Another story of God transforming lives...

NOVEMBER 2006

I felt several huge lumps in my throat after what I saw. We stayed over a friend's house on the day of our arrival in Manila, Philippines. After our stay, we drove around through side streets and came to a stop at what looked like abandoned railroad tracks. To the right of the tracks, I noticed that there were houses made up of thin metal walls and roofs piled on top of each other. It looked like rows of huge triple whopper burgers made of metal. Each tomato and vegetable that hung off the metal casements were multi color shirts drying in the sun. Suddenly, I saw an undressed toddler skipping through the railroad tracks.

I inched forward to view more of the action and to my amazement, that boy was not alone. These boys were playing. I then turned to my left and saw similar housing units made of tin, piled on top of each other. The railroad tracks continued to slither underneath an overpass into a dark tunnel of other homes. From those homes came people making fire with pieces of wood and charcoal. What's for lunch?

As our car moved forward, I asked my wife if these tracks were still used and she said yes. She was reminded of how she passed through these tracks on her commute to school. My sad that this was common back then. Certainly not much has changed. How could this be common? Why should this be common? I sat in disarray as I continued to watch the track babies play. The things I'd do if my baby was on those tracks. That's when I felt the birth of irritation well up inside me. The most obvious problem for these children were their immediate needs; food, shelter, and clothing. My biggest problem was being embarrassed from a sweaty shirt. Their problem was trying not get hit by a train. What were my problems?

SEPTEMBER 2007

A missionary girl came to my church in Jersey asking for support for open heart surgery, which by the way went great, praise God. They showed a video of the mission's ministry our church supported and I began to weep bitterly for the selfishness that we as comfortable Christians accumulate. The biggest problem that these children had was to get a roof on their head. My biggest problem was trying to purchase another piece of property. These kids had no properties! They had no homes! What a humbling experience. I was stirred with such a restless urgency to do something. The second push of disturbance continued to push from inside and God would not allow me to sleep that night.

CATALYST, OCTOBER 2007

I came to Catalyst looking for a time of encouragement and replenishment. Oh boy was I in for it. Yeah I got the "keep on keeping on" themes, and "people care", but my goodness, God packs a punch when He speaks. God confirmed and affirmed His calling in my life when Catalyst showed Toms shoes and a talk from Pastor Rick Warren. Throughout the electrical rock and roll sounds, I found myself weeping in the presence of God almighty. What was my problem? There's an ocean of people starving for God. What was my problem? My biggest problem was a delayed flight before Catalyst. Poor me! Part of Africa's problem is genocide. What was my problem? My fellow Filipinos in the Philippines biggest problems are no opportunities for education. What was my problem?

I did not sleep that night or the following nights.

I'm taking a leap like I've never done before. Sure I've done ministry, but not this. Please continue to pray for me as I ask God to "use me" and continue to "disturb me". God's birthed a passion in my heart see students in the Philippines succeed and get the proper financial support they need to get into college and hopefully one day help their peers do the same. It's my hope that I can teach them to fish so that they can teach others. I understand a nation can't be changed over night, but with God all things are possible. If any one of you reads this post or has resources on how to start a work like this, please let me know. I'm taking all the wise counsel and support I can get from fellow disturbed and experienced Catalyst attendees. God bless you all.

Enrique

Nehemiah 2:17

17Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work.

wearewhatwedo.org is a clever website which unites people around getting things done. With almost 1 Million actions completed, their website encourages us that small changes made by lots of people can have a huge impact. Although their focus is the environment, perhaps the Church could use a similar technique to motivate and organize the body to be more like Jesus...

For all of the visually-stimulated, the-messenger-is-the-message, design geeks, here's some interesting marketing materials from Church Marketing Sucks.com...

Dave Kinnaman, author of unChristian, was recently featured in this article from Time Magazine on "Christianity's Image Problem" - read more...

God is using Catalyst to transform lives in ExCitInG ways! Ken from MRC wrote this letter to his flock:

I have a girl who is six years old. She is in 1st grade. It's the first year that she goes to school for the whole day. It's wonderful and scary because it's a big step up for her. This weekend, MRC turns 6. In a way, it's a big step up for us too. We are leaving the days of being an infant to grow up into the elementary stage. We are leaving the days of learning how to stumble, walk and stumble again to run and run faster than ever before. We are leaving the days of finger painting and Elmo for riding bikes. Today we enter into a whole new world. We may not be fully grown yet but we can do more today than ever before. It's new, fun and scary.

Jesus explained the kingdom of God like this.

Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.

Then those 'sheep' are going to say, Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you? Then the King will say, I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me.

MSG Matthew 25:34-40

As the leader of MRC I want to officially declare, the infant stage is over. MRC has been created and we have survived, in fact, we are thriving with people who love God and want to make a difference. I am writing you to declare that MRC's focus, now that we are ready, is to love Jesus so much that we feed Him, give Him a drink, a room, clothes and we visit Him when He needs us. Practically that means we love others so much we take our time, money and energy to end a social injustice.

This past weekend at the Catalyst conference, one pastor from Southern California said that his church was ready to build a 60 million dollar building. He was so convicted by the above verses that they decided to plant grass and worship in the sun and rain. Why? That money needs to go toward feeding Jesus. He said, "If the Green Bay Packer fans can stand in freezing cold weather for over four hours to cheer on their team, we can stand for one hour in Southern California weather." He drew the line in the sand and boldly said, "If you don't want to worship in the rain to feed the poor, I don't want you at my church." What is he doing? He's calling people to a radical life, the same life Jesus called us to years ago called 'disciple of Jesus', a life that makes a difference. Christianity isn't about programs, buildings, success or creating a country club for the insiders. It's about joining Jesus on the cross where we lay down our lives with Him to defend the defenseless. To love the loveless. To feed the hungry.

This fall, I am gathering the leadership team for a time of fasting and praying and asking God to reveal to us where He is and how we can join Him. If you want to come, let me know. Our infant days are over. We now begin our elementary days together. That means we now learn what it means to love Jesus by loving others. Where it takes us I don't know. What I do know is that I don't want to pass down a religious country club and bible study group that does nothing to our children. I want to pass down a relationship with God that so radically transforms their life that they engage their culture and end social injustice, whatever that might be for them. I want to model for them what it means to live out Christianity, not just talk about it.

- Ken Landis