7/3/07

It seems like whenever I start to get somewhere in a particular setting; get deeper into relationship, make a break-through in a culture, get over the uncomfortable stage and start to feel like I belong - that's when I get ripped out and stuck somewhere else. Today I had to leave Hooper Bay - two days earlier than I planned, which isn't much, but it threw off all the goodbyes. Leaving early wasn't really the problem though, it was leaving at all. O, I can't say I wanted to stay there forever...I missed home, family, good coffee. But part of me wanted to stay there forever, like when I left PBU for the last time, like when I left my SMP team at the end of the summer in 2005, or any of the other number of good things that have had to come to an end over the course of my life. I guess it's because I'm an eternal being - He has set eternity in my heart, I shouldn't have to say goodbye. But, that reminds me; if I'm an eternal being, I'm not saying goodbye for eternity, just so long, God-speed, or as the Eskimos say, ''see you.'' So, I'll stop being a puddleglum and tell you about some of what God is doing in Hooper Bay, how He used me, and where He is leading me now.

7/14/07

It has been a little over a week since I've been back home, and at first I didn't have much time to think about the trip and reflect on all that had happened, but in the past few days, I have had time or made time, or whatever you want to say. Most of what I want to share is too personal. But I can tell you about what I learned.

I learned that it's true that Christianity is more caught than taught. For most of the past three weeks I have felt very dumb - speechless that is. Everywhere I went I never knew what to say or how to relate. But my hands found work to do, and I was available to listen. I prayed that God would show me what He had for me to do each day. Through the first week it was very hard to see why I had felt so strongly just a few days earlier that God really wanted me there. Now I can see that a large part of my ministry was just in my presence. The teens I connected/reconnected with weren't people I had gotten really close to on my first visit to Hooper Bay, but they did remember that I had been there before, they knew I cared enough to come back, and they knew I was there for them.

I also learned that discipleship starts in the small stuff, my attitude, work ethic, availability, etc. set an example for the people I was around.  I wouldn't have gotten into the deep stuff with these teens if I hadn't spent the time making pizza or cookies with them, walking around town, teaching how to make bracelets or learning how to make Eskimo ice-cream and generally doing nothing with them. I had to be trustworthy in the little things before they would trust me with their thoughts of suicide, stories of how they had been abused or kicked out of the house, or of how they always ended up baby-sitting their nieces and nephews so their brothers and sisters could get drunk without such an inconvenience. Through the everyday, mundane things in life I became a safe person to talk to. And though I felt far from qualified to advise these young people, I could help them decipher truth from the lies they've been fed all their lives - lies about who they are, what they are worth, and what the answer to their pain is.

Finally, on this trip to Hooper Bay I started to catch the vision I think God has for this village, and even their whole Native people group; when I remember the faces of the teens I spent time with in Hooper Bay, I am learning to look at their potential, not just pity them because of how devastated they are. I recently read a sermon that Philip Yancy addressed to the campus a couple weeks after the shootings at Virginia Tech. He quoted Dallas Willard, whom I think puts it well: ''For those who love God, nothing irredeemable can happen.'' It is true, and God receives glory when He redeems hopeless people. The people of Hooper Bay have lost much on many levels, and the kids I got to know have suffered and been hurt more than I can accurately express to you. But God's word teaches us that there is nothing evil that He cannot turn for good, and it teaches us to expect Him to deal with us according to the way He has dealt with His people in the past. For this reason I have great hope for Hooper Bay and many of the other villages in Western Alaska. One day (maybe its happening already, somewhere) Yupik missionaries may travel across the U.S. to share with a spiritually depraved suburban-middle class what's up with Jesus Christ.

That's enough for now. Amen, peace be with you.