Tag: missions

Dumb | One Lawsuit Away

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been blogging about the top ten dumbest things I’ve done in student ministry.  My intention is not to make myself look like an idiot (although I’m sure that’s entertaining) but rather to help other student ministry workers avoid the same mistakes I’ve made.  My topic for today is liability.  Now, I realize that I might sound like your paranoid grandmother, blogging about this topic (not the blogging–I can’t really see your grams blogging, but rather the liability paranoia) but I’ve come to realize that liability is something worth talking about because the truth is that, while it isn’t a very fun topic, our churches and student ministries are one bad lawsuit away from being shut down.  It happens.  I don’t want it to happen to me and I don’t want it to happen to you because what we do, as student pastors and volunteers is too important to jeopardize.  So, indulge me.  Let me share a little story…

One thing you should know about me is that I love mission trips.  I love how they transform lives.  The combination of having your eyes opened to needs in the world, feeling like God can actually use you, and the experience of traveling and serving together with a small group of people changes the trajectory of a life, over and over again.  I absolutely love it.

As a younger student pastor, my assumption was that the more intense the mission trip experience, the more impactful it would be in the lives of my students.  I suppose that to some degree, this is probably true.  The problem, I discovered, is that there’s a line, and beyond that line, well, you’re just asking for trouble.

Early in my career, an opportunity arose to take students to Honduras to help local church planters build churches among the Lenca people.  I was so pumped!  This was exactly the type of trip I was looking for.  And to be fair, these trips were incredibly life-changing for my students, volunteers and me.  However, looking back, I realized that a few of these trips to Honduras slipped across the line and became too dangerous for students.  Let me explain.  Here’s what I remember from these trips:

  • students riding in the back of pickups with indigenous drivers on horrendous mountain roads
  • never knowing exactly where I was
  • being 2 hours away from the nearest hospital while doing semi-dangerous construction work
  • being stranded in the jungle completely alone with two students for several hours
  • framing a church with a chainsaw…because that’s what we had
  • sliding backwards down a slippery mountain road in our team vehicle
  • students walking on planking two stories above ground while we worked
  • not having appropriate safety gear for students
  • being stranded in a mountain village for a few days because a monsoon washed away the roads
  • building a church in a mountain village that I later learned had tried to kill one of the missionaries
  • did I mention that I brought 9th grades?
  • oh, and Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world..

Look…I know this list makes me look like a complete idiot but I assure you that the results from this trip made me look like a hero with parents, leadership and the students.  In fact, some of them will probably want to fight me if they read this.  This trip really did impact students for life.  Also, you should know that the missionaries we were working with are incredible people who are doing amazing work.  It’s just that these trips weren’t a good fit for high school students.

Looking back, I realized that we were one small mishap away from major problems.  What if a kid had fallen?  What if our team vehicle had slipped off the road and into the ravine?  What if someone had been maimed by that chainsaw?

First off, the tragedy would have been unspeakable.  Secondly, a grieving or angry parent could have ended our entire church with a lawsuit that we never could have won.  Also, a 2 or 3 million dollar lawsuit would sink most churches.  In a court of law, my case would have been indefensible.  “You were where?”  “You were doing what?”  “What were you thinking?!?”  I mean, let’s be real, we didn’t even have a release of liability form!

I encourage you to consider liability as you plan events and trips.  Do you have a plan?  Does your church have liability insurance?  Do you require a release of liability form?  What is your emergency protocol?  Do you run background checks on your volunteers?  Do you have someone in your context asking you hard questions about your liability for events and trips?  In my opinion, we have to be able to answer all of these questions intelligently and effectively because what we do is so important.  It isn’t worth jeopardizing because of negligence or recklessness.

 

image credited to Shawn Carpenter via Flickr

What I Learned in Costa Rica

As I write this, I’m chilling in San Jose, Costa Rica.  I’m here hanging out with Young Life staff, learning about their ministry in Central America. I’ve only been here a few days but I’ve been blown away. I love listening to ministry leaders talk about how God is moving–listening to their strategies and war stories. Here’s what I’ve picked up from Vida Joven.

Let God Drive Your Vision

These people pray and listen with intentionality. At one point, I heard someone say, we’ve been praying about this opportunity for ten years and God is just now opening up a way. 10 years? That is persistence!

Every leader I’ve talked with naturally articulates a posture of obedient following. They believe that God has given them a vision that stretches their personal and organizational capacities. They know what they are called to do, where they are called to do it and they work tirelessly to make it happen. It’s amazing to see.

To be honest, this focus is a challenge for me. I wonder if I spend enough time praying and listening, really trying to capture where God is moving.

A Clear Mission is Fuel

Every person I talked with on the Young Life team was buzzing with the same mission: We are called to disinterested teenagers, and our volunteer leaders are the pastors of these kids. When everyone is aligned with the mission, amazing things happen. A clear mission is like fuel. It propels you forward and ignites effective ministry.

 

Ministry is Always About Empowering People

What I love about the Young Life method is their focus on leader development. So many of the leaders I talked with were formerly students in the Young Life program. I love the emphasis of identifying leadership potential and then pouring into those people with relational energy and discipleship. It’s almost like it’s biblical or something…

 

Futbal is different here.

One of the highlights of this trip so far, has been a Costa Rican Premier League soccer match. I never really played soccer, although I do enjoy FIFA 15. Anyway, the crowd was small because of rain but the rowdies were insane. Those people never stop jumping, singing and shouting. One guy in particular banged on his drum the entire match. That’s like 3 hours! The devotion and passion of those fans was fun to watch.

 

There is a reason that Young Life is experiencing explosive growth in Central America.  When a team comes together under a unified vision and mission and commits to listening to and following the Holy Spirit, amazing things happen.  I loved seeing Costa Rican teenagers experience Young Life club.  I loved seeing Young Life volunteer leaders pouring into these kids and pulling them into relationship with Jesus.  What a fantastic ministry.

 

image credited to Charles Company Soler via Flickr

Lessons from Africa Part 3: Relationships

Earlier this summer, I co-led a team of students on a mission trip to Malawi, Africa.  Here’s the third installment of what I learned:

LESSON 3:  RELATIONSHIPS TRUMP EVERYTHING

Things move slowly in Africa.  By that I don’t mean that Africa is backwards or inferior.  What I mean is that conversations, business exchanges and encounters with people on the street move at a slower pace.  You might say they linger.

I’ll be honest, there’s part of me that hates slow, and if I’m honest that part is the larger part of me.  I’m very task oriented.  I don’t like it when people trap me in conversation when I have places to go or things to do.

While we were in Malawi, the CURE hospital staff assigned us the task of redesigning and decorating a playroom for the children.  We really enjoyed painting cartoon animals on the walls and creating a warm and embracing environment (when I say “we,” I mean the students who had artistic talent).  However, in my estimation, the entire project took about three days longer than necessary.  The reason was that every little decision had to be consulted by 19 different people.

“Have we decided on where to hang the TV?”

“Hello Aaron!  How are you?  How was your evening?  Did you sleep well?” …15 minutes of conversation later…

“So, where should we hang the TV?”

“Well, we really need to consult with Joe because he is the one who leads the ministry with the kids.”

So, I go and find Joe.

“Hey Joe, where do you want to hang the TV?”

“Hello Aaron!  How are you? [shakes my hand and then continues to hold my hand throughout the rest of the conversation] How was your night.  Did you sleep well….” 15 minutes of conversation later,

“So, where should we hang the TV?”

“Well, we should consult so and so because of some random reason.”

For the record, we never actually hung the TV.

The funny thing is that the Malawians actually care about listening to everyone’s opinions and truly care about the questions they are asking you.  And, if you don’t reciprocate the questions you are perceived as a jerk because you aren’t valuing the conversation and therefore the relationship.  Which, if I’m honest, is probably true.

For crying out loud, even the peddlers in the market asked me how I was enjoying their country, told me their names, shook my hand for about 50 minutes as they inquired about my family all the while gently leading me to the stalls containing their mahogany wares.

I learned that Malawians value relationships more than anything else.  When a Malawian invites you into their home, they literally wash your hands for you.  In everything, task is secondary and relationship is first.  So what if the playroom is behind schedule?  We connected and cared for each other.  That’s what friends do.  And, if you’re wondering, the project was completed on time…ish.

Like I said, at first I hated the pace of everything but then we began to recognize the value of their way of life.  When asked how she planned to change her life based on her experiences in Africa, one of our students explained that she planned to take time to actually answer her mom’s questions after school instead of spitting out a quick “Fine” before running to her room to watch Netflix.  She realized that Malawians value relationships in ways that we as Americans don’t.   That realization alone is probably worth the cost of the plane ticket

I can’t help but think that we, in the US, have some things to learn about listening, asking good questions, putting people first and valuing relationships.  I’m attempting to slow down, listen a little more and value the relationships God has gifted me with.  Just don’t interrupt me while I’m doing something or try to hold my hand while we talk…

Lessons from Africa 5: Love

LESSON FIVE:  LOVE

I experienced something profound in Malawi. I treasure Jesus’ commandment, “Love one another.”  I believe that it truly is the greatest commandment. It is the pinnacle of what Jesus embodied and taught.

I vividly remember an Andy Stanley sermon from the Orange Conference a few years ago, in which he stated that whenever the church leverages love it advances and whenever it leverages something other than love it gets off-course. I’ve observed the Church “leveraging something other than love” over and over again in American culture as churches align themselves politically or engage in cultural wars over various issues. It seems that we too often get sucked into leveraging “being right.”

This time, though, at a small hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, I observed the church leveraging love.

You see, I spent a week serving at CURE hospital.  CURE International in an amazing organization. It is overtly Christian. It unabashedly promotes Jesus as Savior and King but it leverages this message through the gifts of physically healing children and treating people with dignity and respect.

CURE in Malawi employs several Muslims and they love working for CURE. There are prominent Muslim families who support CURE financially because they believe in their values and mission. Did you catch that? That just doesn’t happen! They donate their hard earned money to support an infidel hospital because it loves children so well.

Muslim families have become Christ-followers because CURE representatives came to their villages, professionally and relationally demonstrated how they could heal their child’s club foot or cleft palate, and then did so–caring for their family with dignity and love throughout the entire process.

Across the world, Islam and Christianity are at war.  The news in Iraq is particularly disturbing.  And yet, here is an overtly Christian organization in Africa, a region that has repeatedly been torn apart by religious wars, that employs, services and receives financial support from Muslims and in the process, has demonstrated the beauty and power of the Gospel in such a way that it has become compelling to Muslims. This is an incredible story and we have much to learn from it.

As Andy Stanley said at the Orange Conference, when we leverage love, the church grows and advances. What if we just loved? What if we simply served with no strings attached?

What if Christian organizations were the type of organizations that Muslims or, perhaps a better example in American culture, homosexuals wanted to work for them because they were treated so amazingly well? What if, because we loved homosexuals so well that Jesus became compelling? What if Christian organizations behaved so lovingly that Muslims or homosexuals willingly donated their hard earned money to supported their operations?

What if we simply loved people so tangibly and powerfully that they couldn’t help but notice our good deeds and worship Jesus? I think there’s something about that in the Bible…

 

image credited to Michiel Van Balen via Flickr

Lessons From Africa 4: Students

LESSON FOUR:  STUDENTS ARE POWERFUL

“Students are the church of tomorrow.” I hear this line all the time but is it true?  Are they the church of tomorrow?

A few years ago, you may have heard me make this statement, but now I embrace a different belief about students. Students are the church of now. Not only is this true, but the Church desperately needs students right now for their unique insights, passion and ways of approaching the world.

In addition, research and experience have shown that students who are entrusted with the mission of the Church now are far more likely to stick with following Jesus in life beyond high school. Like in sports, if we keep them on the sidelines, they’ll likely lose interest and quit.  But, if we dare put them on the field, there is a chance that their insights and passions might just change the game.  The truth is: the Church needs what they bring–not tomorrow, but right now.

A few weeks ago, I co-lead a team of high school students on a serving trip to a CURE International hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. While we were there, our students helped uncover a new approach for the hospital staff. You see, the hospital staff was completely focused on the children under their care, and for good reason. They were healing children physically and doing their best to impact them spiritually. Our students, many of whom have years of experience leading small groups of 2nd or 4th graders jumped right in, helping to lead a VBS, and just loving on kids like pros. But, they took it one step further, they invited all the mothers and guardians who were there with their children to participate. They pulled them into the crafts, gave them toys and prizes, painted their nails, and encouraged them.

At first the hospital staff resisted and requested that our students focus on the children exclusively but our students insisted. Our teenagers intuitively understood the value of a family based ministry model, even if it meant accidentally giving the Muslim family a beanie baby pig.  Oops.

It was incredibly moving for me to watch the transformation that took place in the hospital ward over the course of the week. All these children and women were terrified. Many of them assume that this is the last stop for their children. The traditional remedies didn’t work, the village holy man couldn’t heal their son. This is a last ditch effort. There were very few smiles and the level of anxiety was palpable.

Over the course of the week, purely through expressions of love and generosity, the atmosphere transformed. There was dancing, laughing, hugging and play. In the end, a few members of the hospital staff pulled us aside to share how thankful they were that our students had revealed the importance of loving and serving the mothers as well as the children. This wasn’t something we planned to do. It wasn’t part of the ministry strategy. It was simply something our students observed and acted on.

It was beautiful. I was so proud of our kids and it reminded me of how valuable our students are, not 10 years from now but right now. Put them on the field.  Let them into the game.  It’s the best thing for them and for the church.  We need their fresh approach, passion and ingenuity.

Why I Love Orphan Ministry

If there’s something followers of Jesus ought to care about it’s orphans.  Check out James 1:27.  I must confess that I never really cared about orphans until I met an organization called Radooga.  Orphan ministry in Ukraine has transformed me.  I’ll never look at the world the same again.

Recently, Radooga posted this video about partnering with local churches to impact the lives of orphans.  I’d love it if you watched it.  Also, Radooga’s orphan camp ministry would be a fantastic mission experience for church.  Just sayin…

 

New LifeLine Video: Mission Trips Reveal

This week we revealed our summer mission trips to our student and volunteers with a ridiculous video.  I mean, how else would you do it?

Announcement: Knapp & Cascade Mission Trips from LifeLine Student Ministries on Vimeo.

This year we are hoping to send 270 students on mission trips.  That’s way too much paper! Have you noticed that some mission organizations require a tree’s worth of paperwork?  Thankfully, our resident web genius, Jon VerLee designed this registration page for us which streamlines the process and saves the rainforest.

LifeLine Missions Registrations

 

If you are a youth worker, when and how do you reveal your mission trips?  Also, how do you do registrations and collect paperwork?

 

The Hope For the World

“Nobody cares about orphans in this country.  The Christians don’t want to get involved and everyone else pretends they don’t exist”  This was the criticism I heard from the director of a Ukrainian para-church organization 3 years ago after spending a heartbreaking and life-changing week with Ukrianian orphans.

I’ve never felt more hopeless than after leaving the orphans I had fallen in love with, knowing that 70% of the girls would end up involved in prostitution and most of the boys would end up in prison or addicted to drugs living on the streets.  Who would care for them?  Who would lift them out of poverty and hopelessness and teach them how to live.  No one.

That was 3 years ago.  In my opinion, the game has changed.  Along with me in that orphan camp 3 years ago was a Ukrainian pastor named Sasha who, to be honest, seemed to be there against his will.  He was the speaker for the camp but he didn’t seem to enjoy it at all.  He also seemed rather unwilling to engage the orphan children relationally.

But, when we returned to the camp the following year, he was waiting for us along a bunch of people from his church.  There could be no doubt, he was a different person.  His entire demeanor was different.  He had fallen in love with orphans.

As it turns out, he experienced the same haunting feelings of hopelessness and felt compelled to become more involved in orphan ministry.  Here was a man fighting against the cultural tide and leading his church to do the same.

Our second year of ministry with the orphans was amazing because we served as the body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit overcame 7 time zones, national borders, and language and cultural barriers to produce amazing camaraderie between Americans and Ukrainians.  It was a beautiful experience.

Some of these Ukrainians reordered their entire lives to serve orphans.  One young woman began visiting the orphans every weekend.  Now she’s teaching cooking classes in the orphan school, developing relationships what will endure as the kids exit the school and enter the real world.

Last month, I returned to Ukraine alongside 23 friends from our church.  This time, 25 Ukrainians from 3 different churches met us.  The passion of these Ukrainian Christians was deeply evident.  They led the way in all aspects of the ministry.  In three short years, everything has changed.

A few days after our orphan camp experience, I met a young pastor near Kiev whose passion for orphan ministry blew my mind.  I fought back tears as he described how his entire church is training to become mentors for orphan kids.  Their church is welcoming the orphans into their community with open arms.  They are teaching them vital life skills and connecting them into small groups.  The people from this church are setting up ministries at the local technical schools—where the orphans go after their time in the orphanages is complete.  The church is even putting on its own summer camp for orphan school graduates.  I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  His vision and model for ministry is amazing.

I also met a woman who, because of her orphan camp experience, plans to leave her medical practice and set up a transition home for orphans.

3 years ago I left Ukraine utterly hopeless.  I cried for weeks and even experienced terrible nightmares about the bleak futures awaiting these orphan children.  This year, I left with a powerful sense of hope.

God is in Ukraine.  God is moving in His people and His people are responding.  They are loving and equipping orphans.  God’s people are doing incredible work.  This is the church.  The church truly is the hope for the world.  When the church does what it was designed to do, it is beautiful, compelling and transformational.  I, for one, am very proud to belong to the church of Jesus Christ.

 

 

A Spy Mission and a Broken Heart

Spies are so compelling.  Given the chance, I’d be a spy in a second.  All that intrigue, danger and secrecy—so good.

Last week I was in Ukraine on a little spy mission of my own.  A few weeks ago I shared the story of our failed adoption of a Ukrainian orphan girl.  You can read the story here.

Basically, some friends and I have fallen in love with a group of orphans who we met in a camp in Ukraine—my wife and I attempted to adopt one of these kids.  For whatever reason, she and the rest of the kids have been moved to a different camp in which we Americans are not allowed to visit.  We repeatedly pleaded with the director of this camp to be able to visit but he would not consent.  In fact, when we asked one final time he said he would never let us and then slammed the phone down on us.

The thing is:  I love that girl and the other kids who are with her.  So, we decided to throw down a spy mission.  My good friend Oleg who happens to be the director of Radooga was kind enough to drive us to the camp.  We contacted everyone we could and asked them to pray and then drove for 2 hours to her camp knowing full well that there was basically no chance of being let in.   On the way, we called one of the kids in the camp and let him know we were coming.   We were worried about the kids sneaking out and getting in trouble but we just had to try.

As it turns out, God opened the way for us because when we arrived the director of the camp was attending a camp-wide concert.  While he watched the show a few of the kids slipped out to see us, including the girl I came to see—the girl who was so nearly my daughter.

As we drove up to the gate the kids were jumping down with excitement and mobbed us as we exited the van.  It was a tremendous joy to see these kids that we love so much—especially the girl we almost adopted.  She never let go of me the entire time we were there.  We cried over the separation and laughed as we looked at pictures and took a few new ones.   We talked about our memories together in camp and bragged about how our team was the best.  And then, after what seemed like only a few minutes, it was time for the kids to go.

Before she walked back to her dorm, she pulled me and a translator away from the crowd and utterly broke down.  Through her tears she apologized for declining our adoption.  She said she decided to stay in Ukraine so that she could care for her alcoholic mother.  But, only a month after she said no to us her mother hanged herself.  It was horrible and now she is terribly alone, utterly abandoned and regrets everything.

I held her, wiped away her tears and told her how sorry I was.  And then, her counselors called her away.  I kissed her forehead, told her that I loved her and she was gone.

It’s been a week and I just can’t escape that encounter.  I just keep replaying it in my mind.  There is nothing we can do to adopt her.  It is too late.  She’s too old.  But, she doesn’t understand and frankly neither do I.  I usually appreciate laws that protect our country but in this case I hate them.

She has no one.  Both of her parents are now dead.  Her older brother is in prison for the next decade and the rest of her extended family has abandoned her.  My heart aches because she was so close to becoming our daughter—so close to safety, love and security.

And then I decided, “Who cares?  Who cares about laws, borders and language barriers?”  She needs a father.  For whatever reason God didn’t allow us to adopt her but I can be a father.  I can support her, love her and empower her from a distance.  And so, that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ll never understand why things have worked out the way they have.  It will always break my heart and I’ll always worry about her but I will never give up and I’ll never stop trying to be a father to her.  Why?  Because that’s exactly how God treats me.  How could I not attempt to do the same for her?

When Injustice Gets Personal Part 4

I believe the Devil is real.  Why?  Because I have experienced evil.

After winning legal approval to adopt, I contacted the girl we hoped to adopt in order to find out if she in fact wanted to be adopted.  As I mentioned previously, I had already developed a relationship with her through 2 mission trips and almost daily communication through Facebook.

After convincing her that we were actually serious, she exploded with joy.  She was so excited about being adopted and moving to America.  She called us mom and dad and constantly asked about her soon to be brothers and sisters.  We put our house up for sale in order to get a bigger house that would accommodate a teenage daughter.  We made plans for her schooling.  We all got passports and made preliminary travel plans.  And then everything blew up.

One day, out of nowhere, our soon to be adopted daughter sent me a long and formal message explaining to me that she was very sorry but she no longer wanted to be adopted.  She said that she was Ukrainian and belonged in Ukraine.  And that was it.  We were shocked.  I tried over and over again to convince her that she was making a huge mistake but she would not budge.  Her writing style was so different that I was convinced it wasn’t even her.

Desperate for answers I contacted a Ukrainian friend who regularly visited the orphanage in which our prospective daughter lived.  Through her, I discovered what had happened.  The director of the orphanage had somehow talked her out of being adopted.

In that moment I remember how a girl from the same orphanage had told me that when she was 4 an American couple wanted to adopt her but her orphanage director had told her that the Americans would take her away, kill her and sell her organs.  Terrified, the little girl said no to the American couple and 13 years later she still lives in the orphanage.

I learned that over the last decade the director of the orphanage had not permitted a single adoption—not even to Ukrainian couples.  Why?  Money.  He receives money from the Ukrainian government based on how many children are in his school and how many of those children graduate.

Fury can’t adequately describe what I felt.  We tried every method possible to change her mind but she would not budge.  She would not even discuss it.  Then our adoption appointment with the Ukrainian government came and went.  Somehow, in spite of all that God had done to open the way for us we had failed.  We did not get our precious girl.  Now she is too old to adopt and she’ll soon be released from the orphan school to the streets.

What do you do with that?  I don’t have many clear answers.  The best I can offer is that now I have glimpsed the pain God feels when His children reject Him.  Evil clouded our orphan’s judgment and she rejected a family that would have provided her with love, protection and opportunity.  In the same way, evil clouds my judgment on a daily basis and I reject God’s best.  Out of one of the most painful experiences in my life, perhaps that is the lesson.  I’m not sure.

I take comfort in the reality that as much as my heart breaks for this orphan girl, the love I feel doesn’t even compare to God’s love for her.  I know that His heart breaks for her too.  I trust that He is present in her story and that He will never stop pursuing her.

Somehow in the failure and the pain God is present and He’s not finished.