Congo Vision Trip Update

Things seem to be coming together for the Congo Vision Trip this July. Posted below is a brief description of what's going on with our sister churches in the Ubangi province and what the vision trip is about.

The Acronyms – What are they?

1. CECU – This the Evangelical Free Church of Congo, officially transliterated as the Evangelical Community of Christ in the Ubangi. More about this later.

Over the years of fighting in Congo, plus disease, especially AIDS, large numbers of women have become widows, and large numbers of children have been orphaned. In keeping with the dozens of passages in Scripture enjoining us to care for the needs of widows and orphans and the needy around us, the CECU has had a heart to do something for them and has developed two specific programs:

2. PEASIT – The program for training and help for those affected by AIDS. Interestingly the “T” on the end of PEASIT comes from the Lingala word “Let’s take care of ourselves”, recognizing the importance that each person must be involved in this process, not just getting help from outside.

-- A big part of this program has been a broad educational program throughout the Ubangi (the Free Church serves this area which is roughly the size of Indiana) which has been highly effective. Arlington Heights EFC was a major player in helping get this started.

-- A second big part is the orphan sponsorship program, Global FingerPrints. It’s taken awhile to get all the pieces together with the web connections and getting kids enrolled, but things are moving forward very well now with 250 children already sponsored and more to be added in the near future. Generally speaking these are children who are younger and have some family roots, even if parents are gone. So GF is helping to cover educational costs, health costs, nutritional programs, clothing and other things to help these extended families continue to care for the children in their homes, rather than the orphanage approach.

3. CEVO – This is a major initiative the church is taking which began with the women’s ministry in the CECU and is now fully a program of the church leadership as well. CEVO is the French acronym for the “Training Center for Widows and Orphans”, an initiative of the Free Church of Congo (CECU). This is for the many widows in the church, widows who need training in various skills such as sewing, caring for gardens, animals, and various other job skills. It is also for older orphans, those who have not gotten far in the educational system but need training for skills to survive in life. This will include various kinds of job training, both in farming and animal husbandry, and in various other job skills like carpentry, metal work, etc. Special emphasis will be placed on teen girls who are more vulnerable and need training for life.

God has given the church a large piece of land very near the church offices, roughly 60 acres in size on which to develop the CEVO project. Already several buildings are going up and some of the land is being planted with gardens in order to maintain clear ownership of the property.

Purposes of our trip: Here is a broad statement, but each church needs to develop its own purpose as well:

We want to help churches and individuals to understand the realities of AIDS and war which have resulted in thousands of widows and orphans in Congo; to see the needs, to learn from the church leadership about their vision, to understand the realities of life and projects in this context, and to offer wisdom and consultation on possible solutions to issues we face. And ultimately we pray that the participants will go home to their churches, highly motivated to partner with the CECU and the EFCA International Mission to partner with us to help those in so much need in Congo.

[Taken from an update letter by Tom Cairns, Chief Medical Officer, ReachGlobal (EFCA International Missions)]

How you can help

1) Pray for the Lord to clearly guide and to provide for this trip.

2) Give. We need funds to pay for the trip. You can give a gift to Cornerstone designated Congo Vision Trip. Or you can buy a raffle ticket. We are raffling an iPod Nano at $5/ticket to help raise funds (better yet, sell some tickets to your friends). Or you can donate something nice for a yard sale April 28. Or you can help with a "Congo Carwash". Email the church office if you need more information or if you have other ideas (office@pullmancornerstone.org or phone 509-334-9191).

Keep Your Bearings

Navigating through Romans 9-11 can be disorienting unless you keep your bearings

Problems?

Over the past few months I have been working, along with family members, to get things set up for my aging mother so that she gets the help she needs. At the same time I have encouraged my older brother, in his mid-fifties, to move out of mom's and get a place of his own. The process was getting bogged down in January when an unexpected boost came along in the form of the police. It turned out that my brother and his twenty-six year old son had been busy growing marijuana in the basement of the house as a side business.

After they spent a night in jail, and a few discussions, it was determined that the process would pick up again, but with a little more follow through. However this meant that a number of other things would need to be taken care of and that the responsibility for it all would fall to me. Now I must confess that at the time I had difficulty seeing this unfolding of events in a positive light. The radio had put it on the airwaves while every newspaper in the region carried the story for people to read. Which, actually, was how I found out about it (a friend read the story and then called me to offer support, only to get a puzzled response, "huh?").

Anyway, as I was saying, I was having a hard time with the whole thing. Especially the idea of it being so public. But when I told people about it an interesting thing began to happen, they told me their stories. Usually with a laugh and a shake of the head, they would say something like, "Let me tell you about my (brother, sister, cousin...)". Over the past two months I've come to this simple conclusion. It seems as though everyone has a story.

One friend told of a cousin who has the same last name as her dad, a prominent citizen of a good sized city. This cousin speaks of his uncle as "my dad" and uses his "dad's" good name to get money and other favors from folks. Which, of course, he never pays back making "dad" look really good. Then again, he did make "dad" proud when he was on Court T.V. for selling the same mobile home to four different senior citizens!

Another person knowingly shook his head when I shared my tale of woe and then said he understood. His father's extended family is something of a mess. As it turns out, two of his cousins have been involved in meth and recently were in a house when someone was murdered. Not that they killed the person, mind you. But being good girls they did want to help their friend dispose of the body. Unfortunately the boys in blue happened to pull their car over as they were being a makeshift hearse. And they were just being considerate. Goodness!

There is a saying that if you are having a rough time just look around. You will find someone who has it worse. I wonder if Paul had that in mind when he wrote to the Galatians "to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (6:2)"? I like how the New Living Translation puts it: "Share each other's troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ."

When I began to share the problems I had related to my brother farming in my mother's basement, it did two things for me. One, it gave me a chance to verbally process what was going on (doesn't that sound much more mature than "vent"?). Second, it allowed for others to share with me their experiences. In doing so they encouraged me to gain perspective on my situation. And perspective helped to lighten the burden.

This is why community is so important to the Christian life. We really do need people who will let us "vent" (err, I mean, verbally process) and who will share from their own lives what they have gone through and how God got them through it.

Jesus promised to be with us always, and he is. Through the Holy Spirit but also through his body, the church. Stay connected to Jesus and his people. You never know when you might find something growing in the family closet.

Pooper Scooper

Another re-run from November! Like that special vintage year, November was a very good month...

A friend just walked into the office today and it was a delight to see him! After finishing up a PhD he had left on a European vacation before he makes a career move. The trip had two purposes: an opportunity to get away and travel; but also to see family in Norway. Since my heritage is Swedish there has been good natured bantering back and forth over the years ("Do you know why Jesus could never have been born in Norway? Because God could not find any wise men to the East!" Or, "What do you call a good looking man in Norway? A tourist!").

When he came in he shared about his travels (even kindly referring to Sweden) and how the border-patrol recognized his last name when she read it. He felt like he had come home! How neat! The funny part came out when I began to kid him about being an American, who is Norwegian with an email address of black-irish! (Either a bit confused about his identity or just a good sense of humor) When I mentioned that to him it prompted another story. One day on the train he met a Norwegian man who was a pastor. They struck up a conversation and my friend mentioned that he grew up Lutheran but currently attends an Evangelical Free Church, to which the pastor responded, "Ah, yes, a good Swedish church!" Now we are talking serious identity crisis!

My friend the American-Norwegian who attends a Swedish church and "black-irish" is his email moniker. Naturally, he's caucasian. I'm sooo confused!

This is humorous, in a good-friend-kind-of-way. But for some followers of Jesus it hits close to the mark. The humor hides the fact that they actually are confused about who they are and it shows because of the hyphenated identifiers they give to themselves. "I'm an American-christian"; "I'm a baptist-christian" or "pentacostal-christian"; "I'm a christian-doctor"; "a republican-christian"; "a democrat-christian" or "christian-mechanic" ad nuaseum.

This came home to me many moons ago (that means I'm too old to remember when) from one of Charles Colson's books (don't ask which one, it was many moons ago, remember?). In it he tells the story of a Billy Graham Crusade in New York. A leading Mafia man attended and decided he would become a Christian. But not just a Christian, he would be a Christian-mobster! By golly he was going to do his job as unto the Lord. "Hey, Johnny, remember dat da boss says we gotta say grace before we bust this boobs knuckles!" (Ah, a new evangelism tool, perhaps?)

Colson's point, as I recall, was that there is a problem when a person adds Jesus to their life. When they become hyphenated-christians. We need to realize that Jesus is not an addition to life. Jesus IS life. He is the alpha and the omega. He is the way, the truth and the life. He doesn't add to life, he gives life. As the Apostle wrote

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men." [John 1:4]

Because he is my life, I also find my identity in him. In him I am beloved. In him I am God's child. In him I am a saint. In him I have a future and a hope. In him I am a Christian.

Now I do have other things in my life. My career, my family, my hobbies. But being in him comes first and foremost. So, I'm a follower of Jesus, whose vocation is pastoring, a husband and father of two, a ski-patroler and in our dog's life, the pooper-scooper-upper. The great thing is that with Jesus as my life, I discover "life" breaking out in all these things, even pooper-scoopering.

On the outside it may look like I'm an Amercian-Swede-dad-pastor-ski patrol-pooper-scooper-christian. But the truth is, in Christ I am God's child who happens to get the other things tossed in. Even scooping poop.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" [1 John 3:1]

Enjoy!

The Problem

In the letter to the Romans, Paul has presented what God through Christ has done for us. As he moves into chapter 9 he begins to address a problem. What about the Israelites?

The Problem --an overview of Romans 9-11