The short story is that God has been doing some remodeling of my heart the past few months. It’s pretty easy to trace the starting point back to my trip to Guatemala with Journey Church in August. That was the beginning. Another key landmark on this journey has been the reading of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. It rattled me to my core… I still haven’t dealt with all of the ramifications from this book. More recently, I came across the Advent Conspiracy video which I’ve posted on this blog twice in the past couple of weeks. I was inspired by the words, imagery, and music. I was shaken by the keynote statistic that Americans spend $450 Billion Dollars on Christmas each year, and it would only take $10 Billion Dollars to provide clean drinking water to all of earth inhabitants. The lack of clean drinking water is the #1 killer of human life in our world today. I actually planned to use this statistic as one of the primary illustrations of my talk on Sunday, and completely forgot about it. When I realized that Monday afternoon, I wished I had a time machine so I could go back and share it.

So basically, God has been working on me in this area of poverty, wealth, America vs. the world, rich & poor, and my place in all of that. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to give birth to some of what I’m wrestling with, and what God is teaching me. If you were not

 at Journey Church on Sunday, I encourage you to listen to this talk. Not because it’s me, but because the Message God is sharing with me, and wants to share with you is so important. It could change everything…

Click here to visit the CincyJourney media page and listen to the talk. You’ll find it as the uppermost link in the list of talks. You can also search for “Journey Church West Chester” in iTunes and subscribe to our podcast.

• “BSM Beach Bash” –  Our plans for a day of fun on the lake got rained out, but God had something amazing prepared for us at our backup location. One student received new life in Christ, and hasn’t looked back!
• Student Camps at Camp Lebanon – My unofficial second home during the summer’s in South West Ohio. I love Camp Lebanon, and the people I get to do life with for a couple of weeks out there every summer. 2008 was a great camp season for all involved, I look forward to 2009 with great expectations!
• Teeing it up in the Fairway at the Fernside Golf Outing –  For the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to play in a really great golf outing at a really nice country club with some really good friends. This year I teed one up in the middle of the fairway, and stuck one about 10 feet from the flag on a big Par 5. Not sure the folks at HPCC have ever seen that before.
• John Mayer Concert in Indy – My man crush on John Mayer has been well documented on this blog before, so it’s no surprise that anytime he is within a couple of hours of Cincinnati, I get the craving to see him perform live. This year, I decided about 4:00 that I wanted to attend the 7:00 concert in Indianapolis. By 5:45, I had tickets, and was on the road with a buddy (and guitar player at Journey Church). John did not disappoint… he is the Eric Clapton of my generation!
• IYC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas – I could go on forever about IYC… bottom line, this was an incredible week, in a beautiful city, that I was fortunate enough to share with my wife, and three of the finest high school students that Journey Church has to offer. Can’t wait till IYC 2010!
• July 11th, 2008 – The day I became an iPhone 3G owner. Love it!
• Jay Bruce’s Debut – I had the opportunity to see the debut of one of baseball’s most promising young prospects; the Cincinnati Reds’ Jay Bruce. There was an energy at GABP that has not been present in quite a while… hopefully that is a sign of things to come! 
• Birthday Bashes – This summer was filled with celebrations of birth (including my own). Jenessa and I had some great time with some great friends at various celebrations.
• Guatemala Mission’s Trip – Again, I could go on forever about this trip. Bottom line: The country & people of Guatemala is now a part of my heart. May God continue to bless Journey Church’s future endeavor’s in that wonderful country! Go here and here to see & read all about the trip. 
• And now for some pictures… enjoy! Well that stinks. WordPress is being ridiculous, and not allowing me to upload photos to any blog posts. I’ve hosted the photos in a MobileMe Web Gallery. Click here to check them out! 

However, that said, I believe the primary reason is that I have yet to find the words to type to give the experience the justice it is due. It seems impossible to type words into a window and convey all that took place during our week in Guatemala. It’s tough to explain the following through a keyboard: 

• A culture full of people who “do without”, yet smile so much and seem so happy.
• A pastor (Mario) who cares for his community so much, he works 12 hour days out in the field, caring for and connecting with the people in hopes to introduce them to Jesus.
• A missionary family who has had over 600 people stay in their home over the past 2 years.
• The experience of the mother of a rural family living on a 15′ X 30′ plot of land, in a house with cornstalk walls, telling her life story and thanking you for blessing them with what we call a chicken coop and 25 chickens, but what they will call a small business.
• The village of Magdalena, and it’s residents who only live there because they were displaced several years ago by a mudslide… how they seem to truly understand the meaning of the word community.
• The kids at the school. They have at least one hot meal everyday due to the efforts of the above stated missionary family… this was not always the case.
• The historic town of Antigua, and the beautiful architecture within.
• The relationships I (we) forged with Romollo (the construction boss), and Hugo (the bus driver) in the few short days we were there. It felt like I was leaving two good friends behind.

I could go on and on. Hopefully as a result of some of the pictures and words on this blog, Tom’s blog, and the Journey Team blog, you’ve been able to catch a glimpse of our experience in Guatemala.

So now it’s back to blogging about “real world” stuff…. this does not mean that Guatemala is far from my mind though. I leave you with a couple of final pics from our adventure. My wife, my friends from home, my friends from Guatemala & so much more… Well, I tried to post some pictures, but WordPress is being ridiculous and giving some fatal error about lack of memory. Maybe later….

After our group picture on the roof, a cpuple of us hung around for a few minutes to take in the sights & sounds of thr San Cristobal evening. We kept hearing a large crowd cheer, and assumed it was from from a local futbol (soccer) match. A few minutes later, a live band started playing, and we assumed it was a concert of some sort… It was, but not the kind we were expecting.

As the band played and the leader sang words in Spanish that none of us could make out, we convinced ourselves that we somehow knew these songs.

Three songs in, I had a “Big God” moment. The lyrics were still in Spanish, but the music was universal. In the middle of San Cristobal, Guatemala, there was a full blown worship experience taking place. The song I finally recognized was “Take it All” by Hillsong.

It was clear by the energy of the crowd that this was some type of youth rally. My soul filled with the reality before me. Hundreds of teens were bellowing out their desires to the one and only living God! Their words were in another language, but rang forth with a joy, hope and passion that was unmistakable. With great volume they sang:

“Jesus we’re living for your name, we’ll never be ashamed of you. Our praise, and all we are today: Take, take, take it all! Take, take, take it all!”

I wished so badly at that moment that I wasn’t on a rooftop, but that I was right in the middle of it all. Hands raised singing those words to God as an offering of surrender.

It is a moment I will never forget, a moment I will treasure, a moment that I realized how big my God is, and how far reaching his Kingdom is. The gospel of love & grace was on full display, and it wasn’t happening in West Chester, nor Ohio, not even the “Christian Nation” of America. It was happening in a broken down, under developed country, full of people who are “poor” and lacking basic necessities of life. Those teens didn’t have much to offer, and still they sang: “Jesus, Take it all”. That is how big our God is!

My #1 thing I’m looking forward to – Sharing God’s love in a practical way here in Guatemala, and then taking it home to so the same in my daily life! This week we will be doing several tasks; tiling a floor, building chicken coops, and working at a feeding center, (among others). These are all very good and practical things. The reality is however, we are here to do so much more than that. We are here to do God’s work among his people. We are on a covert mission to share the love of God with everyone we come into contact with through practical acts of kindness. Whether it be through a social service, a physical gift, a hug to a new friend, or a futbol (soccer) match with the children of the town…. We seek to share the love of our Savior with people who may not know him.

I don’t intend to let it stop there however. I am praying, and asking God to show me new ways, fresh ways, consistent ways to do the same in my everyday world back home in Ohio. Sharing God’s love in practical ways should not be reserves for mission trips, it should be a daily practice for any Christ follower! My prayer is that God will make that a reality in me.

My #1 Fear regarding the trip to Guatemala – Not being able to write this post! I had convinced myself that this trip would not happen. Something would go wrong at the airport, with my passport or ticket, or even worse, something would go wrong with the flight. I’m a little paranoid like that! But here I sit, writing this post, and I couldn’t be more excited. There are so many things running through my head, I just can’t wait to see what God has in store for Jen and I (and our team).

Be sure to visit the Jpurney team blog for the latest info. It will probably get a little more love than this site for the next few days (although I will be updating here as well). Find the team blog here: http://cincyjourney.org/guatemala2008

Top 5 things I am looking forward to regarding the Guatemala mission’s trip:

Part of the reason I am going on this trip is to scout out potential projects for Journey Church to own over the next several years.  Since Journey Church started, we have cast a vision for our mission to reach outside the US, but we wanted to take a very targeted approach with our mission dollars and effort.  It is our hope that we can adopt a couple villages in Guatemala and make a real difference in the coming years.  We hope to build feeding centers, install clean cooking devices, and bring clean water to many people.

For context read here. For the full account of #5 on both lists read here.

Top 5 things I am looking forward to regarding the Guatemala mission’s trip:

I’ve promised to give you two “Top 5″ lists over the next few days (Today-Saturday). Here is #5 on each list: 

Top 5 things I am looking forward to regarding Guatemala mission’s trip:

5.) I’m looking forward to traveling out of the country. Believe it or not, I’ve never been out of the country. There was a time when I was like 8 years old that my Grandpa who lived in Michigan and I almost drove to Canada just to say that we did, but traffic got bad so we didn’t. Sadly, that’s the closest I’ve ever come to leaving the good ol’ U.S. of A. I’m not so much excited just for the sake of being able to brag that I’ve been to Guatemala, rather I am excited about the opportunity to broaden my global worldview.

It’s easy to sit in suburban Liberty Township, Ohio, watch a few documentaries or National Geographic specials and pretend like we know how the rest of the world lives. It’s a completely different thing to see another culture and way of life with your own eyes, and to live in that culture for a few days. I fully expect for my world to be rocked by what I see. I fully expect to see a nation full of people who are loved by God just as much as the people of America. I fully expect to see the same joy, hope, pain, suffering, and happiness that I see here everyday, in a completely different light on the faces of the Guatemalan people. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for my heart as a result of this trip!

Top 5 fears regarding the trip to Guatemala:

This list will be much more concise… simply because it’s not cool to admit that you are scared or nervous about certain things. So, today I give you fear number 5.

5.) Flying. I absolutely hate flying… it turns my stomach inside out. I won’t be able to sleep Saturday night, and when the alarm goes off at 3 am Sunday morning, I will instantly feel the uncomfortable feeling of “flight day”. The feeling will only intensify as I: Head down I-75 to CVG, hug the family goodbye, tow the luggage through the check-in process, take off the shoes & empty the pockets for security check, wait in the terminal, and board the plane. It will all come to a crescendo when the engines fire up, I see the ground racing by my window, and suddenly feel the wheels come off the ground. It is then that I will turn up the sweet tones of John Mayer on my iPod, say a prayer to Jesus, and wait for the wheels to touchdown again… only then will my stomach settle. Not for long though, because then I’ll have to do it all again as we go from ATL to GUA. Yes, I am a wimp who is not a fan of flying. Don’t hate, instead feel sorry for me and offer up prayers for the safety of myself and the rest of the team from Journey. 

Check back tomorrow for #4 on both lists. Until then, I’d love to hear what you think your expectations and or fears/concerns of a similar trip might be.

In five short days a team of 15 people from Journey Church will gather at the Greater Cincinnati Airport, board a plane, and head off to Guatemala City, Guatemala for 7 days. Jenessa and I will be a part of that team, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous.

The nerves do not outweigh my excitement however. I can’t wait to get there, and see what God has in store for me to learn, and for our team to learn. 

Over the next 5 days (Tuesday-Saturday), I plan to unveil a couple of Top 5 lists: My Top 5 things I am looking forward to regarding the trip to Guatemala & My Top 5 Fears regarding the trip to Guatemala.

Check back later today (Tuesday) for number 5 on both lists!

Throughout the series of posts, I’d love to hear what you think you might be most excited and/or concerned about a similar trip?