Colombia, an invitation to something new...

This life is filled with choices. And we get an invitation, there is always a choice to be  made.

This week, I choose to say yes to the invitation...

This week I am going back to Colombia. I was invited by my friends Carlos & Maria to teach at their school  for their ministry Cultura del Reino...

I will be teaching there on creating a new culture that values honor, love, respect, discipleship, and celebration.

I love Colombia. It is like a promised land, a frontier, a place of exploration and mystery, but it's not just the land that is beautiful. It's the people that I have met and started to build relationship with. I am excited to share life with them.

How do we create a culture that values honor, love, respect, discipleship, and celebration?

I think it first starts with the question, "How do we love the brother that is right in front of us?"

A lot of times, that is just listening, it's listening and hearing, and sensing, what are the gifts of my brother...what his unique gifting in this world and how can we make that come alive.

There are so many unique gifts we have had in our house--talented and gifted in so many ways--from performing in plays, to dancing, to singing, to leading solar race car teams, to leading worship and starting record labels, to building software to change the world.

These last two years of living in community here in Atlanta have been trans-formative to say the least.. It has marked the time where my career in working with computer languages has taken off the ground... It has marked the time that I have learned that relationships, language, and travel are true passions in my life.

I have been living in a full house of so many different types of people...each one with their own unique charm... so different, from wild to quiet, dirty to clean, messy to neat, anal to careless, musically gifted to so out of tune it hurts, from those who find it awkward to give hugs in their own house to those who try to kiss you all over regardless of where, from those who arrive home with bottles of whiskey and vodka to those who prohibit drinking, from those who walk around almost naked in the winter to those who walk around in suits in the summer, from those who wake up every morning at 6 AM to those who don't go to bed until 6 AM. From those who love Jesus to those who love Jesus, because everyone loves Jesus... To each I love, and from each i have learned...and it's through learning how to love and find unity with all sorts of different types of people with different types of talents that we find ourselves and our purpose....Pursing Jesus, love and unity together...

Subido al Pico Loro

Today, I went with some friends into some communities in the mountains...we came along some people who were fasting and playing worship and we joined them and one of the women made us lunch and we went to a mountain top...and prayed, and came down and went swimming in a river with waterfalls. My friend David shared the gospel with single mom and a guy in heroin addiction on the way back home in the bus. It was an amazing day! And as we arrived in Cali we saw many lights and people celebrating festivities of Christmas! It was a very special time!

May the fire burn in our hearts with a sacrific of love never dwindling.

During my time here in Cali, I have had some incredible encounters with God. A few friends of mine from a church community have been starting some projects bringing out food and praying for the poor in the slums. We have been enjoying some incredible times of worship and intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Through an incredible worship experience that I had with a friend of mine, David Cruz, I felt the Holy Spirit revealing something to me about the power of sacrifice. We sang together, "May my life be a burning sacrifice of love consumed by your desires." I realized that something greater awaits us. If we can become the people who fully sacrifice all there is something greater, there is something that awaits us in our community. Imagine our community as a garden and Jesus as a seed. If we fertilize our garden with Love, what awaits us are fruits beyond our hearts wildest dreams. Trusting and having faith, a fully rendering love, a love which is a total sacrifice comes with pain for only a moment, for the Kingdom of lovers is before us. A family is awaiting to be revealed in the garden--a family of lovers which we were created for. Dissention, wounds, sins, and ills try to seperate us one from another. There is a choice for each of us. There is a choice to go our own way and take care of ourselves or to sacrifice all and trust in the Love pouring down on us. Sacrificing all is about a choice to overcome the sin of others with love, sacrificing all for love, until we are totally consumed by love. Trusting in Jesus is a lot of times about trusting in others. It's about trusting in those who are around us who are the body of Christ. It's about trusting in those who have become our brothers and sisters. It's about believing that love wins. It is trusting that if we sacrifice all we will be caught in a beanbag filled with love. The truth is. It hurts when others are not willing to sacrfice. It is like falling backwards on the ground and having no one to catch you. But when we learn...It is like falling backwards into the warm embrace of lovers. We must ask, "are we willing to be to the hands and feet of Jesus in whom others can trust with all their life?" When we get to live in this new transformed revelation of sacrificing love, a new world of love opens up before us. It is written that a gift brings a man before a king. So then imagine a burning sacrifice of total surrendering love--what can that open up for us! It's behind our wildest dreams! Love has a creative power that goes way beyond restoration...I had a vision of my friend Tony Brown, he's a guy who is always making sacrifices for all those around him--always buying food for others and driving people around in his beautiful antique van...I saw him sewing a seed of love which would be rewarded with a harvest of lovers. The point of this all is that...there is something awaits us...if we just surrender and trust. A glowing fire of love awaits us. If we follow in step and surrender all, what awaits us is an abudant life, the joy set before Christ before the sacrifice...there is something on the other side and it's worth it! :-) It's worth it for us all! It's way beyond worth it! If we can just open our eyes and see, we will be transformed and be unleashers of the consuming power of love! So may the fire burn in your heart and may you become the burning sacrifice of love consumed by the desires of something much greater than yourself. The desires of the one who gave everything for the greatest prize. The desires of the one which have the greatest reward. You were meant for something greater!

The Beloved

I am just amazed on Henri Nouwen's teaching about the beloved.

If we could just know that we are God's beloved children and His loved in whom He is delighted. Imagine! The challenge is embodying that truth and living it out.

There is something beautiful that happens when we are called beautiful, love, desirable. It's amazing...

If we could live in the identity that Jesus lived in, knowing that we are truly God's beloved, our lives could become blossoms which are a fragrance to all creation.

There is something that stirs deeply in our soul when we know that there are great riches that are before us, one who loves us and desires us with His heart and speaks well of us, and one who gives us the food and substance that we need to live. True riches are not attains by our own hands, and true love is not earned, nor is what we need brought forth through our own efforts. It was in these was that Jesus was tempted. True love and sustenance is a gift for sons and daughters of the one true YHWH God.

2010 Trip Colombia and Brazil

In March, I was invited by my friends Steve Phillips and Michael Ellis to do the boot camp school for Nehemiah Ministry International at Rey de Reyes church in Cali, Colombia. I was privileged to stay with one of the inspiring youth leaders Jonathan Calderon. It was truly a life changing experience as we went through the counseling material as a community. It was exciting to be a part of a church community, with closely nit small groups, which is alive and growing. I was amazed by the love of the people for one another in the church. After the course, I had to take the offer of my friend David Cruz to go back and stay with them for a few more weeks. We celebrated birthdays together, went to small group meetings together, went to the streets of Cali to promote Jesus to the people, and enjoyed a weekend leadership retreat.



After the course at Rey de Reyes, I traveled to the three frontiers of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia in the Amazon. I soon connected with a mission called AmazonXpeditions through a friend. I met the son of the founder David Gonzalez, and I was amazed by his passion to use all the resources he could to bless people out on the river. I had the chance to join them in going out to small communities on the river bringing food supplies and water purification systems. There is something truly satisfying about being able to bring food to people who need it. Going out on the river with them to do missions was the nothing less than the experience of a lifetime.

During my time there, I had the privilege of staying with the Ticuna people in a little village close to Leticia, Colombia. They would smile as I would walk through their village of houses built on stilts paved by muddy paths. I spent a good amount of time with one boy named Fabricio. He was very nice, smart, and friendly, and he enjoyed showing me around his little village. But I soon noticed that he like many of the others would come to a feeding program, because there just wasn’t enough food in his home. It made me think about what James wrote about in the New Testament, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27 ESV).

After my trip in the Amazon, I was privileged to stay with pastors Jairo and Doris Niño in Armenia, Colombia. I met them through pastor Penn Clark a friend of mine. We spent time together and went through the inner-healing and deliverance material together again. They taught me many things through their experiences in the international field. I loved staying with them. I really enjoyed their loving family, warm hospitality, time of fellowship, and their church. I saw the needs for music ministry, and media ministry, and discipleship among the youth, and which all add to my desire to go back in the future.

The trip was life changing. The course on inner-healing and deliverance was really good. I made some great friends and I was able to participate in some great missions with the indigenous people in the Amazon.

Cali

These last two weeks in Cali have been amazing. I was able to go to take a course at the Rey de Reyes church in Ciudad Jardin. I have been able to meet so many youth who are excited about God and desire to see His name glorified throughout the earth. Their hospitality was amazing as I was very welcomed and experienced the warmth of these Colombian people. The course on inner-healing and deliverance was very good as I learned so much about counseling and why we are the way we are. There were many times of rejoicing. But the best part was making new friends. I met new friends that were very excited about going to the streets and reaching out to the homeless and feeding them. One night, we went out and we found ourselves among crack-dealers on the streets of Cali. It was amazing, as we were able to talk with one guy who was totally captivated by us and even ignored his customers so that he could just talk with us. It was amazing to see the transforming power of Jesus on the streets of Cali and it was so special to have a bonding time with the guys.

Medellin

It has been a very busy day today in Medellin. We went to the comunas ( slums ) on the north side of the city. Then we went up the famous gondolas to the top of these beautiful Andes mountains. It was breath-taking. However, on the way down, we came across a homicide site. It was shocking to see a dead body in the middle of the street. People were gathered around. The pastor told me that it is common to have 8-10 homicides per day here in Medellin--though the statistics reported are much lower. After that, we went to a cell-group. It was really nice to have fellowship, worship, and get to know the people in the house churches here in Medellin. It was inspiring. My heart was taken away by the people who live in extreme poverty in the midst of drug-related violence that plagues the city.

Being with the poor

After being a few days in Medellin, I've been attracted all the more to be with the poor. To be in the midst of those who have been brought to the bottom. It's when we meet with people like that something special happens.

Llegado en Medellin

I have arrived in Medellin. It has been a blessing as I have arrived in the house of a pastor and her family. It has been very good. I have learned so much over the last two days about life in Medellin. It's a beautiful a city, but also it has been plagued by violence in the comunas (slums), prostitution, and drugs. I went today to a family who just recently lost their son to homicide in their community. It has left the whole family preoccupied. It left a woman as a widow and a little boy as an orphan. It made me think. Violence is something that needs to be combated and we must respond with love and compassion to those who are affected by it--especially the orphans and the widows. This family lost their brother just a few months ago, but you can see that God is doing miracles in their family--bringing joy and peace in the midst of distress.

Colombia, South America...

Tomorrow, I am embarking on a journey which will start in Medellin, Colombia and eventually lead to the Amazon in Colombia and then Brazil. My heart is stirred and I am excited about the things God has in store for this trip.

A few months ago, when I would pray, Leticia, Colombia was on my heart. I had met a friend from there, Samuel, when I was at the YWAM base in Recife back in 2007 and he invited me to come there to the base in the Amazon. It just took a little while for that seed to grow.

While I was at the house of prayer a few weeks ago, I found out that a friend Steve from the International House of Prayer here in Georgia was going to do an inner-healing and deliverance school in Rey de Reyes ( King of Kings ) church in Cali, Colombia and he invited me to come with him.

I then reconnected with my friend, who is a pastor, Penn Clark and he connected me with some of his friends in Colombia. I made a contact with some of his friends in Medellin who welcomed me to stay with them. I became excited about this, I prayed, and then I decided to buy my ticket to go.

Brazil -- I remember

Brazil

I remember the sunsets of a tropical sun setting over top coconut trees, mango trees, and the warm breeze off the atlantic. My heart resonates with the rememberance of driving over the highway that connects Recife with Boa-Viagem beach in Pernambuco. The skylines filled with appartment buildings, and shacks scattered on the banks of the rivers leading to some of the largest slums in Latin America. The apperant dichotomy of the extreme wealth and poverty in the same neighborhood. I remember the festival of Sao Joao (Saint John), beautiful brazilian kids in the streets playing with firecrackers and smoke filling the streets in Camaragibe until it made it hard to breathe; Canjeica and Pamonia being sold in the streets celebrating the harvest of corn; people gathering together dancing forro and singing songs. I remember walking down the street hearing the cry of a man which sounding like a goat when it is slaughtered. I looked and saw a young man getting beating on the corner of a street by multiple men next to a small bar that sold only strong liquor which sat beneath a tree filled with vodoo dolls and other strange objects. I remember young pregnant women sitting in maternity classes sewing and stiching various objects-- without a father for their children and without an ability to read or write. I remember a kid from the street with broken beer glass bottle trying to murder another kid over a plastic bottle of sniffing glue that was supposedly stolen from him. I remember seeing all this on the street just next to men selling pipoca (popcorn) and churrasco (barbequed chicken and pork) who just continued to sell their as two street kids run by their carts. I remember grown girls sucking their thumbs aroung young boys smoking marijuana wearing bermuda shorts walking through their favelas as the days passed under the tropical sun. I remember a teenage boy walking down the street in front of me, filled with anger, cocking his revolver as he makes large strides. I remember the moment, when I realized the music in the street that people were dancing to was about prostituition. I remember handing out soup with friends to the poor seeing more than 50 kids come with their plastic containers with warm soup and running back to their one-room houses on dirt paths as fast as they could so that they could come back and refill their containers again. I remember the sun brighting brigher in those days and a feeling of bliss and joy. I remember seeing kids not just with plastic containers in their hands, but with huge smiles, laughing, as they would wait to get soup to bring to their families with great happiness. I remember watching just one pot of soup serve a whole community--as if God had multiplied the food. I remember the tropical forest, the sloths, the monkeys, and kids climbing tamarind trees to pick tamarind fruits to suck as they came back from playing football tournaments. I remember a woman asking for prayer for her daughter to get healed from various mental and physical disabilities. I remember watching a whole family come to believe and recieve the salvation of Jesus for the first time...

I remember visiting the streets one evening, bringing first-aid to some of those who were stuck living on the streets of old-Recife. I remember asking someone, "Onde foi o homem com quem eu estava falando na semana passada? (where was the guy I was talking to last week?)" Only to hear, "Ele morreu (He died)." I said, "Porque? (why?)" They said, "Trafico das drugas. (Drug trafficking)." I remember the statistics about the city of Recife being known as one of the most violent in the world. It's a hard statistic when you have to swallow the fact that your friend just died. I think, "What if that was my son?" That was somebody's son. Thousands of sons and daughters dying each year to murder. I remember going on the bus from Recife to Camaragibe, trying to be careful about putting my wallet in my front pocket--having had it stolen previously. I remember listening to a pastor preaching a sermon and then stopping to share that how he had been assaulted just the night before on the street and held gunpoint.

I remember hills covered in poorly constructed slums and the feelings of great poverty. I remember people going to the grocery store to buy basic household items, but showing up at the counter without enough money to buy what they need.

to be continued...

Amazon Basin

I am now in the process of planning to go stay to the Amazon Basin near the Brazilian and Colombian border. There in the midst of the jungle, there are tribes with little or no contact with western civilization. There are tribes that have ancient practices and traditions. It's a place of beauty yet there is a people possessed by fear.
Some of the indigenous practices are beyond what can be comprehended. HAKANI tells the story of one who cries out from the opression.

"If we act out of fear, the only possible outcome is sin..." Bill Johnson --the pastor of Bethel church in Redding, Ca.

Communion

I feel deeply that the issue of communion in the church has great potential to be much more than just a religious activity of a small cup of grape juice and a wafer. I believe God has called us to feast with one another. There is an interestingly beautiful truth that intimacy with God comes through fasting, yet intimacy with others comes from a feasting with others. There is something for us to tap into by just eating with one another. We can tap into the Intimacy with others that God has created us for. Sin, in a sense, is no more than something that creates a separation from us and God. Love brings unity among people. We eat together, because God has healed us. When we eat together as a celebration of what He has done for us and provided for us and how He has enlarged our family, we start to enjoy the beauty of His creation in a new fresh way.

Northeast Brazil 2009

Mission trip in India and Nepal

Here is a slideshow of the pictures from my trip to the Netherlands, Italy, India, and Nepal.

Being in Nepal and India was quite an experience. Here are some pictures from the Himalayas. These places are majestic in their beauty! :-) I hope to go back in the future with others who have a passion for these mountain places!

Atlanta...

Now, I am back in Atlanta. It was an incredible experience to go to India and Nepal this last year, but now is a great time for me to just process and reflect on all the experiences I had. I'm now enjoying going to the local IHOP--International House of Prayer and enjoying spending time with my parents! 

Kathmandu

I've now been in Kathmandu for two weeks...

It's beautiful... The people... Their smiles...

It's a hard life for the people here in Nepal... I watch many each day outside my window carrying bags of dirt on their backs. They barely make 1 dollar a day. But they're surviving...
It's hard though...Literacy rate for women is less than 50 percent. Life expectancy is about 60 years...and political instability and corruption worry the minds of the people...

How could a land so beautiful endure such hardship...

I just look and am mesmorized. I enjoy the hospitality of the people...for them...a guest is like a god...It gives me a chance to share my faith and learn the faith of others...

Bhudda teaches..."life is suffering" and so it rings true for many of the people here... But isn't there a hope of something more?

Pune

So now i've been in Pune for two weeks. It's been nice... It's been a mix of bliss and other things all in one experience... I've been pooped on by birds, had sleepless nights vomitting, yet have enjoyed good fellowship, made many new friends, and have had many different experiences--non of which could be preconcieved or expected... The mix of modernity and poverty is shocking...one family rich with flat screen tv's, laptops, nice cars and motorcycles, and another family scrapping their 20-40 dollar a month salery to make ends meat--or rather vegetables because meat would be too expensive...A place which streets are home to over 40 thousand street children living under unbarable heat, dust, and pollution...I was just talking with a friend the other day who lives off 20 dollars a month of support to do missions... Coming from a family that lives in utter poverty. It's hard to believe in the west...we spend 20 dollars on haircuts and ten dollars on movie tickets...without even thinking twice about it... Yet someone else, is trying to figure out how they'll live on that for one month... If we were to make relationships with the poor...to step out...into the broken places...maybe we would have compassion...maybe our vision would change...maybe we could start to see things from a different perspective...Today I was at Coffee Jar, a nice coffee shop here in Pune, and I met this guy Josh from the US...and he was asking me, "how do you support yourself...do you have what you need?" I stopped and thought to myself..."I have more than I need...I have shelter and I have food...but what about those around me..." There are people that suffer...There are people who struggle to have their needs met... Something in me says we need to say no to vanity and yes to relationship with the poor, the needy, and with those who are struggling to have their needs met... They are people too...They are people with dreams and visions...They are people with desires... They are people who have been hurt by the opression of unjust governments, corruption, lies, and deception... They are people with a name and with a heart...just like you and me...struggling to survive... So...Really, I've come to Pune just to visit friends. I came to visit my friend Christian before he went back to the States...but now i find myself here...looking around...meeting people along the way...realizing... there's something more going on here...I believe it is even more key than teaching. Not that teaching is bad, no...Teaching is good. It's that the teaching without fellowship is dead. Just like faith without works is dead... Fellowship with God and with others is center...and should be the center of our faith--our love for one another...If we go to church, or any religious activity for that matter, and we hear the sermon, watch the people, pray, and leave...yet have ignored those in need...should we even call it a church? Does our physical body forsake one member or another it's nourishment? Maybe we should venture out...maybe we should take a step...lend our hand...to the one who's caught in dispair by the troubles and heaviness of this world...to raise those up who have been trampled down...And give what little joy and fruit we have...give our heart...our love...our compassion...to turn the wastelands into habitable dwellings...and dry lands into fruitful vinyards To help others achieve their dreams and visions...to help others live and prosper ...to help restore this broken world to the way God intended it to be...

Celebrating Christmas in India

It has been great to be here with Christian these last two weeks. It has been rewarding to be here and just enjoy the goal for these two weeks is to visit my friend and spend time with him.
Tonight we are going to celebrate and have a Christmas dinner here at the base. Being here at the base has been great and it has been a great time to meet people from so many nations, traditions, and backgrounds and to make friends and relationships. It's a nice place and the community life is great. It's nice to see so many people excited about God in one place...united in heart and spirit. It has been a good time here for me just to experience goodness. Now...I'm starting to enjoy being in India. I am starting to appreciate the community, the food, the beauty, the nice tropical climate during the winter months.