July 27, 2010

Visitors in the D.R.

Posted by Tim

We just returned from spending 7 days in Barahona, Dominican Republic with a team of 15 students and leaders. We spent the majority of our time in Pueblo Nuevo, which is one of the five communities that COTN, our partner mission organization, has an established presence. We spent some time walking through the village, meeting some of the local families, and chatting with them through our translators. Although most of the families in Pueblo Nuevo live in extremely impoverished conditions, they were so gracious and genuinely grateful for our presence there that they offered up some of what little food or drink they had as a token of their appreciation. Not to mention they welcomed us in, even though we showed up unannounced. I don’t know why this is so shocking to me other than the fact that this is, generally speaking, not the way that we greet strangers at our door in America. As I consider my drop-in visitor etiquette, I realize that if I’m not hiding and turning out the lights to avoid them, I’m not overly friendly in how I greet them. And I certainly don’t offer them anything to eat or drink. Granted, most of these individuals are selling something and are super annoying with their pitch about selling enough magazines to win a week’s vacation in Las Vegas, but non-the-less, I wonder if we shouldn’t take a page from our friends in the D.R. Their hospitality made us feel welcome, like we weren’t interrupting something so important that they couldn’t take ten minutes to chat with us. We felt valued and that made a huge impact on us. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to go and spend time with the people of Pueblo Nuevo. I know that we were on mission to help be conduits of God’s grace and love, but as we left, I couldn’t help but feeling that they had given us so much more than we could’ve imagined.

July 12, 2010

Student D.R. Team Update

Posted by Kristy-Lee

The Student Team made it to the D.R. safe and sound. Tim Harmon is keeping us updated on the team’s busy week in Barahona. Here’s the latest update:

Friday, July 09
All is well. After a long day of travel everyone arrived tired but ready to serve. So, we are hoping for a good night’s sleep and anticipating a great day on Saturday of visiting with some of the bateys and meeting the kids.

Thanks for all of your prayers for journey mercies; it was a smooth day of travel and for that we are grateful. Bless you all and keep praying for our team.

Saturday, July 10
Today was a great day. We spent the day touring 3 bateys and 2 villages.
The children in the villages loved all over us and everyone on the team really enjoyed their company. The time spent here is going really well and we are so grateful for the opportunity to be here.

Tomorrow we’ll be attending a local church in the morning and then heading to the beach after lunch. Thanks for all of your prayers, we so appreciate them.

Sunday, July 11
Today we spent the morning in one of the local churches. Service lasted nearly two and a half hours. We, of course, were the only Americans in attendance. With no translator, we were a bit like fish out of water! But all in all, it was a great time of fellowship and the congregation was super friendly. This afternoon we spent some time at the beach and really enjoyed simply resting and relaxing. A new team of 20 students and leaders from the Boston area joined us this evening at the Casa. They will be here the rest of the week, so it will be a full house here for remainder of our time.

Tomorrow morning we will be touring the COTN offices and medical clinic in addition to spending some time with the ILB (I Love Baseball) Team. After lunch, we will head back to Pueblo Nuevo to begin our work project. We will also spend some time playing games with the local children. We are continuing to enjoy our time here and the team is bonding quite well. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We miss you all and look forward to seeing you at the end of the week!

June 23, 2010

Father's Day

Posted by

Sunday I celebrated my first Father’s Day as a dad. My little girl, now 8 months old, has forever changed my ability to love. Prior to her arrival, I was on the fence about having kids…take it or leave it. But now the last 8 months, however difficult at times, have been some of the best moments of my life. I love the way that God demonstrates His great love to us through our kids. I’m so grateful for the way that He knows exactly what we need and how we need it. My sweet little daughter is such a wonderful expression of love. I look forward to all of the Father’s Days ahead when she will actually be able to tell me in words how much she loves me. But I wouldn’t change the ways she showed me this year…big smiles and lots of wonderful high pitch noises that let me know that she loves me just the way that I am.

June 9, 2010

Surge Summer

Posted by Ryan

Surge Summer 2010 begins next Tuesday, June 15th! We’ve got eight weeks of stupendous activities planned, and you’re not going to want to miss a single one. We kick it off on the 15th with a night of bowling – $8 gets you two games, shoes, and dinner! We’ll be keeping our regular hours, 6-8pm, all summer long, and we’ll always meet and end at Summit. So there’s never any confusion as to where you’re supposed to be! You can check out the entire summer schedule, and download a parent permission form here

Possibly the most exciting part of the summer is the welcoming of our rising 6th grade students. Tuesday, June 22nd is the first week for students who have just graduated 5th grade and will be entering middle school this fall. Don’t miss it!

May 18, 2010

Please Sir, May I have some more?

Posted by Kyle

Yesterday at Summit was probably one of my favorite messages that Isaac has given. Ever. It wasn’t a special series that I was really looking forward to and it wasn’t a holiday or something exciting. I showed up, played worship, sat down, just like a regular old Sunday. I expected to hear a good sermon, but then ended up having my world rocked.

There were a few things that Isaac said that really struck me. The only one I’ll talk about, and to me, the most significant, was the classic bible story (which, aren’t they all classic?? Anyway…) of Jacob and Esau and how Jacob stole the birthright from Esau in exchange for some stew. Ever since I heard that story I thought it was pretty ridiculous. Why would anyone give up something so significant for something so temporary? Just seemed fake or just plain dumb at the least. Until Isaac told how he read the story while in a tree stand hunting, and absolutely starving. It put a whole new perspective on it for him. At that moment, he had been in a tree for about 6 hours, hadn’t eaten, was technically hunting for food, hadn’t got any, and was just about ready to give up anything for some food. The same for Esau. Hunting back then was even more difficult. You had to be stealthy, patient, and smart, have a plan of action, athletic, the whole nine yards. And Esau was good, really good. He was hunting for food probably for the entire family. If you were a poor hunter; you didn’t eat. Now, imagine doing that all day, not catching anything, not having eaten, and then seeing your brother with some soup. You are ready to pass out and willing give up anything for some food. I’ve been in that spot before. Starving to the point that I’m shaking, can’t see straight, ready to pass out, blood sugar is low, and man, I will do anything for some food. The story made a little more sense this time around. But it didn’t stop there. Isaac ended the story by saying something like “what if the moral of that story was don’t go hungry so you don’t do something stupid for quick satisfaction” (by the way, I totally butchered that last part…the moral. He said something super brilliant. I can’t remember at all what it was…but that’ll do and get me to my point.)

We had been talking the last few weeks about “the ethic of anticipation.” Basically, putting on the character of Christ. What to do after you believe. From the time you “get saved” to the time you “die and go to heaven” what’s the point, what are we to do? That has been the series. So with that in mind, the idea of putting on the character of Christ, spending our time trying to “become better” and the “how-to” has been somewhat of the discussion. Now relating back to the story of Jacob and Esau. What if spending our time “feeding” ourselves isn’t all about “getting better” but also about making sure we aren’t so hungry that we throw away our whole lives for a quick fix? What if we stopped getting frustrated that we’re not becoming perfect and just kept feeding ourselves with scripture, not just to try to be a “better person” but to make sure we’ve got enough sustenance so we don’t look for a quick snack somewhere else that will potentially be damaging to the rest of our lives?

That thought started to make more sense after I was unpacking it with my girlfriend on the way to my parents’ house for dinner. Could that possibly be the reason why we see so many “good Christian” married couples get divorces? Not even just Christians, but good people in marriages gets divorces? Could that be why so many solid, good guys and girls are throwing away their virginity before they’re married? Could that be why good kids with good hearts end up hooked on drugs, alcohol, and homeless?

I guess the most personal example I could give is my relationship with my girlfriend. It’s those moments that we come into our relationship starving and looking for a bowl of soup or stew from each other, that we end up most disappointed with each other, end up in a dangerous position, end up being the most selfish or needy, end up being frustrated, angry, grouchy, and ultimately end up being ready to throw away anything just to be satisfied for a moment because we’re starving emotionally, physically, mentally, whatever. Neither one of us are meant to be sustaining the other. We were a gift to each other from the one who was meant to sustain us. It’s not that spending time with Christ is just going to make our relationship better, I mean, it could and can, but it’s not the point, at least the whole point. It’s that spending time with Christ brings us into our relationship already full, satisfied, sustained, so that we’re not looking to each other to fill us up.

So, I guess for a closing thought…. for me, I’ve come into these quiet times, these moments with Christ, prayer, reading, reflecting, with somewhat of a different attitude. Yes, I do hope over time that spending time with Christ reflects in my character, that I do start to be molded more into who Christ was and is, but that is no longer my sole reason for spending that time with him. It is now also an attitude of just plain substance so that I don’t go out hungry, weak, vulnerable, and potentially throw away my birthright for just a small bowl of soup.