. There aren't rules, traditions, rituals or anything that needs to be done. My friends don't require me to do any rituals for them so that they will like me – that wouldn't be a relationship. How can life be worth living in fear, in confusion, with questions and uncertainty?

I am beginning to understand the fact that Hindus and many people define their identity in the teachings of their family. The fervor to practice the family religion is very strong. Understandably so, they love their family and their family is Hindu. It is almost unthinkable for a child to say that he/she isn't Hindu when the parents are. The child was born Hindu and will always be Hindu. That is the mindset of the parents and the child because not only is it a religion, but Hinduism is the culture and even part of his/her ethnicity. I see religion, culture, ethnicity as all separate things, but not so in this eastern mindset. There would be as much or even more scorn for a Hindu child to claim to be something other than Hindu just like it's preposterous for a Jewish person to depart of Judaism. The decision to change religions would be incredibly disrespectful to the entire family, it would seem like the child was disowning his/her parents and family; it would seem to the family that the child is denying his/her ethnicity/heritage/blood. What a fear that seems insurmountable. But, why be a lemming? Yea, it's hard and unpleasant to depart from the teachings of loves ones/family, but just because someone you may care about wants to die a horrific death, it doesn't mean you should go down with him/her. Save yourself and plead with your loved one to save him/herself as well, but if he/she choose not to save him/herself that is not your fault and it would be significantly worse for you to die needlessly as well.

Quick thought before going to bed (from Phil originally). God is love, huh? How often is that our perception of the god of Christianity or similar monotheistic view? But, it seems that we say, "God is love," we actually mean, "Love is God." See the difference? I may explore that a little more tomorrow.

It's late again. There is more I'd like to write, but maybe that will be saved for tomorrow. We will be out talking to people for real tomorrow. I know I will learn much more. I'm excited.

Day 3

Today started with an early morning run as usual. I found a trail today that runs into several parks; there must be at least 5 miles of trails. I'm pretty excited about this. So, I'll check those out tomorrow morning. 

After breakfast, we had two more sessions of teaching about Islam and how to do door-to-door evangelism. We then quickly picked up bagged lunches to get on the coach (bus) to head to a Gurdwara (Sikh temple). As it turns out this is the largest Gurdwara outside of India. We had the opportunity to have one of the teachers there spend an hour with us to learn about the Sikh religion and give us a tour of the Gurdwara. We finished by having some meal of sorts on our way out that is special somehow. I also learned about the origin of the Sikh religion.

The origin is a bit dodgy (sketchy) from the version of the story I heard. Apparently, this great teacher asked if any of his followers would give up his life (head) for him. One did, and was led into a tent with the teacher. The teacher came out moments later with blood on his sword and asked for another. Five men in total agreed to die for the teacher and his teachings. The teacher went back into the tent after this and brought the five men out. As we were told, what happened in the tent is left to our imagination. It is implied that a miracle occurred causing the men to be brought back to life. Many believed this miracle and followed the teacher.

We walked directly to a Mosque after this. We were led around by the man who leads the daily prayers. He spent quite some time explaining the pillars of Islam and then opened the rest of the time up to questions. The Mosque was incredibly simple and nothing like the other holy places we had visited. There were almost no decorations. The only thing I found interesting was the separation of women from the men for the prayers. The teacher answering our questions was clearly not ad hearing to the stricter Islamic beliefs. He told us that to go to heaven, all one had to do was believe in a supreme monotheistic god and do more good than evil. Other than that, we can just ask Allah for forgiveness and we would likely get it. There was a caveat though, it seems that Allah would like grant forgiveness of sins against him, but others may not grant us forgiveness of sins against them. So, it was implied that these sins would have to be paid for somehow. I also found the fact that the Muslim is directed to enact revenge on someone that had wronged him/her as long as it is the right payment for the sin.

>From what he said, he made it seem there was no reason to be Muslim because pretty much everyone was OK as long as you tried hard to do good. Intentionally doing evil though was a topic he wouldn't speak about. He also expressed that if a person couldn't follow any of the directions of Islam (praying, going to Mecca, etc.) for whatever reason, that it was totally cool and Allah would understand.

After leaving the Mosque, we went to the Asha (Hope – Hindi) shop. This place is a charity shop (like Goodwill). It is incredibly small, but generates needed revenue for the missionaries here. It is also a great way for some of the missionaries to connect with people in the area. We then had pizza and organized ourselves for going door-to-door to share about Jesus.

The time going door-to-door was great. These people are nothing like Americans. These people are friendly, willing to take time to talk, enjoy company, and are just overall great. We even started the intro that we were "Jesus-followers" and told them we were from a Masih Ghar (church/temple). There was only one out of the eight people we visited that didn't want to take the survey. The rest took the survey and we talked about their community and religious background. We had one guy answer the door in his briefs only. He couldn't speak much English so it was even more awkward to communicate that we appreciate his attempt to talk with us. The family at the last house we went to was great. He was the most friendly, easy-going, jovial guy. He basically believed everything every religion said. That was interesting. But he invited us in for juice after we finished the survey. We took the mango juice and then his wife offered us come curry. I was more than happy to accept, but my partner realized it was 8pm and we were supposed to be back at our meeting place then. She seemed to start panicking, but I told her to chill out and that we were going to enjoy the food and their company. I can't stress how friendly these people were – all of them even. Nothing like America.

As we all made it back to our meeting place, each pair shared stories of how much fun and exciting it was to talk to the people and share about Jesus. I mean, these people are totally cool with talking about religion and beliefs and enjoy having you come to their homes. How cool is that? Boo America for not being as cook as these people were.

It was also interesting that each of them identified themselves as Sikhs, but all of them said they didn't follow any of the teachings or even go to services/worship. The prevailing belief "try hard to do good and you're ok," seems to be the prevailing belief of not only America, but also in London. This was interesting because we were in an entirely Sikh neighborhood. Also, the children demonstrate much less of any belief in the traditional Sikh teachings, but the young adults were very eager to hear about Jesus. We could see that they knew something was lacking for their life and that their parent's religion was nothing more than praying to pictures and statues and desperately wanted more and to know the Truth.

Tomorrow we will be out on the streets during the day. This is going to be really cool, because we will be in a largely Sikh and Muslim area – like nearly almost all people claim to believe with some to many practicing.

Fantastic. Goodnight. I'm tired.

Day 4

Today started again with sessions of teaching. The first on prayer and the second on how to do street ministry type stuff. So, as usual, I had a difficult time staying awake because I'm not great staying interested when people talk at me. After the sessions, we loaded up on a coach to head to Southall. Today, we were on the streets talking to people and praying over the area. 

Arriving in Southall, we unpacked and started setting up the table. We setup shop right beside a bus stop and in front of a KFC. As soon as we start setting up the table, this Muslim man approaches us (knowing we were Christians) and starts yelling at Hamed. I thought this was very interesting – he was rebuking Hamed for forsaking his heritage and religion to follow a lie. This person was in his face, yelling for about 10-15 minutes. Some of the other guys who are here permanently began to divert his attention so Hamed could get to doing what he was supposed to do – distribute literature and talk to people.

The person is continuing to yell at a couple of the other guys in the group. But even so, the rest of us had setup the table and were beginning to talk to people and hand out literature. We have a person about 20 feet each way down on the sidewalk handing out pamphlets and telling people to stop by the table. After a little while, I decide that I will take over the handing out the pamphlets to passers-by. As I take over for whoever was there before, the Muslim man thought it would be good to yell at me. (Mind you, he has been yelling at the other guys this entire time.) So, before I can hand anything out, he is in my face yelling at me. He is telling me how the Qur'an is the holy book for this generation and that the Bible is outdated and no longer supreme. This goes on for maybe 10 minutes. Then one of the other staff guys is able to get the attention on him and off me. So, I walk away and resume my handing out pamphlets.

I must say that these people are awesome – nothing like Americans. You hand them a pamphlet and they say "Thank You." They immediately open it and read it as they are walking away. Many times people walked over to me out of their walking path to get a pamphlet. People waited to get them if there were several people around. Totally cool. I think I probably only had around a 10% rejection rate. Nearly everyone took a pamphlet.

When I was walking the table itself, there was one sweet old woman who was so excited. A guy handing out the pamphlets told her to stop by the table. She comes up and just looks at me and says, "Some guy told me to stop by" (in not so good English). It was great; I gave her some info on activities for her kids.

Pretty much the rest of the day was spent in prayer. I spent and hour with Nicole walking around the Southall area praying over the businesses and the people in the area. After we got back home and ate dinner, we spent another couple of hours praying over the mission efforts in general and then our Frontline team broke off to pray for each other and the mission team to Lebanon. I met up with many of the other people here at a pub down the street. I met new people and was interrogated on how to handle male attention appropriately. What fun.

Tomorrow will be a day to learn a little about the post-modern culture and how to reach these types of people followed by some tourist activities. I'll be seeing Les Miserables tomorrow evening – how cool.

Thoughts on the day. I'm not sure my thoughts on this Muslim man attacking us. I can't really imagine why. I suppose he was attempting to show us the error of our ways, but that really wasn't his motivation. I believe he was just looking to validate his own beliefs by attacking others. This happens very much in grade school – where one attempts to embarrass or intimidate another simply to feel like he/she actually is better. I imagine that he was going to feel validated by attempting to make us look like fools. I was proud of the responses of everyone he yelled at. Nobody argued back, or was harsh, etc. But, as a phase I'm so fond of says, "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care," his approach showed no concern for me or my well-being. If he in fact cared about my beliefs, and me he would have asked them and then expressed his concern because he believed they were wrong. He would not give me time to speak – always interrupting, asked questions without waiting for responses, and told me that I shouldn't exist. I suppose it is these people that I have the most pity for – the people who are set in their ways not willing to examine and question other information. It goes both ways though, like the man I met yesterday. He was set in his ways to believe absolutely anything (covering all basis), which fails logically of course, and this Muslim man whom would not listen to a caring voice. Pride sux huh? It keeps us from admitting we are wrong in our beliefs and actions. Or maybe fear – from being though of was wrong or unreliable or unlovable. No matter what though, truth is right and anything other than that will only bring about turmoil, confusion, and ultimately destruction.

I'm excited about tomorrow. Goodnight.

Day 5

So today was our day off. You'd think a day off would be relaxing and the like, but it definitely was not. It's tough being a tourist – for real. 

The day started was I went with some others to Camden Town to see the place. World Harvest is going to be placing a team there later this year to reach to the people in that area. This area was definitely pretty cool. It is an interesting mix of punk, Goth, and young professionals. We spent the time checking out the many shops mostly, and then a little while praying over the area.

The punk and Goth shops were definitely interesting. I enjoyed all of the cool sort of t-shirts and cloths of the punk places. The Goth places had really unique outfits. Very creative (as long as it is black). I thought it was interesting how most of the shops were selling all sorts of marijuana (weed, pot, 420 …) paraphernalia. You wont' see that in the states.

After this, we went to Piccadilly Circus to eat at a Japanese place. That was fun and good (and expensive of course). It's funny how the numbers are just slighted lower than what you'd see in the states for a meal, but it actually costs about twice as much. Boo that. I picked up the tickets for the show later in the evening and then Ryan and I dropped Mimi off to meet up with the other girls. Ryan and I caught the tube to visit Westminster Abby. 10£ to see a bunch of dead people and high ceilings. I suppose if you like history and dead people then cool. Not so exciting for Ryan and I. We then walked around St. James Park down to Buckingham Palace relaxing on the way there in some chairs apparently you are supposed to pay for.

After a while, we made it back to Piccadilly Circus where we grabbed dinner at an Italian place and scurried of to the theatre to see Les Miserables. Wow, what a cool musical. The stage rotates around and the props transform to setup the different scenes. The singing was grand (of course), but the storyline was wonderful. It's been a while since I had read the book, but I do remember very much liking the (incredibly long) book.

From the start, you see a man (Jean Valjean) dejected and oppressed by the law. Then out of nowhere, a godly man invites him in. Jean steals from the godly man only to be caught again by the law. The man not only tells the police that he had things that were given to him, but also gives him even more. The godly man says that his soul has now been purchased for God. Throughout the show, each scene pointed to man's depravity and then to God's grace – giving us what we don't deserve, not just pardoning, but giving above and beyond. The police officer, who had lived his entire life trying to punish Jean for his past crimes, was then placed in Jean's hands during the rebellion. The rebellion would have quickly killed him, but Jean freed him. The police officer then was unable to live with himself because he had been shown grace and had throughout his life never shown mercy to any prisoners that he couldn't accept it. He committed suicide because he knew he owed his life to Jean, the one he hated most. I see the everyday man here in the police officer. As we live life, we adhere to what we are used to and what is comfortable because it seems right. But when we are shown there is more than what we know, we cannot comprehend and deny it. The grace shown to the police officer by Jean was so far out for the police officer that he couldn't take it. I have noticed that this is also true of Jesus. Jesus is so far out for what's comfortable or understandable that we deny that anything so amazing is possible. It doesn't make sense; it doesn't fit my mold; it isn't how I view the world. The stubbornness drives this man suicide. I feel like in the world in which we live, our stubbornness drives us to denial of Jesus and the possibility of a truly fulfilling, fun, peaceful, and content life. We may not die immediately, but we live without assurance of tomorrow, with worry, and in misery. That may as well be death, how is that life worth living?

Well, there is a lot more to the book, movie, and show that I'd recommend you see for yourself. If you do get into more of the story, see how you can see your life represented in the characters. You can also see the results of poor choices, but then you can see the opportunities for the characters to change and see the hope that ensues when they do.

It's been a long day of checking out the city. Feet are sore, I'm exhausted, and there are three days left. I'm excited about tomorrow to go back and visit some of people we met when going door-to-door the other day.

Day 6

Again, the day started with mow more sessions of teaching. Again, I seem to be good at dozing off in the front row. Everyday of the conference are sessions. Being the type of person I am, a doer, I'd rather be out working. So, sitting being talked at isn't all that exciting for me. I am preached at quite a lot. Learning is great, but nothing is really learned until it is tested in real life with action. So, I have heard much, but have practiced much less. Sure, I can think I'm all wise, smart, etc, but that is just my ego. Just wait until I try to do it myself – guess what, I'll fail – yay humiliation. Then we know that I'm just a poser. Life is where it's at, not in the hypothetical. 

After the sessions of teaching, we had a four-hour break. This was really nice. Mimi and I ran down to visit the cows and then walked around further talking and the like. We found a small beach and family hang out area, along with more running trails. That was really cool. When I saw we ran, I mean that Mimi ran and I walked briskly.

The relaxation was crucial because I was exhausted after the day of sightseeing and the like. We grabbed our dinners (they are either being stingy with food or the English just don't eat much) and got on the coach to head back to where we had done door-to-door.

Jennifer and I got our materials back together and headed back out to our street we had visited before. We ran into the one woman who wanted The Jesus Film on our way there. Her mom was in the hospital and the family was going to visit her, but her 21-year old son was still at home. We found him, Guv, and had a great time. As soon as he opens the door and hears us introduce ourselves he says, "Your American?!? Wow this is great, it's not everyday I get Americans at my front door. I've never had Americans at my front door." He was great fun to talk to and showed us around the religious background of his family and his own perspective on life, God, etc.

We did some more interviews, and ran into another man who we talked to for half and hour. He spoke at least six languages and said he was going to learn two more simply because the languages were spoken somewhere in his community. He was well read and educated as well. I must say, that I enjoy the candor of these people. As we spoke to this man, there was no concern about being politically correct. He stated things the way he saw them. I'd like to share one I thought the most funny/absurd. He was discussing racism, specifically between white and black. "Have you had Guinness? Ever notice how the foam and white and the beer is black? That's because whites always have to be on top." What a fun guy. He said he'd also like to see the Jesus Film on DVD because he was on the cutting edge.

Most of the people we interacted with said, "Jesus is the Son of God." Yet, even though they said this, it did not seem like the teachings of Jesus were esteemed highly. I'd expect someone who believed that Jesus is the Son of God that anything Jesus did or said would be regarded as scared, truth, real, and the ultimate scripture to follow. I don't know; it just follows. How can you say that you have God with you teaching you and yet you are still going to look to the many gods of Hinduism, the teachings of Buddha, the Qur'an, or the Sikh teachers? It just doesn't follow.

There is so much happening in the lives of those we meet. I very much envy the lifestyle these people have here – at least the friendliness and the condor. I hate being politically correct.

Listening to Casting Crowns, these resonate:

Living on my own, thinking for myself
Castles in the sand, temporary wealth
...
Curse this morning sun
Drags me in to one more day
Of reaping what I've sown
Of living with my shame
Welcome to my world
And the life that I have made
Where one day you're a prince
The next day you're a slave

And I've held out as long as I can
Now I'm letting go and holding out my hand
...

Day 7

Breakfast and a morning session - only one this morning. Again, Ryan had to poke me a time or two to keep me awake. I'm not if the fact that I sleep six or fewer hours a night has anything to do with it, but I really believe it's just sitting in a chair in a room with people talking. 

We grabbed food for lunch and hopped on the bus to head out to Wembley. We reached Wembley and setup table. But, wow, today was much different from when we did table outreach earlier. Maybe it's because it was Sunday or maybe it was the area or maybe it was us – who knows. Today, I don't think anybody stopped by the table to pick up any of the materials. It was definitely different. Most people still took the handouts, but that was it. It seemed like many had their kids with them and were shopping for groceries for the week and the like.

Nicole and I went to the Mandir and the Mosque in the area to pray over the people there, the various shops, and the like along the streets as well. But there was a totally different feeling today, but I know that it wasn't because I wasn't valued. I wonder if there was some unaddressed issue/resentment in the group or something. I don't imagine that God is thrilled to use people whom cannot love their own brothers and sisters in Christ. That's not being an ambassador for Him by any means.

After this, we got on the bus to go to New Life Masih Ghar for the weekly Sunday service. The woman shared her story, which was so amazing. We followed that with much food and dancing to celebrate her 4-year birthday. She said, "I'm celebrating my real birthday today – when I was born into life, because I was born before that, but into death." How amazing? This woman clearly had an understanding of God. But, how did that happen? Well, the rest of her story is filled with much pain, sorrow, and joy. She looses two brothers and the last is deathly sick. She cries and prays over him every night. He lives! The rest of her family hates her – her children, parents, siblings, etc. She was very ill recently as well and in much pain. She asked God why, then she was ok with the pain and death, then she was happy to have the pain, and then she desire more pain and suffering, but God said, "No more for you." She is so grateful that she has agonized of the deaths in her family, the rejection of the rest of her family of her, and the scorn of friends. She shares parts of her story with others and listens to other women's issues. She can relate because she has had much sorrow and pain in her own life. What a blessing to be able to show Christ's love with others!

Why is it that we have life so easy? Why is it that we as Americans can choose to follow the One True Living God without reproach? How easy we have it. I can see the words of Jesus played out right here. Turns out the God of the universe wasn't playing around when he said:Matt 10:34-39; Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. "For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.

All I know is that we have it so easy to follow Jesus. I hear of the oppression of Christ-followers in other countries and cannot fathom what it is like. But, not only is government oppression one fear, but the fear of rejection from family, friends, and society would be much more of a fear for me. I suppose that some do reject me because of my faith and my relationship with God, but nothing to the degree of what others deal with everyday around the world.

Jesus, Bless those around the world who are oppressed and have sacrificed much because of your name. But, what is a sacrifice anyways? Sacrifice: giving up something of value for something of greater value (Brentwood Bible Church). Jesus, life with you is better than anything in this temporal, mundane, unfulfilling world. Assurance of heaven and being able to hang out with the creator of the universe after this world passes is so exciting. You have placed me in a time and place that is much easier to endure than many others around the world. I'm grateful, but sorrowful for those who suffer and do not have what you have given me. "Blessed be your name, you give and you take away, but my heart will chose to say, Jesus, Blessed be your name."

Grace, Faith, Hope, Love, Mercy, Justice – Perfection, God.

Day 8

Guess what the day started with? Yes, you got it – more learning sessions. But this morning we were only supposed to be in session until 11AM, but we ran over until 11:50. One speaker said that it was his last chance to share in front of us, so he wasn't concerned with the time. They did leave in 45 minutes for us to relax before heading out; that just didn't happen today. We grabbed lunches as usual to get on the coach. Then, off to hang out on the streets of Southall again. 

Arriving in Southall we setup the tables at the same spots as a couple days earlier. After this, my group of eight headed down for a prayer walk / tour of the area. On our way around we were told about an honor killing in the area the night before. Apparently, a woman born here in London from a Pakistani background had her marriage arranged with somebody in Pakistan. The woman refused the arranged marriage, which is apparently very disgraceful on the family. The woman's father and brother(s) then attacked her. At some point the woman managed to run out the front door covered in blood, but was dragged back in by the father. Neighbors saw this and called the police. The police arrived on the scene where the men gave themselves up saying, "She is dead in the other room." The mother of the woman watched the entire thing; I am not sure if she condoned the "honor killing."

Injustice? How can this be? Are we so depraved and vile in our current society? This type of stuff still happens? Wow?!? But, we discussed it further as a group. From the western mindset this seems absurd; how can the father and brother slaughter their own flesh and blood over a disagreement such as this? But this is a disgrace on the entire family? This action that this woman has done has tarnished the family name. She brings shame on each member of the family. How can she re-establish the respect of her family name after such a crime? Can she ever restore the family name to it honor it once held? It's important to remember that the honor/respect held by the family name is ultimately important over any individual. Quite honestly, I cannot see any why for this woman to reject the arranged marriage and somehow provide an alternative that would be as honorable on the family as a whole as the arranged marriage. I mean, the arranged marriage has another family committed and of course all of the relatives know about it (Asian families are vary large relative to American families). How are these dozens of members of each family going to talk about the rejection in an honorable fashion? I don't see how it is possible.

So, the only option is a killing. A stern punishment is out of the question because it will not seem strong enough to ensure that she will not continue to shame the family. It's interesting how after such a disgrace to her family, the only way to restore the family's honor is death (or blood). In the same way, this is how God works. Each of us had disgraced God, our Creator, our original Father, our everlasting family. We have disgraced God by rejecting him, seeking to honor ourselves and not Him, refusing to acknowledge Him in our lives, ignoring the moral conscience set inside each of us, etc. And, how can we honor God in such a way after our disgraceful/shameful actions that will restore that respect of him. We cannot. There is nothing we can do to restore His name after we have disrespected him in any way.

Guess what, God is in the same predicament (funny how that works considering He created everything and created us much like himself). He also requires death (our blood), an honor killing to sustain His good name. That is why we as humans will die someday. But even worse than this is the notion of spiritual death – separation from God forever. Complete separation from God forever is pretty much the worst thing ever because evil is merely the absence of God (where God is good).

Sounds dismal, until you know the rest of the story. God requires the blood of death to restore honor to himself. Well, this is where Jesus comes in; he died (gave up his life for his friends) to restore honor to God (the Father) in our place. We don't have to forfeit spiritual life to pay for our disgrace because Jesus has done this for us. How cool? The only thing we have to do is to honor Jesus by acknowledging his selfless act of love for each one of us. We must identify ourselves with him, and establish our identity through him. On top of that, Jesus is actually risen. He is not dead anymore, because death could not hold him down. We can have an ongoing relationship with him which brings joy, peace, contentment, excitement, etc. to our lives while honoring God (the Father), whom we disgraced.

How awesome a picture is painted of God's love and grace when viewing the gospel from an eastern perspective. I am beginning to become more comfortable with the eastern viewpoint even though critical thinking, logic, and the modern mindset aren't critical to the story – whereas that is where I many times find myself.

Day 8/9

Even though reflecting on the honor killing and just how beautiful the story of Christ is from the eastern perspective took much time, it was not the conclusion of the day. When our group returned from the prayer walk/tour we took our posts to man the tables. I spent most of my time handing out the pamphlets. Again, it's really cool to see how many people take them. It's even more funny when somebody who picked one up from another table we had setup will show me that they already have one and that's why they aren't accepting another. Maybe this has something to do with the eastern mindset/culture and the importance of respect – I don't know. 

Much to my excitement, I saw the Muslim man who had visited us the other day. He was coming my direction and of course recognized me, and I him. I greeted him cordially, and he felt the need to share his mind with me again. Much less yelling this time. He pushed the same argument that since the writing of the Qur'an, the Bible should no longer be considered the holy book. I find this rationale a bit unreliable. What if I get a revelation from God and write my own book? Does then the Qur'an then cease to be the holy book to follow? How can one claim that the Bible was once holy and contained the truth about God, and then say that Qur'an takes its place? If the Bible was once true, it is always true. A truth that changes isn't truth. The Qur'an claims to be the final authority and so does the Bible; coexistence is not an option. God is described differently and the path to salvation (being saved from hell after physical death) different. Both cannot be truth.

Nonetheless, the man concluded his argument and would walk off, then immediately return to restate the previous, and then again, and again – five times. Finally, he made his way to the book table to take one of everything on there, even though they were in various languages along with a Jesus Film. He then stated that he wanted to speak to our leader and have a debate on the coalition of people waging a war against the people of Islam. It sounded like a he was looking for a political debate with a premise that was likely not seen by us. He also seemed to believe that we followed some sort of leader. Who knows, we just follow Jesus not some learned man.

After the book tables we packed up and had dinner at the school. Following dinner was a final session of debriefing. This time was truly awesome, because throughout the room people would share of their experiences and interactions they had throughout the week. So, there were some very encouraging stories about people who talked to two friends where one thought constantly about the Devil and the other about God; a sisters possessed by demons; a man saying he has been searching for somebody to talk to him about Jesus; many others where people were eager to learn about Jesus because they had tried the Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim religions only to find that there was no love only rules. Many more stories were shared, what an encouragement. I'm excited to know that the team that will continue here will get to follow-up with these people and share the love of Christ with them.

The following morning, I went out for a long run, and then we packed up and headed out for a day of relaxing in London. After checked in, Ryan and I headed off to check out parts of the city and then relax in St. James Park. Relaxing in the park was awesome because we took naps, read, wrote, and played Frisbee. Ryan and I met up with the rest of the team for dinner. After this most of the team went to watch Guys and Dolls while I spent the evening writing and replying to emails that I hadn't been able to get to for the duration of the trip.

After a night spent sleeping in sweat, Ryan and I rose early to spend the morning hanging out in the park again until our plane trip back to the states. We are both excited to get back home where there is air conditioning, friends, our own beds, and work. I'm glad that we have been busy on the trip because I get bored easily, but I do enjoy working and it will be nice to get back into that. A little more time in the park, then we'll head back to catch our flight.

Cheers!

Journal of Trip: http://jason1365.dynu.com/hope/Guatemala Trip.doc

Worked in Guatemala for the week of March 7th.
The UVa Chi Alpha team distributed the 'Book of Hope' (examples).
Pictures From Trip: http://jason1365.dynu.com/hope/

Journal of Trip: http://jason1365.dynu.com/hope/Guatemala%20Trip.doc 

Friday, March 12, 10:00 PM

1 st school (2144-2162): This is our first school of the last day here. We want to ‘leave it all out on the concrete,' as Pete says for our last day. We will be doing two presentations at this school, one to the younger kids and one to the older kids. Our first crowd gathered almost all the way around us. We did our usual elementary routine for these guy and passed out the books. The kids went right back to class after this, so we didn't get to hang out with them at all. A little while later the older kids came and gathered around. As usual they seemed like a tough crowd, having a seemingly apathetic attitude. But, during my skit and my testimony I looked at each one of them and could tell they were paying attention and thinking about what we were doing and saying. This was especially evident when I was sharing- it's awesome to see people relating cross culturally to what I am saying. After the skits we handed out the books. I made sure I handed books out to the older girls in the group, just because it's fun to watch their reactions. Many of them don't really look at me or show interest in getting the book. So, that isn't quite as fun. But the funny part is after we handed out the books, I guess they had some free time. We started packing up and making small talk with some of the kids. A group of girls comes up to me and I say, “Adios.” I guess that isn't the best way to make friends, they turned and walked off. But as it turns out we weren't in a rush, so we were going to stay for a few minutes. Then a small group of girls comes over to talk to me, and say they would like a picture. Pete agrees to take the picture of me with the girls, all the while saying in a horrible American accent, “el guapo.” Well, this started a chain reaction. After I took the first picture another group of girls came up and wanted one, then another, and ... You get the idea. Finally I exhausted my girl supply, finished packing up, and we left for our next school.
2 nd school (2163-2166): We were back at the same school we were at yesterday that had the incredibly large area of us to do our presentations. Again, this was a different set of kids than yesterday, all elementary age with some middle school age kids. We did the usual elementary presentation. We had to keep moving now, because we had one more school then lunch, and just a busy rest of the day. We didn't get to hang out with the kids after the presentation. Now on to our last school.
3 rd school (2179-2188): This is our last school – so sad. Our final school was an elementary school with some pretty young kids. We were performing on the second level of the school in a pretty small area. You guessed it, the usual elementary presentation. We gave out the books after the presentation. This was the last time we would be passing out the books. While packing up, Pete finds this cute little girl named Jocelyn that he talks to with the help of Helen. Pete said he would have adopted her on the spot if he could have. We then headed off to lunch with the pastor. This was our last school, and now our last time to hang out with the pastor.
We had a fun last meal with the pastor and his friends. We took several more pictures so that he could remember us, and us him. Then we decided we would give him a gift. Normally there is money left over from the mission trip budget to give the extra to the church, but this trip we didn't have any. So each of use put in some money to give to the pastor. Pete said a little speech telling him how thankful we were to get to work with him being somebody who is so driven and passionate about spreading the gospel. We gave him the money and he started crying. He seemed so amazed that we would give him anything. We have so much to give to them. What is basically nothing to us, is so much to them. We ended up giving around $130, but he didn't look at the money when we gave it to him, he just was so grateful to get anything. After we all hugged the pastor and told him thanks for everything, we packed up and headed back home.
We had a few minutes back home to get changed and ready to go to Antigua . We were going to spend the rest of the afternoon doing some touristy type things and some shopping. This turned out to be quite fun actually. Looking at the stuff in the markets and walking around the area was nice. Then we got to get into the bartering game. I was intimidated at first because we don't do that here in the US . So I bought a machete first and wasn't able to get it down to the price I wanted, but oh well. Then I just wanted to learn how to barter a little, so I bought some cheap things and watched others. Then Celeste and I went around to buy some stuff. She got really into it, and was being really stern and such. She also knew some Spanish, which helped a little. So I got a bunch of stuff for cheap. Even if I would have paid what they originally asked it wouldn't have been that expensive. But it seems you could get a lot of the stuff there for about 1/3 of the first price they told you. So that was fun. After hanging out there for a while, we headed back to Guatemala City . Apparently we were going to go to a fairly nice restraint for our last dinner there.
It seems like we are the only people in the restaurant and we have a room all to ourselves. Everybody was here from both teams and our drivers and translators. This was a sort of award and thank-you thing for coming. So it was fun. It turns out our team (the UVa team) went to 24 schools in a little over 4 days and handed out nearly 10,000 books. Amazing. That is just awesome to think we could have influenced that many lives in such a short time.

Devotions

Pete: Duet. 4:9: What is going be in your heart from this trip 3 months from now? 3 years from now? 13 years from now? In Christianity we aren't good at remembering. Not only did God want us to change the lives of others, but he also wanted to change our lives in this experience. We are going to forget. What are you going to do to assure that you won't forget? How are we going to careful to remember the people here as well as what God has shown us and how God has changed us? “What yourselves closely so you do not forget the images your eyes have seen…teach your children…” “Don't let it slip from your heart.”  

Thursday, March 11, 11:00 PM

Well, today was another great day. I woke up refreshed for some reason even though I haven't been getting that much sleep this week. Our first school to visit was on the top of a mountain. Definitely a fun drive going to the top of the mountain, we got to look and see the beautiful scenery (mountains and volcanoes) in the morning. Going out to the mountain, we saw people walking up the road – amazing. This road went straight up the mountain for a few miles until we got the school. What a wonderful view from the school playground area.

1 st school (1990-2003): We were to give the presentation on this dirt field - very large and dusty. We brought the soccer ball with us, so Aaron, Pete, Jim, and I played around with that while we were waiting for the kids to come. Heidi was also feeling sick and puked at the edge of the field (and when I say field, I mean hard dirt ground). Pete with his usual fantastic soccer skills almost kicks the ball over the edge once, and then his second time with the ball just punts it off the edge of the field. This was about the same place Heide puked – good job Pete. Aaron went in down after the ball and Pete tried to follow. Pete wasn't able to get back up the hill, so Jim went partly down and I held onto Jim and we pulled Pete up the hill. We did the usual skits we do, but during one of the skits Heidi decided to try something new. She played dead rather then doing one of the other tricks in the bag. This was the dirtiest and dustiest place we had been ever – what an interesting time to try this one out. And Celeste didn't even notice what she was doing either. This was the first school of the day to give us food after our presentation. So generous, and we have to eat the food because we don't want to offend these people. Especially since they are all poor, and if we turn down their offer to us, that just makes us look stuck up and pious. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

2 nd school (2012-2020): We were now back the school we were at yesterday – the poorest school we had been to. This time we were there in the morning and therefore a different set of students than the day before. The kids all came out and gathered around us completely so they all could see. These kids are so poor and go to school and live in a very poor, dirty, and disgusting environment. These are the kids that can come to our Hopefest later tonight. The church where we will be doing this hopefest is located in this incredibly poor area. Even during our presentation we had some people watch us from a house that could look into the school. It's amazing what a few Americans symbolize and the power we have to influence this kids. After passing out the books and bracelets we were on our way. But the amazing thing with this group is that many of the kids and teachers there asked for additional copies of the book to give to their friends or kids that weren't there. How awesome is that, these people are so grateful and want to share anything they get with others.

3 rd school (2022-2046): This school was pretty small and the area we had for our presentation was really small as well. We got there during their recess, so Jim, I, and Pete kicked the ball around with the kids for a little while. While setting up I realized that somehow a speaker had blown and now we were down to one speaker. Not cool at all.

4 th school (2056-2073): This school was a lot of fun. We got there during their recess with plenty of time to play with the kids. We setup the music and played that a little during the recesses – some of the team members starting doing a little bit of funny dancing for the kidsWe had a lot of time to get to talk with the kids before the presentation. I asked many of them their names, while other tried to teach them a little bit of English. I had them try to get my age – 31, wow. . This is all just so much fun. We had such a large area to present, it was awesome. Because of this, Jim and I thought it would be fun if we used an actual soccer ball in our skit rather than faking like we were kicking one around. There were a lot of kids at this school and the large area made it fun to present.

5 th school (2088-2105): This was our final school for the day and we were pretty exhausted already, but we still have the hopefest to do tonight. This school had some a wide range of ages and wasn't a very responsive crowd at all. After the presentation and handing out the books we invited all of them to the hopefest later that night offering the bracelets as a gimmick to get them to come. The school had their recess after the presentation which is usually fun for us. But this time was a bit different. I think every kid came out with a small pad of paper to have each of us sign our names in. I signed my name over and over again for probably 30 minutes straight. Totally awesome, then they school had some Cokes and sandwiches for us to eat even though just had lunch. These kids were a lot of fun, and energetic after the presentation. Some of the even wanted us to sign their shirts.

We were now done with schools for the day, but we wanted to go back to the overlook that overlooks the city where we were at earlier in the week to pray before the hopefest. Up there I learned that Celeste and Kathy get scared really easily, maybe it's because they act just like mothers. Don't get near the edge, or do any sort of playing around up there where you might fall off. What fun to mess with them.

After getting back from overlook, we ate dinner then hurried off to setup for the Hopefest. We got there a little after 7, even though we said we would start at 7. I guess there is a Latin America time about 30 minutes later than stated. Because the place only filled up around 7:30 when we finished setting up.

What an event – the Hopefest. We were in this very little place. It was made of a concrete slab with some 2x4s making the frame of the entire place. Covering the 2x4s was some tin, which made up all sides and roof. There was one small door at the back, one outlet in the front and some lights that hung from overhead. The entire church could have been built for $500, no bathroom or anything, just a slab of concrete enclosed with some tin. Apparently plastic lawn chairs are the cheapest chairs around, so that is what seems to be used a lot, to fill the church, at the dinner table, everywhere.

Well a quick rundown of the actual Hopefest. We were planning to start off with a song, then a skit and testimony, then another song, skit, testimony, then another song followed by our big skit then a short message. Well here is how it turned out.

We had already lost one speaker earlier in the day, so we were down to one speaker for the hopefest, and because the place was made of tin, the acoustics were not pleasant either. I had a very hard time trying to prevent feedback in the room. So we start off our first song and all seems to go well, except the fact that we didn't have enough cables to hook up the keyboard so, that couldn't be heard. During the song though, the guitar would seem to come in and out. The connection was fine; the wire was not be moved or anything, yet the guitar would suddenly go dead. I would try to mess with the sound controls to get it back but that didn't help. Then it would come back in, and it would be really loud because I was messing with things and I would turn it down, etc. This happened several times, no explanation for this at all. Then near the end of the song, a string on the guitar broke. Things are just going well huh?

So as Pete is trying to get a new string on the Guitar, we have to switch up which skit we are going to do, and then stars confusion. I wasn't supposed to share my testimony, but since the skit was changed, it was now my turn to share. I did my part, but then we were supposed to go into song again. While setting up for the song, it turns out Pete put the wrong string on the guitar and it was sounding really bad, so scrap that. Another skit instead. Setup, get into places, the whole team is confused. Who is doing what roles in the skit, etc. It's getting pretty chaotic now. Nevertheless we make it through the skit and share, but what are we doing next? Can we do a song? What should we be getting ready for?

During the testimony we decided to scrap the song, and go into our sort of finishing skit, ‘Puppet Master.' This place is really small, we have never had so little room to work with. This skit needs more room than we are given, for the fact that the skit has 9 people in it. There is supposed to be many steps across the stage back and forth and such. But we get doing it very packed together and don't do too bad given the room. But then at the main transitional point in the skit where many of us fall to the sides, one of the girls accidentally hits the sound system knocking out the sound. The skit is entirely musically based, all the cues are to the music, there are no words or anything in the skit at all. I was on the other side of the room, in my position, and could really go check it out. None of us knew what to do, we were mid-skit. Our leader just said for us to go on without the music. We agreed, but didn't know how we would do it at all, because we relied upon the musical cues to tell us when to do stuff. So we got up and just had to whisper to each other when to make each transition and we all had to watch each other and try to stay in step. The skit completed, but what a mess, this skit was saved for this one purpose. It was for the culmination of the week and everything, and it went miserably. To work so hard on that skit and have it go just completely wrong the one and only time it was to be performed was somewhat discouraging.

After an explanation of the skit, it's time for Pete to give a short message. He does, through our translator. I again had a hard time preventing feedback with two microphones and one speaker with the acoustics of the room. Then Pete gave the opportunity for anybody to come who wanted to be Saved. Nobody came for a while, then a young kid, then another, until there were about twelve kids up there. Awesome huh? Then Pete gave the opportunity for anybody to come up for healing and the team would pray over them. A woman came with her child who had a fever, then another woman, then another and another. We prayed over them for quite some time. It was amazing to really see God working during this time. I have never experiences the praying in tongues thing before (when you pray in a language only understood by God), so that was a first for me. It got pretty crowded up there with everybody up near the front. It was interesting to see this one woman we were praying for just start jumping up and down for over ten minutes saying something that nobody could understand while we were praying for her. She was just so happy. Eventually the excitement at the front died down and we were done with our part of the ‘Hopefest.'

Then the pastor came to speak to the people. I didn't know what he was saying to them, but eventually it turned out they were going to take an offering for us. How could they do that? These people have nothing. Some of them probably have jobs, but even with jobs they have nowhere close to as much as a homeless person here in America has. But, they did take up an offering, even though we didn't want them to, and we accepted it. It turned out to amount to about $12. This just was amazing that these people would give in their poor state to us, to us! We make more money in one year than these people may see in a lifetime, but yet they give us the little money they have. They knew we were from the US , they know how much better off we probably are. I mean we did pay to come there for 1 week just to see these people. You can't do that unless you have some amount money – significantly more than they do.

After this we gave out bracelets and then started to pack up. Even during this the people there did not leave. The pastor told them to leave several times, but they still sat there. This was weird to me, because the people were very unresponsive to us – in my opinion. I felt as if, they were bored the whole time, but then why would they not leave? I guess there are just cultural differences that I don't understand. It was a little after 9 pm now. Some of the team members were talking with some of kids and other people there. Then the translator kept telling us to hurry up and get going. That was annoying, we were in no big rush, we had nothing else to do that night. But then we finally all got into the van. Then our translator tells us to lock the doors and windows and to not open them. I asked her if she was just kidding, and she sternly said, ‘No.' Hmmmm. Then our driver drives like a maniac out of there. We must have been doing like 50 miles an hour through those dirt roads and around the corners to get back home. We have never taken those roads faster than like 25 before. Our translator then explains that the gangs are pretty bad in that area of town, that at least one person will end up dead each night due to gang violence. Then on top of that, this was like 10 Americans all in one van in this part of town. Talk about a target, they knew we have money or could get it quickly. Nevertheless, we made it home just fine, a little bit of a rough ride, but we were home safe.

The following is some notes taken when the team was talking about how the hopefest went and what happened and all.

Hopefest is a big deal, but not the only deal. We can't look at the hopefest as how fruitful the whole trip was.
Celest: Any victory that happened tonight must have been because of God; it was nothing to do with us. We were stripped of everything that could have allowed us to take any credit for ourselves.
Kevin: No matter how much preparation we do, it all depends on God.
One of the hardest things on missions trips is being served by the nationals. So humbling, we have so much they have so little, yet they are the ones serving us. They took an offering for us… I think there is a reason why we didn't have dinner at his house. Yet he is so grateful in the midst of it all. He loves us and the people around him so much.
Pete: I've never seen that many things go wrong in such a little amount of time.
One speaker, guitar coming in and out, broken string, wrong string back on, sound out in puppet master, forget money for skit. Totally out of order and complete chaos. Felt us praying for him while he was speaking. We look at kids and say, ‘they are kids', but these kids came on their own. Heaven rejoices over even one. When we pray for healing, whatever happens is between God and that person. Felt like God was really moving in the woman that was jumping up and down. Hope nobody was freaked out about praying in tongues, felt like the Holy Spirit was really working. Thinks couldn't have gone worse, but things couldn't have gone better. If we want to know if we met expectations, look at the pastor. Even though they weren't responsive during the dramas, there is a different church culture we were dealing with. They wouldn't leave even thought they were told to leave several times. Even if nobody responded, or even shown up, God would have seen it as a success because we were faithful.

Wednesday, March 10, 10:00 PM

Another day completed. Wow, a lot of fun. After breakfast in the morning and being up at 6 AM as usual we were on our way. Today we did some school that we a little bit poorer than yesterday and one that was the poorest we had been to.

1 st school (1896-1898): We get there and unpack; these are kids in first and second grade. As we are unpacking there is no power cord for the sound system. My responsibility, good job Jason. We were able to borrow a CD player from the school, but we wouldn't have any microphones for the presentation. We sent back one of the guys who is in charge of this whole project back to find the power cord I carelessly left. I can't say that there was a lot that stuck out with this group of kids. They responded well and accepted the books.

2 nd school (1899-1916): This school was a lot of fun. The kids were very energetic. We got there during their recess time – maybe 45 minutes before our presentation. So during this time we got to play with the kids. This is the best part I think. I get to ask them their names and ages and such. That is about the extent of Spanish I can really do. Several of them kept offering me some of their snacks, which I accepted and ate even though I didn't really want to. These kids definitely liked to be in pictures. It's great seeing the excitement on their faces when they get an opportunity to be in a picture with an American or just any picture at all. I showed them the picture I took with them on my camera. Boy, were they amazed; I had so many of them just staring at the LCD screen and more asking to see. Good thing I didn't try to show them all of the pictures on my camera. One thing I really like about all of these schools is the uniforms. I know we balk it the thought, but all the kids looking the same makes things so much simpler for everybody. Plus they all look so organized and such with them. This was our first presentation were the kids yelled for an encore. We were planning on doing our traditional three skits that we do for the school with kids this age. So after the first one, they yelled for encore and we told them we would be doing two more. After the second skit, they yelled for encore again even though we told them there would be another after the second one. We did the third skit and they yelled for more. But our time was up and we had another school to get to before lunch.

3 rd school (1922-1934): This was a Christian school that was part of a church, so we went in assuming they all know about Jesus and the like. All the kids were pretty young, probably our smallest crowd yet. These kids did not seem to want to pay attention much or sit still in their seats. I didn't quite get it, they were constantly turning around look at the back and there was nothing going on in the back. We did our usual younger kid presentation. There was this one girl who had lost both of her legs and was unable to write because her hands were deformed. She was just the sweetest girl as Celeste describers her.

Before lunch we headed to where the “hopefest” would be the next day. I was expecting something that could hold a good number of people and a stage. But we show up to this tiny shack with no windows and one small door in the back, very dimly lit, in a pretty poor part of town. We gave directions out to all of the kids at the schools today and I can't imagine how they will find it, but I sure hope they do. Even though the conditions are very limited, especially space, I'm excited to see what will happen tomorrow night.

(1935-1954) Now is time for lunch, of course I was excited about this. The food was definitely a bit different, but alright. We were eating in a friend of the pastor's house. After lunch, Pete tells he is leaving for the rest of the day along with all of the other leaders to go hang out in Antigua . So they drive off in the van and the taxi leaves as well, leaving 9 college students in the middle of a fairly dangerous part of Guatemala City . I wanted to walk around while we waited for the van to return empty, but apparently it was a bit too dangerous for that. Jim and Heidi were quite tired during dinner and decided to take a nap while we were still eating (1935). We got to see a kid named Denis while we were waiting; he lived across the dirt path (road). We just relaxed and goofed around until the van arrived.

4 th school (1955-1975): This was by far the poorest school we had been to. Running outside the school was a ditch dug for sewage; we hadn't seen this anywhere before. Trash cans were in the middle of the courtyard filled with trash. The courtyard was just a cleared area with some gravel on the hard dirt ground. During the presentation a really skinny dog came in and began to rummage through the trash. The kids were leaning on the trash cans while this was happening and didn't even seem to notice. This is also the first school were the kids did not have some sort of uniform on; no matching tops or anything. Apparently this means the kids at the school are really poor. As you can see from the pictures, sheets act as doors and windows. These kids weren't as energetic as we were used to being a younger crowd, but they did show a fair amount of excitement. Bringing them the books and giving them bracelets, I'm sure meant a whole lot to them. To think they may never had a book before, or not one of their own. One of the teachers came and asked for more copies of the book for her kids that she could not afford to send to school. Many of the kids wanted more bracelets to give to their siblings as well. I guess it just goes to show you that when you and your family have nothing, when one gets something, he/she wants to share it with the rest of the family. I wish the American culture has some of the same wonderful qualities this poor people in Guatemala City had. As we left this place it was just sad to see how incredibly poor some people are in this world.

5 th school (1976-1978): We didn't take pictures at this school; it was the same school as the one we went to first in the day, but with older students. These were all about 15 and 16 years old. I'm always skeptical at first dealing with a little bit older kids, but now I realize these are the ones I can really relate with. These are the ones that understand what I am talking about and have had enough problems to realize that the solutions they have tried don't work. Jim, Kevin, and I played hackisack with them – well it involved this light small ball rather than a hackisack. This was definitely a good way to break the ice and let the kids there know that we are just like them. After their recess, we were playing some music and sort of dancing around and such as well. I was really hoping these kids would see we are just like them and would take us seriously when we talked to them. Since we were dealing with older kids, I gave my testimony again. It is just amazing to see these guys listen intently to me and my story. After I shared they gave me a round of applause, something I hadn't received yet. Totally awesome. After the presentation and distribution of books I talked with a group of girls for quite some time. Well I tried to talk to them, I couldn't understand what they were trying to say or ask me. They would try to explain differently in Spanish, but that didn't help. It was fun though, they laughed at me a lot and how we weren't able to communicate. After they ran off to class another two girls came up to me and asked my name and such. Then the one girls tells I'm handsome and she likes me a lot, then giggles and runs off. What fun. But the best part of it was after this, many of the people came up and asked me to write my name on a piece of paper or in one of their notebooks. This time rather than just writing my name, I would ask their names and write “Jason Lund, Jesus loves you, xxxxx”, in English. So I hope they would be interested enough to translate it and when they do they will be reminded of what we tried to tell them today. But the coolest thing was one girl asked for my address and I gave it to her. I really hope that I get a letter from her. I wish I would have been more proactive and got some addresses of the people I talked to for quite some time. Krista got the names and address of about 10 girls and 3 little stuffed animal gifts. I guess it helps if you can speak the language a little. Oh well, it was an awesome fun time at that school. I think the kids really understand what we were saying. The whole team prayed a lot before and during the presentation that something awesome would happen. And something awesome did. We all could see it, and talked much about it when we got back in the van to head home.

It's been another great day here, I'm so glad I'm not off wasting my money somewhere else. After devotions tonight, I pulled out my laptop so we could watch Jim mess up during our dance for the high school students and then watch my horrible white dancing style. We then went though all 218 pictures and laughed and reminisced a little about each one. It was just a lot of fun thinking back on the four days we have been here and how much has happened. We must have laughed straight for over an hour. Just an awesome time, I wish everybody took an opportunity gets to go on a trip like this.

Devotions

Helen: Isaiah 61:1-3, Luke 4:16-21. Why so much poverty in Honduras ? Why so much suffering? Verse 18 – this is why God created us more fortunate Christians. These people need help and are open to it. Krista: had been having trouble speaking Spanish all day, but saw this girl that she wanted to talk to. She asked God to help her have enough Spanish to talk to the girl. She ended up next to the girl after giving out books, and was able to talk to her about stuff and got her address. What we are doing is somewhat filling the passage in verse 18. Maybe we can give some money to the translators and/or pastors of the churches we have been working with.