I left the big city tonight and tagged along with some people who go out and visit to girls who work in the sex trade. These are girls who have gotten caught up in prostitution. They come from poor backgrounds and get caught up in the culture that holds them in. I went out with team of four three women and one man (and me). My job was to observe, learn what I could, but more importantly pray. I prayed for God to protect the women who went out 2 at a time to talk to the girls. The girls paced on the side of this barren but lit two lane highway. Over the course of about a mile, there were twelve of them. Three of us sat in the car and prayed and kept a look out for trouble from the pimps. The women on the team took hot tea, offered a sandwich and a Bible or a book, but mainly just spoke to these girls with the respect all humans deserve. Save your judgement. These women need Godly love. That’s what these women offered. When the pimps approach, the man on the team engages these men in conversation. The culture behind this whole industry is pretty complicated. The thing I observed in this team I was allowed to be a part of, is this, they care for the people who are caught in the tragedy in the freezing night (9 degrees F). For a moment, these people who are caught in a web of lies were allowed to experience the warmth of Jesus. Please pray as I did and will continue, that the words and the deeds of these disciples of Jesus will be used by God to cause these women to want to leave this life the are caught in behind and embrace a life of living in God’s love.
Category Archives: experience
what are you afraid of?
I asked the crowd at church “what are you afraid of” Yesterday was a great first full day, I taught at one of my favorite churches on the planet (admittedly, there are several of them) at South Budapest (click here to see their website) and had some good catch up conversations with folks there after which, Will and Joanna took me out to lunch and then a quiet afternoon. At 17:00, the whole northern Hungary gang gathered for pizza where I asked Laci to brief us on his trip to Bosnia. This made me pretty excited about my trip there in a couple of weeks and hopeful for deeper partnership there… even English teachers??? We’ll see. Now there’s a place where you might ought to fear talking about the Gospel out loud, but they are not. So the answer to our fear about “gospeling” (proclaiming the news about Jesus as coined by Scot McKnight in King Jesus Gospel.
This is a talk I am taking around with me that is a reminder about what the Gospel actually is and what we are to do with it, why we don’t and how to fix the why. So there is the question… as far as proclaiming the news about Jesus, what are you afraid of?
place of horror, place of rebuilding
Filed under experience, seeking understanding, things Central European
stepping off the path
I didn’t sit with God on Sunday. or Monday. or yesterday.
This morning, as I sat with God and contemplated Him, I was struck by this image…
A parent was on a hike with the family’s youngest child through the woods on a well worn path. The parent had walked this path many times before. As he walked, he realized that his son was not right behind him. He stopped and looked and saw that his small son was off the path looking into a rhodenderin. There was something going on that had caught the boy’s attention so he stopped and stepped closer to the shrub. The father walked back to the point at which the boy had left the path and watched silently. The boy has seen something shiny and had to investigate. There under the bush was a small shovel. Who knows why the shovel was there? As the father moved slightly nearer his son, the boy looked up and asked if he could have the shovel. “No,” his father said, “it belongs to someone who may have left it there to get it when they return.” Disappointed, the boy took his father’s outstretched hand and returned to the path. On they walked.
As I thought about this, I remembered that God is a loving Father. When Jesus told of the Prodigal Son, we remember that the father in that story was up on the road looking for his son to return.
Now look, I’m not trying to say that I was a prodigal for not sitting with God for three days. Not at all. I’m simply saying that God is there.
Indeed, thinking more about the little story, we are often distracted by shiny new things. As inquisitive beings, we want to go and look, to taste, and sometimes we get distracted. God gets it. He is there. Always. He knows we are dust. But He is there. When we remember and turn back to Him, He is there.
To think anything else is to not understand the Gospel.
God is there.
Turn and look. There He is, on the path, see Him? His hand is extended to you.
Filed under experience
living to serve among Muslims
“Communicating the truth to Muslims for understanding.”
A guy who lives in the Middle East spoke in chapel today. I am not identifying him for security reasons… he spoke about connecting with Muslims. These are the notes I took, they sound exactly like connecting with PMs
You need to be sure that the words are understood.
The speaker must understand what the listener is hearing.
To Muslims the deed weighs as much as the word.
Historical context is important to understanding and communicating the truth.
Collective identity, not individuality is important in understanding context.
Job, life choices and activities are our idenity in the West
verse
family, family heritage and relating to Muhammed in the muslim world.
In the West – choice
In the East – history
Religion is a birth thing not a personal choice.
Muslims are taught that the decline of the islamic empire was the result of straying from correct teaching… [Compare to modern jihadist teachings that are dividing muslim generations in west
how to reach? I need to blog about this]
some steps
1) understand identity
2) importance of language – live in the language
3) respect Islamic culture and history
living in a middle eastern ctiy
1) provide a safe and familiar environmment… Be aware of what is happening around us
2) permanance
3) community – being in community
4) orient our lives toward culture
5) relationships in the language and culture
I think there are amazing parallels to working among PMs
Filed under experience, the self
kingdom travelin' 