It’s Missions month here in the
College Group and I’m your first Missionary Speaker. It’s a little scary
because I don’t know you. What do you think of missions and missionaries?
What do you know about the
world? I’ve had this yellowed cartoon on the fridge of my home in 4 different
countries. You see, I grew up a Californian and didn’t know
the STATES, let alone the WORLD.
After my sophomore year of college, I went on a Mission Trip to France
and met kids from all over. I feIl in love with a guy from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and he was mortified, MORTIFIED, that I thought he lived on the East COAST.
(It’s not)
Do you know much about Geography? I
want to play a game to test your knowledge of World Geography. I'll give you a card with a country name on it, and you all go make a map of the world. Let's let the students who own passports go out there and place themselves where they've traveled, and then you can fill in the rest.
Where do you get your news? Do you
pay attention to world news? Why should we care about the news? If we want to
really be like our Heavenly Father and care about the same things he cares
about…duh. John 3:16 God so LOVED the
world…
My son Tyler turned me on to VOX
news. This article shows some really astounding GOOD news about last year.
The world had a rough year in 2015, with the ongoing
civil war in Syria and rise of ISIS's international terrorism, the intensifying
global refugee crisis, a spate of mass shootings in America, the rise of Donald
Trump, and so on.
But it's worth keeping things in perspective. For all
the ways 2015 was a terrible year for the world, there is at least one metric
by which it was a very good year. According to data from a United Nations
report released this July, this year saw a historic decline in global poverty.
The number of people living in extreme poverty has decreased so rapidly that
it's been cut in half just since 1990.
This decline in global poverty has been mounting for now
200 years,
and took off in the latter half of the 20th century. Decolonization and
economic reform in places such as China helped much of the developing world
catch up to the developed. Between 1990 and 2015, about 1.1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty
(defined as living on $1.25 a day). That means that in just the past 25 years,
a full seventh of humanity has been saved from terrible want.
$1.25 a day defines Extreme Poverty.
The article goes on to explain that now parents are earning incomes and getting
health care and more kids are going to school. Cut in half in 25 years, about
1.1 billion people… And then. Wait a minute. I have to stop celebrating. See
the chart? 836 million people STILL live in extreme poverty.
836 million people still live on less
that $1.25 a day.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY 836 MILLION
PEOPLE ARE?
That’s roughly 2 ½ times the
population of the ENTIRE UNITED STATES. Sorry to be Debbie Downer. But there’s
still a lot of freaking need in the world that doesn’t even compare to a
homeless or lower-income or undocumented person in the USA.
Why I became a missionary: As a young person I became convicted
about the imbalance of resources in the world. I met some pretty amazing
missionaries who inspired my young faith, and I realized that the USA has
plenty of resources and Christians to share the good news and help things here
get better…I mean, really, even among our most destitute, not many are living on less than $1.25 a day. The resources for Christianity and the 'cause of the Gospel are also as imbalanced. I wanted to go somewhere where I’m needed more.
I would have never in a million years
ever guessed that I’d eventually be a missionary who speaks Chinese.
Nor would I have guessed that by the
time my children were grown and left the house, I would have traveled to
as many countries as I am years old.
I came to RHCC…pretty soon right
after I graduated from College. I had worked in the Entertainment department of
Disneyland and was a Drama Major in University.
I chose Theatre, because I love ALL the arts,
and couldn’t settle for just ONE. I loved singing, performing, writing and
bossing people around, uh leading. In drama you can do it all: acting, set
& costume design, playwriting, and directing (bossing people around)…Theatre
gives a multidisciplinary artist a chance to use not just the triple threat…but
a whole toolkit of skills! During College I started getting even
more interested in the things God was doing around the world. I had a couple
chances to go on mission trips. I was always interested in language and
cultural anthropology…understanding other ways of life, and then trying to
imagine how I could combine my love for the arts with being a missionary
somewhere in the world.
When an older guy in seminary started
chasing me, I thought, “Oh dear…Pastor’s Wife….that will be a challenging role to
play…” And then we got more serious. We got Married.
He started being the Missions and
Evangelism Pastor here the week after our honeymoon. I led a weekly ministry
in drama with more than 20 actors in a theatre company here. Below is a STAGED photo from our first Missions Retreat together.
Twelve years later
we decided to move from being ministry specialist practitioners to coaches – and
after a year of seeking out our options, we sensed God was leading us to be
missionaries in Asia.
When we left RHCC my two boys were 4
years old and a baby. We went to China to learn language and culture, and then
spent 15 years based mostly in Singapore to help Christian leaders &
missionaries be better leaders and missionaries (Well, that was my husband’s
focus. I learned from him what he was doing in mentoring leaders and used it
with artists. Mostly performers).
Being a theatre artist was not who I
was. Our JOB doesn’t define our identity. My vocation in
the arts has been a
tool. A satisfyin platform for making relationships with others and sharing the
hope we have in Jesus with them and living a wholehearted life together sharing
the pain and the joys that are part of the journey. Your VOCATION isn’t the
main thing. It’s the platform you have for allowing you to do what are the most
important things in life. What are those most important things?
We’re going to get to that in a
couple minutes. I want you to know me and my family a little better.
I now have two boys who are around YOUR age.
They are 19 and 23.
Cameron is a Freshman in college. Business
Major. Loves Movies. Wants to work in the Entertainment industry in some
business/marketing capacity. He’s not a creator. He’s a consumer. Because of
this passion for movies, he longs to work in this industry with others who are
also passionate about visual storytelling. He’s a big soft lovable
happy-go-lucky teddy bear of a guy who LOVES people and loves helping people. Like
you he is figuring out faith as a young adult trying to also figure out what
his role is going to be in the world with his unique package of gifts, talent,
interests…and faith in God.
The older son, Tyler just graduated last
summer from Cal Poly SLO in Political Science. He did ROTC and, well, he is Captain
America. Seriously. Tonight I’m having a hard time focusing. I’ve never been a
worrier…But right now, since the beginning of January, Tyler is in ARMY Ranger School out in Georgia. Today is the last day of Mountain Phase of Ranger School and he’s
been underfed, sleep deprived and outdoors sleeping in below freezing
temperatures the last couple weeks. I’m kinda freaking out. He survived the
first 3 weeks of the Camp Darby torture. Just search it on YouTube: “Army
Ranger Training.” It is INHUMANE. (Why do people choose to do this?) Sometime
tomorrow we’ll get a phone call to let us know if he will recycle (not pass) or
get a “GO” to the Swamp Phase…where he’ll learn to do things like wrestle with
Alligators.
Deep breath. Focus.
So, there you
know my kids.
Walking with my boys in this stage of
life, I know that in College you are in a season of figuring out your
strengths, gifts, seeking God for his will for your future. Growing and going
in a direction that he seems to be leading you. It is a mysterious time. It’s
an exciting season of life. But it can also be a scary time too.
I’m in a mysterious time too. All my
life I’ve been passionate about the arts, especially theatre, and I’ve had
AMAZING (things I could not have imagined) experiences, being able to use that as
a platform for ministry all around the world, like:
- Teaching Drama at a Christian College in Singapore where students want to learn how to use drama as a ministry.
- With Arabic speaking youth drama teams who share the Gospel through drama all over Egypt.
- In Cambodia with orphans who use the arts to go to villages and share the Good news of Jesus using traditional Khmer art forms.
- And through all the years, being the drama queen adding spice to life in our family of four and with our friends and neighbors.
But I’m in this crazy mid-life
transition time. For a couple YEARS now. We said goodbye to our ministry and
life in Asia, and came back for a year Sabbatical 15 months ago, waiting
waiting waiting on God for what our next steps are… and the end is not yet in
sight.
However, in this 15 months…
· a major surgery
· two deaths in the family
· our parents taking a big decline in their abilities to live independently
I’m not DOING any drama. I’m living in drama!
My Most Important Values, based on God's Word :
While there’s NO DOUBT that God has us here in the USA for some important things, still, I, LIKE YOU, wish I knew what God’s plans were for our future so I could feel more settled.
HOWEVER, I do have peace in the midst of
the unknown.
And that’s what I want to upack
tonight. Why do I have peace?
Tonight I’m going to share with you a
few of my favorite verses, and why I think they should be YOUR favorites too…I’ve
put them in the Feed of Your College Facebook Group.
1.
LOVE GOD, (really
love and honor the mystery who is the Trinity) & LOVE OTHERS
Mark 12:28-31
[this is REPEATED!!! Deuteronomy 6:5,
Deut ch11 & ch 30 3 times, Matt 22:37 Luke 10:27]
One of the teachers of the law came
and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he
asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered
Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
2.
SURRENDER. TRUST He
is GOOD & SEEK GOD
Lamentations 3:19-28
I remember my affliction and my
wandering,
the
bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul
is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore
I have hope:
22 Because of
the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for
his compassions never fail.
23 They are
new every morning;
great
is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my
portion;
therefore I
will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope
is in him,
to the one
who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the
salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is
young.
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord
has laid it on him.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your
heart,
And lean not on your own
understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
3. Focus
on the GOOD
PRAYER & THANKSGIVING keys to
staying mentally healthy
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray continually,
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-13
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will
say it again: Rejoice!
Let your gentleness be evident to
all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every
situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to
God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
[how do we get that peace?]
Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard
from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with
you….
I am not saying this because I am in
need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what
it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the
secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,
whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him
who gives me strength.
1 Peter 5:6-9
Humble
yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due
time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Be
alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because
you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the
same kind of sufferings.
I mentioned that I’m in this season
of not knowing how to move forward career-wise. I don’t like being in the middle of a transition.
I want to know what God’s plan is for
our future.
His answer is “You know what my
direction is for today, and tomorrow…even next week. Wait for the rest.”
So, THAT being known, I believe my
purpose – what I bring to the world – is “adding spice to life,” and my motto
has been to BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED.
The Bible lets us know that after
this short 100 years or so, on other side of what we know here, is where all
your dreams will be fulfilled, heavenly bliss, the perfect life…forever. Man,
let me come back another time and talk about our hope of heaven! mmm. My
perspective on that keeps me going on many days!
So, while I’m around here, going to
RHCC, waiting on…seeking God…I’m finding ways to add some spice around here, by
helping out with our Missions Conference at the end of the month. I was
thinking after being here for awhile,
“MAN, AMERICAN CHRISTIANS ARE SO
DEPRESSED! Everything is so doom and gloom! Stop watching FoxNews and let’s
start noticing that God is at work in the world! He’s doing amazing things!”
Saturday morning the 27th is our Missions Conference. It will be packed with 6
great sessions focusing on Amazing stories. I’m going to do a session on
learning how to pray better with Andy Douglas who is your speaker next week. We
can see God do amazing things in and through us through the mystery of
communing with him in prayer.
But, spicey me, I didn’t think it was enough to focus
on being amazed at God just one weekend in February. SHOOT, NO.
We’ve started a
campaign on Social Media… post where you are seeing God at work in your life,
or what you’re hearing or reading about God doing Amazing things, and use the #
BeAmazedrhcc. Take a second and check it out #BeAmazedRHCC.
Find ways to bloom where you are
planted…even in places where nothing seems to grow let alone bloom! We know the
ending of our story, no matter what twists and turns are on our path, the
ending is “and they lived happily ever after."
4.
LIVE IN UNITY
& FINISH WELL
John 17 Jesus’ last prayer
for his disciples…His greatest longing for them in the future was unity. But I
have a relatively new fav verse: v4
I have brought you glory on earth by
finishing the work you gave me to do.
5.
SHARE our HOPE and
MENTOR OTHERS
When Jesus started his ministry and
he called his Disciples from a life of being fishermen, he said he was going to
make them “Fishers of Men.”
His last words were, (and you know
that a person’s last words have a unique gravitas - importance) his famous last
words were…do you know what they were?
Let’s look at another of my favorite
verses, that I think should be your fav too:
Matthew 28:16-20. Read that.
And
Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am
with you always, even to the
end of the age.”
- GO make disciples.
- Teach them what I’ve taught you.
- We’re going to do it together.
5 minutes more...
Maybe it’s my hyperactive mind that
should have been thinking deeper thoughts about how to close my sharing with you tonight, but I was thinking about my guys being similar ages to you, and missing them…and thinking about
what it was like raising BOYS…(you know they were the most important of my
disciples…) and I was a pretty amazing mom I have
to say…Just ask my kids. I tried to stay ahead of the curve on things they
would be into.
Like technology, and pop culture and
slang and music. (I confess, I never EVER got into gaming. Maybe. Maybe some year I will, and they'll come home for Christmas and I'll be like, "Hey, guys! Break out that xbox! Mom wants to show you she finally knows how to operate a controller!")
We wanted our boys to grow up as citizens of the world, overseas, but not be dorks in America. We were very intentional about their awareness of American culture. But, you'd be surprised how many things that we experienced in our
lives on the other side of the world in Asia, that YOU DID TOO. Like, you know
what? I’ll tell you one thing…
I was a POKEMAMMA! In 1998 when they
came out, I thought they were the STUPIDIST things, but my boys were REALLY
into it. My guess is, many of you were too.
I started thinking about the Pokemon
theme song, “I wanna be the very best” and how we are raised to perform and do
our best, and all the pressure there is on you at this stage in your life to
figure out your destiny and be successful. We gotta be THE best. Which is
impossible.
And my crazy ADD mind jumped to a
realization that the Pokemon theme song is really kind of about MISSIONS…evangelism
and discipleship. No matter what your VOCATION is going to be, and whether or
not you’ve got clear direction on that,
We DO know what God asks of us. He
wants us to be Fishers of Men. The words are on the Facebook site. Just
exchange POKEMON for Prince of PEACE. It’s kinda weird, I know.
They’re going to play the song. And
sing it! Knock yourselves out…I know it’s been awhile.
POKEMON THEME SONG
(aka: Great Commission/Being “Fishers of Men” Edition)
I wanna be my very best,
Like no one ever was.
To catch them is my real test,
To train them is my cause.
I will travel across the lands,
Searching far and wide.
Each Person to understand
The power from God inside.
CHORUS:
Prince of Peace,
(gotta catch them all)
it’s you and me.
I know its my destiny
Prince of Peace,
oh, you're my best friend.
In a world we must defend
Prince of Peace,
(gotta catch them all)
a heart so true
Faith and courage will pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach TRUTH.
(Prince of Peace) Gotta catch 'em all!
Verse 2:
Every challenge along the way
With courage I will face
I will battle every day
To claim my rightful place
Come with me, the time is right
There's no better team
Arm in arm we'll win the fight
It's always been our dream.
CHORUS
One last little bit (that I didn't share)
The only thing wrong with the song is
that Ash is not singing about this in community! He was kind of a loner. Jesus
didn’t give that Great Commission to individuals. He gave it to his band of
brothers…and some sisters. How many disciples did Jesus have? (12) and his
closest were…Peter, James, John…(the dudes who saw the transfiguration). But do
you know that scholars estimate that the number of people who were his original
disciples were around 70. About the size of this College Group… I’m just
saying… Think about that for a minute. You are in this band of believers who
attend RHCC and follow Jesus. Do you have around 12 closer friends? And are you
being intentional with deepening your walk with around 3? That’s my last
encouragement for you before you get in your small groups ---which are SUCH A
GIFT for you.
We have GOT to be super intentional
about cultivating our face to face friendships and community in a culture and
lifestyle where we can have dozens of circles of shallow relationships and
still feel so lonely. So dig in the rest of the evening. I’ve come up with some
discussion questions to talk about.
Hebrews
10:23-24 (live in Unity and Finish well…point #4 above)
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who
promised is faithful. And let us consider
how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not
giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging
one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
