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Two Roma, A Missionary, and an Ugly Heart

11/8/2018

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​In his book-turned-movie Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand said he wasn't angry with his Russian Communist torturers for the same reason he wasn't mad at rabid dogs for doing what is only natural to them. The communists are sinners given over completely to the lustful and wicked cravings of their hearts in an atheistic system that glorified them to be that way. They are people who do - in fact - have the moral law written on their hearts because of them being made in the image of God. They are without excuse for their horrible deeds. Yet even in that, Wurmbrand recognized that they were the real Walking Dead, living only as the sinners they know how. And living as the products of being shaped by a system and told lies for years in their atheistic government. 

In our last newsletter Derek said that we were praying that God would re-open the door with Alexa, our Roma friend who cleaned for us. The truth? Derek may have been praying for that, but meanwhile I had been quite content that no Roma people had been ringing our doorbell recently. In fact not even many of our neighbors have been ringing our bell much since we returned home. I can submit to God if He brings people again, I suppose. But I can’t really bring myself to PRAY for them to return. I idolize my comfort and control of my schedule far too much to pray for those things to be challenged. 
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Kings and Vagabonds

6/6/2018

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Power. Fame. Money.  Many would put their life on the line for any of these. The chance to obtain any one of these things might make risking failure worthwhile. In the sense that all humans have these same desires, this common pursuit unites humanity. It's something we all share, whether rich or poor. But in another sense, these very desires we hold in common are desires which, at their core, seek to separate us from the rest of humanity. Each of these common pursuits ends in our separation from others. To have power means to have influence and control over others. If I am to be powerful in any real sense, others must be powerless, or at least less powerful in comparison to me. We can see the same thing with fame. Were all people to have the same fame and notoriety, of what significance would the word "fame" have as compared to "normal?" One who seeks fame would never want everyone else to be famous, for then fame would carry little weight and influence. Likewise, money would be of little value were everyone to have an abundance of it. Income and wealth require disparities for them to carry any useful distinction and significance. And so it is that the very desires which tend to control us and unify us in our humanity, are likewise pursuits which seek to separate and distinguish us. ​

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"Those" People

1/4/2018

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​"Those immigrants..." "That beggar..." "Oh, it's them..." You don't need me to fill in any more details to understand the tone conveyed in these statements. "Those," "that," and "them" are pieces of language, which when implemented, are usually very descriptive words in and of themselves. We don't need any more descriptors to know how the user feels about a group. While we can use these words to specify just about anything - positive or negative - we generally use different terms when discussing the positives. We tend to use "those," "that," and "them" as a distancing tool when speaking of people, as it removes us from an individual or a group. Sometimes our desire to distance ourselves stems from our feelings of superiority (e.g. "I would never date that guy."), and sometimes it is a distancing which stems from fear (e.g. "Those immigrants want to take our jobs").  ​

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Earning Grace

10/23/2017

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Everyone knows the saying "your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness." Anecdotally I find this to be very true. I think you can also change the phrase to say "your greatest blessing can be your greatest curse." Most of us can hop right to the examples of lottery winners, rags to riches sports stars, and the like who have all received an immense blessing only to have their heaping helping rain down destruction upon them. But as I have been reflecting, I think I have had too much of an extremist attitude when thinking about such things. I don't think it's  merely the extremely blessed who need to worry about their blessings bringing destruction, it's those of us who are blessed at all. 

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Yes, You CAN Help Syrian Refugees!

12/18/2016

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This part of our blog is titled "Ministry in Romania." And one of the things we want to help do when we get to Romania is to help the church there build a mercy ministry so that more Christians can be equipped to move out to their community to show the love of Christ to those in need. Derek has worked as a deacon for four years at our church, and we've participated in several volunteer and mercy opportunities. We've learned a lot and still have a long way to go to learn how to help people, but with the Syrian crisis on everyone's hearts right now, I thought we'd share a few of our thoughts here. 

So many of us are watching videos of Aleppo and feeling totally helpless. Some of us are moved to tears at the sights of desperate children. We feel crushed in spirit by the stories we hear of women being raped and men being beheaded. We wonder how such a travesty can even happen nowadays, and yet we have absolutely no idea what to do. Some will donate their money, and that is a wonderful, kind, generous thing. I implore every Christ follower to be really, truly, actively praying every day for these people. That is the absolute BEST thing we can do. 

Yet, I have been brainstorming other ways that I can help. If you live in the Atlanta area, did you know that we can serve Syrians right here in our own city? Clarkston, Georgia is considered the most diverse square-mile of land in America because there are so many nations represented in this small town. And Syrians are definitely among them! There are SO MANY ways you can help refugees as they settle here in the States - literally EVERYONE has the skills to do SOMETHING to help these people!


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Perspective Pt. 7

2/14/2016

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​​Lesson 7 - Need for community: On a cold Sunday morning back in December, a couple walked into our church and requested assistance. They had driven in for the holidays from Texas in order to see family. They came by way of Florida, where they said they had family as well. They had run out of money on their way up to Georgia, and were in need of a place to stay.
 Everything about this couple screamed "illegitimate." The woman walked in with a big cowboy hat and seemed to play up the whole Texas thing a bit too much. The force was strong with this couple, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit poured out - especially from the woman - as she used Christian jargon every other word. They tried to pull on our heartstrings by talking about how her brother that had died last year - which had nothing to do with their situation. The woman even produced a picture on her phone of her brother lying in the casket at the wake. The whole story of running out of money mid trip seemed too incompetent to be true. When we asked why the multitude of family that was in the area wouldn't put them up, they said that her side of the family didn't want anything to do with the stepfather, and his side of the family had a full house with kids and the elderly who had some health issues. I have rarely felt so strongly against helping someone who has sought assistance from us, but I was in favor of turning them down. The other deacon on duty at the time gave a counter pitch, and we decided to err on the side of caution. We helped them out, but very minimally. We were able to get them set up for a night or two so they could at least stay out of the cold long enough to get their bearings if their story was true. 

BUT...

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Perspectives Pt. 5

2/11/2016

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​Lesson 5 - ​Need to Share: I told Catalina our meeting should only take an hour. I couldn't imagine how it would take any longer. The business at hand was pretty simple. We find out a few details, figure out if the need is legitimate, leave the residence and discuss our plan, then email our proposal to the diaconate for approval if the dollar amount was above our personal threshold. 
Catalina told me to text her if we were going to take longer, just so she knew everything was going well and we weren't in a shady situation. What I expected to be a one hour meeting max, turned into four hour meeting. As we sat and conversed with the individual in need, it was less of a dialogue and more of a monologue. The individual just went on and on about her life. But we weren't there for that. We were there for pertinent details related to immediate physical needs (food, clothing, shelter, finances). As we entered hour two, it became excruciating. All I could think about was how exhausted I was working full time, handling two kids in the mornings and when we got home from work, support raising and meeting with others, and waking up once or twice a night due to our youngest child. All I wanted to do was solve this problem and get home to prepare for the next day and get to bed. My time was being wasted.

BUT...

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Perspectives Pt. 4

2/11/2016

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​Lesson 4 - Judgmentalism: One of our most recent calls was to a woman who was two months behind on rent, with no surplus in her budget. She basically lived from government check to government check. Her savings had just been wiped out the previous month because her car was totaled. As we talked, we found out that the woman had been widowed for close to a decade, and had not held a job since her husband had died. 
Unfortunately, her husband had never obtained a life insurance policy, so the woman was left with nothing. In very short succession, she had quite a number of other relatives die over the next few years. As the conversation progressed, we found out that one reason the woman could not currently get a job was because she drives her daughter to a school that is out of district, a choice made in order to give her a better shot at college. Her daughter is a senior, and could have gotten her driver's license a year and a half ago, but mom just didn't feel like she was ready. They also have a second car that they don't drive - meaning they didn't have to deplete their savings to purchase a car after mom's accident- but mom wants the second car so she can transfer it to her daughter when her daughter gets her license. The grocery bill is also much larger than it needs to be because the daughter is picky, and often wants Zaxbys or Publix subs instead of a home cooked meal.

A number of things stuck out to me. This woman had not sought a job for ten years. I can understand being out of it for a little while, but life necessitates that you move on and find a job. It's unforunate, but it just needs to be done. It's something you have to deal with. Furthermore, to deplete your savings for the convenience of giving your child a car is irresponsible. It's a nice thing to give your child a car, but not at the detriment of losing your home or going hungry. Priorities need to be assessed. Having an 18 year old daughter who you need to drive, not driving? That's a lack of parental training. If the daughter needs to do this for the family, especially considering the mother is bending over backwards to put her out of district, then the daughter had better learn to drive, and the mother had better let her learn so mom can get a job. Finally, letting your child tell you they don't like leftovers or they need take out food is ridiculous. If you only have so much money, your kid had better learn to eat whatever you put on the table. That's just the way it is.

BUT...

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Perspectives Pt. 3

2/10/2016

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​ Lesson 3 - Perspective: One woman we helped had an extremely tragic story - much of which was relayed in the "terrible lives" section found in part 2. We really extended ourselves in all areas to help her. We were on call and made at least one midnight trip out to a questionable job site where we got her out and away from some individuals and situations that we thought were not good.
We frequently drove across the county to get her situated in a home. We invited her to meals. We met with her fiance on a number of occasions at the prison, and were the ones to pick him up on the morning he was released. We gave her furniture. We gave her Kroger vouchers. We gave her kitchenware. We completely spent ourselves financially and emotionally. I remember one day, deep into the process, when we went over to the woman's house and saw the items she had purchased at the store with the Kroger vouchers we had given to her. Name brand stuff. Unnecessary stuff. It was pretty frustrating to think about how much farther the money could have gone, and I knew that a week into her two week grocery stipend, she would be calling and saying she needed more money. I wondered if it was really a good thing to give to such an irresponsible person. After all we had done for her, her thoughtless actions seemed absolutely inconsiderate.

BUT...

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Perspectives Pt. 6

2/9/2016

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​Failures: A few sections ago, I mentioned a woman who we had helped out considerably. We helped her purchase food, we drove her around, we got her out of some bad late night situations, we visited her fiance in prison and picked him up when he was released, we set her up with a place to live for a few months, we had her over for dinner, and we listened to her when she called to express fears or frustrations. 
It was exhausting, but worth it. The whole process ended up taking around six months just for this one person. It was exhausting! Mercy requests rarely turn into long term relationships - though we do try to get them to become that. This was exciting. Everything seemed to be going great. But then, the woman began to become paranoid about all those who cared about her: her fiance and the deacons. She began to trust the ones around her who were dysfunctional and brought her down. We were pretty sure she was doing drugs again, and we also wondered if she was having some sort of relapse with a mental illness. We tried to get her help, but she just thought we were out to get her. Whatever it was, everything just fell apart. After six months of hard work, we failed.

BUT...

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