Pickled Asparagus, Radical Evangelism, Human Trafficking and Jesus

This afternoon while I was pickling asparagus (something new for me...I've never pickled asparagus before.  Just cucumbers and beets, but I like asparagus and I like beets, so pickled asparagus sounds promising.) I was thinking about radical evangelism, human trafficking and Jesus.  I know what the last three have in common, but I am still not quite sure how packing asparagus spears into piping hot jars while listening to a Sara Groves/Tenth Avenue North/JJ Heller/Laura Hackett/Laura Story playlist bought me to the other three topics.  If you have any ideas, please feel free to let me know!

Anyone who denies that human trafficking (a fancy word for slavery!) is a problem in North America, needs to wake up a little bit and read some headlines.  Google "Human Trafficking in *insert name of country or state or province here*" and what you find may surprise you. It's happening in your back yard, whether you like it or not. 

According to Canada Fights Back, human trafficking is the second largest organized crime worldwide. It brings in more profit annually than Google, Starbucks and Nike combined.  I could give you more facts, such as the fact that every 30 seconds a child is sold or the fact that 80% of the people enslaved due to human trafficking are women, but I'll stop there.  If you want to know more, google it. 

As I thought about the problem of human trafficking, the overwhelming questions on my heart were: Who is going to reach these people?  Who is going to tell them that there is a G-d who loves them, no matter what man has done to them? (70% of those sold into slavery are sold of the purpose of sexual exploitation)

I thought about who reached the slaves when slavery was legal.  In some ways it was easier then, the slaves were visible then, whereas today, many of them are hidden. As I thought more about it, my very limited knowledge brought to mind that the Gospel was shared with slaves by other slaves.  As slaves were bought and sold they carried their most precious possession with them - the saving truth of the Gospel. When they could, they sang it.  I remembered a story about two young Moravians that I used in a sermon last spring, who willingly sold themselves into slavery so that they could reach other slaves. 

As I called that story back to mind, my mind began to wander to today...could the same concept work today? Could someone sell themselves into slavery in order to reach other enslaved people?  That would be super radical evangelism.

Jesus gave us the model for radical evangelism. He could have just sent a message from heaven to tell us about His saving grace.  But I'm not sure that would have meant anything to us.  In fact, I'm almost certain it wouldn't.  It would be comparable for me telling someone who is going through a bitter divorce how to fix their marriage...I've never been married (nor divorced) and I have no training in marriage counselling (yet). They wouldn't want to listen to me and they shouldn't listen to me!  Instead, Jesus came to us.  He came to be one of us.  To walk the roads we walk, to fight the fights we fight every day.  He earned his right to be heard. He earned it along a beach with fishermen, on the long dusty roads, in the crowded synagogues, at the painful end of a Roman whipping, as the recipient of jeers and spits, on a Roman cross, and ultimately when he rose again from the grave, conquering death.  After he had earned his right to be heard, then he could share the message he came to share (and had been sharing) and have it understood and received.  

All of this thinking led me to the inevitable conclusion: in order to reach those who have been sold into slavery, in order for the Gospel to be heard by them, someone has to become one of them.  Someone has to let themselves be sold into slavery.  

It's a hard thought.  It is not something I am called to, but the question it raised in me was "what if?"  What if that was my calling? What if I had a very clear message from the Lord that my calling was to sell myself into slavery so that I could reach other slaves?  Would I go?  Would I listen?  Or would I pull a Jonah and run as fast as I could in the other direction because it seemed so extreme? What about you?  What f that was G-d's calling on your life?  Would you go?

It's easy to say that you would follow G-d's call on your life, no matter what is.  To stand up or raise your hand at a retreat or after a short term mission trip and say that you are ready to follow G-d's call, no matter what it is, but it's another thing to realize what a potential calling might be, what it would mean, and then still say that you would follow no matter what.

For those of you holding your breath out of curiosity, wanting to know if I would actually sell myself into slavery if that is what G-d called me to: the answer is that I don't know. I would have to do some pretty serious praying about it first.  And then, at some point, if I were 100% sure that this is what I was called to do, then I would pray that I would have the faith to follow through. And that answer goes for anything that G-d might call me to, not just selling myself into slavery.

To The Moon

The other night I was sitting on the edge of my bed folding my laundry (random laundry note:  I enjoy laundry much more when I get to hang it on the clothesline) and listening to music - a wonderful mix of JJ Heller, Tenth Avenue North, and Sara Groves (and a few other of my favorite songs).  I was half listening to the music, half musing to myself about the sermon I'm going to be writing soon (I'm preaching in lab on Tuesday and then in church on March 13), half thinking about the fact that I should maybe get some bleach for my hankies (bloody noses to wonderful things to white hankies), and half thinking about how wonderful my bed was going to feel with fresh sheets on it (there is always something special about the first night on clean sheets), when a Sara song caught my ear. I had recently gotten some new Sara music from a friend, so I'm not completely familiar with all of it yet.  By the time my brain realized it was supposed to be paying attention to this song because it was new (my brain was tired, attention shifting was slower than usual) the song was at then end of the second verse and the first words I consciously remember were "Here at our church on the moon".  This caused me to pause and listen...Church on the moon?  As far as I know, we do not have any churches on the moon yet.  What was going on?  I "rewound" the song to the beginning and listened again.  It was indeed, from what I could hear, about a church on the moon.  I was having some trouble making out the some of the words so I abandoned my laundry folding and went to my computer and googled the lyrics.  This is what I found:

"It was there in the bulletin 
We're leaving soon
After the bake sale to raise funds for fuel
The rocket is ready and we're going to
Take our church to the moon

There'll be no one there to tell us we're odd
No one to change our opinions of God
Just lots of rocks and this dusty sod
Here at our church on the moon

We know our liberties we know our rights
We know how to fight a very good fight
Just get that last bag there and turn out the light
We're taking our church to the moon
We're taking our church to the moon
We'll be leaving soon"
(Sara Groves, "To the Moon", link to the audio, not captioned)


After listening to it a few more times and reading the lyrics I started to reflect on what it was saying about the church and it almost made me angry. The anger came because I realized how accurately the lyrics reflected the state of many churches today. Being the church can be hard.  Sometimes we are in hard situations, sometimes people call us odd.   Things get tough.  Maybe the neighborhood that our church is in under-goes some major changes, maybe people stop coming, maybe the congregation ages...the list of possibilities are endless.  
When faced with these tough times, the church, just like anyone faced with a hard time, has two choices.  They can stick it out or they can take off.   I see the church too often taking the latter option.  Maybe part of the congregation is having a disagreement.  Often, this will lead to a split, and a new church, born out of the fracture. Sometimes even a new denomination is born and the hostility continues for generations. Sometimes a church will just pick up and move to a new location to escape a changing neighborhood. 


Sara's lyrics are a little extreme, but they speak truth, and that saddens me.  As far as I know, a church has yet to go to the moon, but a church that moves out of a changing neighborhood is just as inaccessible to the hurting people who need it as a church on the moon would be.
Instead of moving out, instead of ensuring that our churches stay sterile and the way we like them, instead of fighting to keep our beliefs from being challenged, instead of hiding away so no one will call us strange, what would happen if we stayed put?  And not just stayed put, but started reaching out to those in our communities, putting ourselves in a position to be challenged and be called odd?  Maybe then, we would see growth in the church.  
It's time to come back from the moon.

NOLA snapshots

A few snapshots from New Orleans

Five years after Katrina, there are still areas that have not been touched

Umbrella hanging by what is left of the door

doing landscaping at the Slidell church

Sunset over the Mississippi

tearing up tiles and linoleum to get to the original flooring so it can be repaired and replaced

Returned-short version

This is a shorter version of the previous post.
We returned safely from New Orleans (NOLA) last night.  The trip had its ups and downs, but was overall very good.  I'm still a little tired and not necessarily completely coherent.
Here's a quick recap of the trip:
Friday night/Saturday: Travel to NOLA, settling in at the two churches where we would be staying.
Sunday:  Church in Slidell, alligator watching, St. Patrick's day Parade, tour of NOLA, College student Walmart run.
Monday: First day of work projects, spontaneous hymn sing at the big chuch before we left for work projects.  Crawfish night.  I learned that I am very very allergic to crawfish and that I have great friends who will take me to the hospital and make sure I get taken care of.
Tuesday: Second day of work projects.  Due to my benadryl and steroid cocktail I slept most of the day.  Amazing small group and worship time about resting in G-d's arms.  Found out I'd been accepted to Western for next year!
Wednesday: Third day of work projects.  Again I slept most of the day.  College students fed the homeless and went out for dinner.
Thursday: Fourth and last day of work projects.  I was awake for more of the day, but still slept most of the afternoon. We left for home at about 11:30pm.
Friday: driving home all day.  Again, I slept for most of it. Arrived safely back in Pella at about 5:30 pm, just in time for it to start snowing.

Work projects:
Gerald's house: siding, flooring, hot water heater, weeding-finished. Hallelu-JAH!
Arthur's house: painting the porch, staining the floor, replacing screens, replacing glass in the door- finished.  Hallelu-JAH!
Slidell church: landscaping, weeding, planting shrubberies, mulching-finished.  Hallelu-JAH!
Thrift store: not sure, painted a mural on the wall, did other stuff-finished.  Hallelu-JAH!
Other church: painted and other stuff- finished.  Hallelu-JAH!
Other projects: dirt moving, soffitting, painting, weeding, etc- finished.  Hallelu-JAH!

If you want more details, read the long version of this post.

Let the springing and the breaking begin!

In a very short while I will be leaving for New Orleans with campus ministies!  Spring break is finally here!
In about an hour or so I will pack up with everyone else and embark on the really long drive to New Orleans.  I'm not quite sure what we will be doing, but I know there will be 80 some people, college and high school students and we will be doing stuff.  I'm excited for this trip.  I haven't been able to go on a missions trip since Reynosa sophomore year. 
Overall it's been a good week.  I've made it through midterms once again, papers all got turned in, and, (the bestest part) Mommy Lisa came for a visit!  It had been far too long since I last saw her.  We had a marvellous visit and everyone here thinks she should come back soon.  We were even safe, with the exception of a small mishap during craft time that involved my thumb.
My bags are packed, Sampson is staying with Snowball and Finkelstein for the break (he decided he didn't want to come to New Orleans and he didn't want to stay in the room alone since Sheepy was coming to New Orleans), Lazarus and Houdini both have water (though I am doubting there is any life left in Houdini) and it's time for me to go get some supper before we leave.
Everyone have a great week!  If you are spring breaking, break safely.  If you are have a "normal" week, have it well.
Be blessed!

Sampson (left) will spend spring break with Finkelstein (middle) and Snowball (right).  The three are good friends and should get on just fine.