Sierra Leone Recap!

After a long trip back to the U.S. by motor bike, van, ferry, and plane Jenn and I are full of thankfulness and encouragement due to our two weeks in Sierra Leone. We are overflowing with stories of God’s miraculous work that we were able to be a part of and witness during our time there but for brevity I will only share a small part. In this post I will just highlight one story and a few pictures from our time there.

A Dusty Night of Changed Lives

Shouts of “pumoy! pumoy!” rang in our ears over the sputtering motorbike as pointing fingers and dark, smiling faces appeared from homes along a dusty African village road. Jenn and I were now accustomed to cramming at least three people plus projector equipment on these small motorbikes that served as the local taxis for the town of Kailahun. We soon learned that the shouts of “pumoy” meant “white man” and we were unable to step foot in the villages without hearing this exclamation of our stark whiteness that is rarely seen in this part of the world.

Our team of 12 (pictured below) was traveling to the center of a large village to show the Jesus Film in the local language of the people. Hesitation arose in my mind as we pulled up to a town square with a large local mosque less that 100 yards away. As our team talked with the village chief and began setting up the projector to show the film, loud prayers emitted from speakers of the mosque, calling many Muslims to the nightly prayer. 

Gathering all the surrounding villagers, we started the film. Jenn and I found a nearby rooftop to observe the growing crowd as they fixed in on the projector screen. To our right we could see a growing number of dimly lit faces learning the story of Jesus for the first time, and to our left was many men filing out of the large mosque. To our surprise we observed many of the people coming from the mosque stop and join the large crowd (estimated 450). Throughout the film we silently prayed for all those that did not know Christ in this crowd as they heard the message of the Gospel for the first time. 

As the film came to a close, a local pastor explained to the crowd that God has made the gift of salvation and relationship with Him available to all of us through Jesus. We were amazed and overjoyed to see more than half the crowd come forward to pray and accept God’s gift of grace. As we were leaving we met a man named Muhammad, celebrating and repeatedly pronouncing to those around him, “I have new life! I have new life!”. Muhammad then quickly set out on his first mission as a Christian: “Where is the nearest church?!” His words reminded me of the new life Scripture tells of: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17)

What an amazing night of observing God’s work in the hearts of those that he has called to himself! This is just one of the many stories of God’s work that we were able to be a part of in our two weeks in Sierra Leone. Keep an eye out for further updates and stories from our trip through my blog (listed below). There are many more stories that we would like to share and also further opportunities to minister to the people and Church in Sierra Leone. 

Now for some pictures from our time in Sierra Leone!

Jenn and I after pastor training with Pastor Philip. Very encouraged by this guy!

Jenn sharing her testimony to a local school

Getting an opportunity to equip some of the local pastors

James. Hung out with this bro a lot

The camera was a instant crowd gatherer

Peter with some new friends

Getting ready for the film showing at the end of the day

Prom picture of our team

Walking with a new friend!

Taking a break with the team

Fenzel sharing his story at another school

An amazing, dusty night of watching the Jesus Film

We tried to steal him and bring him home with us

Setting up the projector equipment for a Jesus Film showing

Three pastors that we became very close with. Pastor Kourji, Silvanus, and James

A typical crammed van ride. This one was 13 hours!

Fishing boat back in Freetown

A great crowd viewing the film one night

We got to interact with so many of the amazing people here, including many beautiful kids!

An 8 hour layover in Paris on the way home!

Keep an eye out for more updates, pictures, and videos soon!

Help us bring the Gospel to Sierra Leone!

Some of you know that Jenn and I have an exciting opportunity to travel and serve in Sierra Leone this January. This trip has been in the making since August, at which time the only reference I had to the country of Sierra Leone was what I gathered from the movie, Blood Diamond, where the movie takes place.

Since then, Jenn and I have learned of the great spiritual and physical needs of this country and been confirmed by God in our desire to go bring the love and truth of the Gospel to Sierra Leone.

For two weeks we will be a part of a team of about twelve with a ministry called Jesus Film, which is part of Cru. Our time will be spent training a group of local pastors and missionaries using a simple, transferable curriculum that will better equip them in ministering to others. Each evening we plan to show the JESUS film on portable equipment in rural villages as well as work with local partners to begin the process of planting churches in these villages. Our team will primarily be ministering to two groups of people. The first is the Mende people who are predominately of the Muslim faith and the Kissi people who predominantly practice local ethnic religions. We are absolutely thrilled about this opportunity to go and serve in Sierra Leone and to be a part of what God is already doing there.

The reason for this post is two fold:

1. Jenn and I want to keep everyone updated with what God is doing in Sierra Leone so you can share in our encouragement and also be praying for our time ministering to the people there. We recognize the immense power that God grants us through prayer and want as many people interceding on behalf of our team while in Sierra Leone. Please pray for the hearts of the people we will come in contact with. Pray that our lives would be a witness to Christ’s love and truth, and God would open the eyes of those that don’t know him. Pray for our bold witness and time of training local Christian leaders. You can pray for the dynamics of our team as we don’t all know each other, and that we stay healthy during the two weeks there. Leading up to our trip, please pray for the remainder of our financial support to come in, which leads into the second reason for this trip.

2. After our initial round of support letters and calls we are still short a significant amount of the finances we are trusting God to provide. Jenn and I want to invite you to partner with us financially as we bing the Gospel to Sierra Leone. We need to raise $6,800 to cover travel costs, expenses in the country, and ministry materials. With only a short time (see counter below) until January 1, we are trusting God to provide in a big way. Would you consider giving a gift towards our ministry there this January? We are grateful for your consideration in this.

If you decide to give you can do so on my giving page

If you would like to give in an alternate way, be sure to let me know. All gifts are tax deductible. Below, we will update the progress of the giving as we rejoice in God’s providence.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this during the hustle and bustle of the season. We hope you enjoy restful time with family and joy as we celebrate the birth of our King!

Never Good Enough

Many, many times, Christianity or the message of the Gospel has been described as a “crutch for the weak” or a help in a time of trouble. This view seems to describe God as a safety net or something for the people that really need help. If we were all trapeze artists, God would be the safety net that people fell to when they screwed up really bad or for the ones who weren’t good enough to continue flipping through the air on their own.

While it is true that God is a comforter and help to the weak, the above mentioned description of God is not accurate. On the flip side of the “God is a crutch for the weak” statement, there is an assumption that the good men and women of the world are fine on their own, without God. A great example to look at from Scripture on this topic is to look at one of the foremost “good guys” of the Bible. In Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi he tells them about his past life before becoming a Christian:

 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh- though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.                    - Philippians 3:3-6

Essentially, people saw Paul as the man. He was born into the most prominent family, had every advantage, the best moral compass, best education, well spoken, well liked, a born leader, and a very religious man. By the standards of the day, there was no man better than Paul. In my own words, Paul was the bro of all bros. What interest or need could this kind of guy have in the Gospel, the Good News for sinners?

Indeed, Paul had no immediate interest in becoming a Christian. In fact he made it his holy business to stamp out the young Church and eliminate Christianity. It was on one of these elimination errands that everything changed for Paul and he suddenly became a Christian. Why the sudden change? What made this pious, great, independent man suddenly need the Gospel?

He witnessed Jesus.

Paul immediately realized he was wrong in assuming he could be good enough on his own. As hard as he had tried, Paul was not good enough. This same man wrote later to the Romans: 

For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.                 – Romans 3:20

Paul realized that striving towards are own righteousness without God IS sin. In this act of striving after being a really good guy, Paul was idolizing himself above God. And here the utter depravity of the human heart is revealed. Despite how hard we may try to hide it, our natural selves will always try to snatch the glory that is due to God. The natural tendency of man is to run from God and set up ourselves as our own god. Before becoming a Christian Paul looked like a great guy to those surrounding him, but inwardly he was full of evil desire and self-righteousness, as each person on this entire earth is without the grace of God. 

In a possible lapse of judgement I will open you up to my lack of taste in TV shows. In a past Friends episode Joey challenges Phoebe to find a truly selfless good deed. In her comical attempt to find a truly selfless deed the show plucks on a truth string. As much as we try to deny it, even our good deeds are full of selfish desire. 

Paul reacts radically to witnessing Christ. He continues in Philippians: 

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God that depends on faith.”        - Philippians 3:3-9

This is what true freedom looks like. Everything Paul has ever known is trash in light of experiencing Jesus.  Throwing off the chains of his own self-righteousness Paul no longer needs to trudge up the impossible mountain to gain his own self-righteousness. It has been given to him by the life Christ led and the power he shows in the resurrection. 

This is the offer of freedom for everyone. Jesus beckons us to come to him, drop our burdens, and enjoy a relationship with him. As indicated in Paul’s testimony, there is nothing we can gain that even compares to gaining Christ. Everything is worthless compared to knowing Him. Whether you do not know Christ, or if you have known him for a long time, will you count everything as rubbish in light of gaining him to obtain true righteousness? 

Christianity is not a crutch for the weak, it is life for the dead. I was blue in the face, dead and drowned at the bottom of the ocean. Christ is the one who plunged in the frigid waters, pulled me out, and breathed life into me. Whichever analogy you like, the Gospel is the good news that Christ doesn’t give us a crutch but life from the dead, for everyone is in need of this life… Even the good guys. 

God supporting slavery?

We have all heard many critical claims about the God of the Bible or the Bible itself. Some of them may have fallen along these lines:

“The God of the Bible is socially and culturally regressive”

“The Bible considers women to be inferior”

“If God is really love, he can’t allow suffering”

“I could never follow a God who supports slavery”

Many of these claims are even accompanied by quotes taken straight from the Bible. So how can we know if these are true statements supported by the Bible? If they are supported by Bible verses then they have to be true right?

I want to take a humble attempt to shed some more light on these types of statements by looking into the latter one of the claims listed: “God supports slavery.”

This claim reached my ears multiple times over the past year and was often accompanied by a Bible reference. The most recent time I heard the claim of God’s support of slavery was along these lines:

“In Deuteronomy 15, God commanded the Israelites to put an awl through the ear of their slaves into a door and then they will be in slavery for the rest of their lives.”

Deuteronomy 15 has often been a reference to argue for God’s support of slavery and the speakers words were not untrue to the words of the text. So is the claim actually true?

Well, it takes a little more work than just skimming a quick line of the Bible to come to such a conclusion about God. Let’s take a look at the verses surrounding this claim:

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or aHebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you’, because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever.”                   – Deuteronomy 15:12-17

Looking at the context of the passage it does not take much sense to see that God is speaking to a slavery or servitude that is much different from the idea we Americans have of slavery. There are two points to make here:

1. Identify the presuppositions we have. When Americans hear the word slavery we have a rush of painful and disgusted memories, ideas, and opinions that flood our minds. No one could argue the evil of the slavery that characterizes American history. However we must remember that the author (human) and audience of the Bible do not have this memory of slavery. The Israelites in the time of Deuteronomy operated under a different culture, history, and line of presuppositions. If we assume this passage in Deuteronomy 15 is automatically conforming to our idea of slavery then we are mistaken.

2. Look at the context! Even when read the context of the passage in Deut. 15 anyone with common sense can see that God is saying something different than, “I support and even command brutal slavery”. If you do some light digging in the passage you can find out that God is outlining a program to protect rights of Hebrew slaves/servants who willingly put themselves into servitude because of poverty. The ESV Study Bible notes:

“Slavery in Israel was therefore a short-term measure to help self-employed peasant farmers who could not pay their debts. Thus a rich landowner who offered a bankrupt peasant guaranteed employment and support until the sabbatical year was valued. Taking on such a “slave” was viewed as an act of charity.”

Slavery here is not referring to a forced labor, brutal slavery but a voluntary slavery because of the inability to support their families. To take on a slave was a seen as charitable and an act of kindness because the slave was better off. We could continue to go deeper here but let’s talk about the awl through the ear.

The initial, out of context statement, mentioned earlier about the “awl through the ear” sounds brutal. Again let’s look at the context. The only way that the slave would have had this done to him or her is if they loved the family they were under so much that they wanted to serve them for a lifetime. This again, is a voluntary, unforced, act to submit to slavery because of poverty. We can assume that if someone willingly submitted themselves to lifetime servitude the conditions must have been pretty dang good by their standards.

Admittedly, the awl (pictured below) through the ear sounds a little weird but this is nothing more than an ear piercing as a sign that the slave has willingly submitted themselves for their life.

There is much more that could be discussed in this passage in the way of context but you can do some more research on your own if interested. A few main points in conclusion:

1. Identifying presuppositions and context is extremely important in Bible study

After identifying these two correctly we can see that the claim, “God supports some form of brutal, immoral, slavery” is taken wildly out of context. Anyone making this claim has not done one of the most basic scholarly practices of reading the context and only wants to make the Bible say something that it does not support.

2. What this DOES say about God.

The point of this piece of the Bible is about God’s provision to keep the rights and well being of Hebrew slaves. God cares about slaves and their rights. In this situation it is evident that God wanted to make sure that Hebrews who willingly put themselves under slavery were cared for and had their rights protected.

3. Christians have participated in brutal slavery. 

I do not want to dance around the fact that many followers of God and Christians have participated in and supported evil systems of slavery. Christianity was dominant in the nations that participated in the African slave trade and the church has to bear the responsibility of this injustice. But despite this stain on the Church, it was also the institution that led the fight against slavery. Social historian, Rodney Stark, writes:

“Although it has been fashionable to deny it, anti slavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome and were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe. When Europeans subsequently instituted slavery in the New World, they did so over strenuous papal opposition, a fact that was conveniently ‘lost’ from history until recently. Finally, the abolition of New World slavery was initiated and achieved by Christian activists.”

In my argument against the statement that “God supports immoral slavery” I hope to have outlined a greater strategy to look more deeply into statements made about the Bible or the God that it describes. There are parts of the Bible that are undoubtably hard to understand but our questions will be easily overshadowed by the picture of a great God who has gone to unthinkable lengths to have a relationship with those that he loves.

Why is Cru at Vanderbilt continuing to have faith-based leadership requirements?

Why is Cru at Vanderbilt continuing to have faith-based leadership requirements?.

Proud to be Foolish

Our talk series for the Cru weekly meetings this semester has been revolving around the attributes of God. A.W. Tozer argues in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, that the most important characteristic about any person is his or her view of God. That belief in who God is or who He is not ultimately determines ideals, actions, relationships, family interactions, politics, and every other aspect of our lives.

The frist chapter of Romans has been our pivot point for all of our teaching on God’s attributes such as His justice, mercy, immutability (unchangingness), etc. Paul explains:

“¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”                        - Romans 1:18-23

It is no surprise that this semester I have coincidentally (not!) encountered and gotten into conversations with increasing numbers of students following atheism, agnosticism, secularism, and religious skepticism. These interactions have been challenging but sharpening. They have sent me on the mission to confirm the foundation of my own faith while seeking out answers to those hard questions.

Meanwhile, I have more clearly seen the necessity for the Spirit of God to reveal truth to us. Some of these students are well versed in knowledge about what the bible says and could take me to school intellectually. At our latest Cru weekly meeting I got to talk with a PhD student who has “researched” Christianity extensively. His intellect, time spent studying, and debating skills are far superior to mine. It was humbling because I do not often get “taken to school” here at VT in these kind of conversations. But the thought that went through my mind the whole conversation was, “It really is up to the Spirit of God to reveal Himself to everyone!” This student knew more about what the Bible says than many Christians in the room but cannot see God. 1 Corinthians 2:18  tells us how many will view the message of the Gospel:

^“18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

We often lack to find comfort in this truth that God gives us. After my conversation with my atheist friend the other night I knew he thought I was a foolish theist. I was bothered the rest of the night by this thought. “I deserve to be understood don’t I?! He doesn’t have to agree with me but I’m entitled to be respected for my faith!” The Gospel offers us no such entitlement. To come and die and pay the price to be a disciple of Jesus is giving up our right to be seen as wise by the world. The disciples even rejoiced when they were called fools. Why? If their Savior was called a fool, blasphemous, and demon possessed then how would they expect any different? It is a glorious privilege to take on the reputation of Christ that the world often hates. 

I wonder if Mr. T would throw me in the fool category?

Check out some continued encouragement from Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:25-27:

^“25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;”

I am reminded that my knowledge and relationship with Christ is in no way due to my wisdom, research, or stunning intellect. It is be the power of God that my eyes were opened to the hope that is in my Savior.

Now this does not excuse us from seeking out answers to the harder questions concerning the Christian faith. Here are some extrabibilical resources that have been helpful to me recently:

• The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
• Can man live without God? by Ravi Zacharias
• http://www.bethinking.org

I hope these resources can be helpful to you! It is my prayer that God would consistently reveal the truth of Himself to us by the power of His Spirit.

A Plankton in an Endless Ocean

Headed back to Williamsburg, VA on crowded and rainy I – 95, I decided to throw on a sermon. This was a J. Piper talk titled Magnifying God with Money… a topic sure to convict me!

I attempted to forget about the frustration of stop and go traffic in the pouring rain and methodical beating of my loud windshield wipers. John began to speak about what it means to worship our God. He defined the worship in this way:

“The inner essence of worship is the treasuring of God as infinitely valuable above everything. The outer forms of worship are the acts that show how much we treasure God.”

Dwelling on this definition I felt this flood of shame wash over me. A list of the many things I treasure started to real in my mind. My upcoming marriage to Jenn, my reputation in Blacksburg, the success of ministry, the ease of a comfortable life filled with good food. In my actions I often treasure these things above God.

Unable to focus on the sermon I pressed pause and prayed a simple, honest prayer:

“Father I’m ashamed at how I treasure you in my life. Right now I don’t even find myself looking forward to spending eternity worshiping you. It seems kind of boring in this moment. But I know this is not the truth so change my heart to treasure and desire you. Amen.”

Waking up this morning I found God was quick and faithful to answer this prayer! In my time in Psalm 145 this morning verse 3 stood out clearly.

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised

and his greatness is unsearchable.” 

Unsearchable is a hard concept. It’s hard because we love to measure things and the ability to grasp our surroundings. Measuring the universe is a great example. Browsing through different astronomical sites, there are many different guesses at how big the universe is, with some admitting they have no idea (NASA).

This desire to discover our surroundings is a great, God given trait. I think we can react to the idea of infinity and immeasurability in two ways. The first is to be frustrated by it and to fail to have peace until the measurement is found. The second is awe and praise. We can take joy in the fact that something is so big, great, and expansive that we cannot measure it.

How true this is with our view of God! David claims that God’s greatness cannot be measured and will never be measured. For those that will dwell in Heaven with God for eternity, we will never reach a point in which we can grasp or measure the fullness of God’s greatness. For eternity we will continuously discover more of the endless ocean of God’s greatness.

David spoke of this earlier in Psalm 8:3-4:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, 

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 

what is man that you are mindful of him, 

and the son of man that you care for him?” 

David saw the expanse of the universe that God holds in his hand and David was driven to a question that he couldn’t answer: “Why do you love me, such a small part of your creation?”  David was driven to great praise because of this love he couldn’t fully understand.

How much more should this truth bring us to praise our God as we discover much more of the expanse of creation than David ever knew. The ridiculousness of God’s love grows as we continue to discover that each one of us is a small plankton in this unsearchable, immeasurable ocean of God’s greatness.

And this infinite God sent His Son, Jesus, in fullness of God to save us! This endless ocean sacrificed Himself for the school of plankton within it. I am driven to the same question that David asked. Who am I? Who am I that you would love me?

How can we not be driven to treasure this God above all the fleeting comforts of our lives? There is no greater adventure to embark on for eternity; the constant discovery of the unending depths of God.