Soft Like a Marshmallow

Gracie and I have been enjoying being back at Tierra Nueva after our year away in France.  We’ve appreciated our weekly worship services, which are drawing ex-offenders, people in recovery and immigrant workers.

For the past three months on Monday evenings Salvio, Bethany (TN Family Support Center directors), a growing number of Tierra Nueva apprentices and Gracie and I have been meeting at the Tierra Nueva building for thirty minutes of prayer before seeking to enter into a contemporary practice of Jesus’ mission according to Luke 10.

In Luke 10 Jesus sends out 70 workers in pairs, telling them to “beg the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” because the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few (10:2).  Our group varies from four to eight. As we’ve gone out we’ve seen that Jesus’ assessment of First Century Palestine is true today for Skagit County.  There is spiritual openness, great need and a longing among ordinary people to engage in some kind of outreach.

During our prayer time together we thank God for what the Spirit is already doing in our ministry and community and deliberately ask how we can best collaborate with God.  We seek guidance regarding where we should go.  We expect God to speak, bringing to mind families to visit, specific places to go, conditions needing healing—whatever the Holy Spirit wants to show us.

In Luke 10:3-4 Jesus sends out the 70 dependent and vulnerable (no shoes, money, extra clothes) and specifically commissions them to go as guests rather than hosts.  Seeking the person of peace is all about receiving people’s hospitality- and yet there’s a proactive side to this involving going out looking for receptive hosts.

Usually we visit people in their homes, and end up praying for their concerns—which include anything from the need for work to physical healing and comfort.

A few weeks ago Gracie got the impression: “soft like a marshmallow” thinking it was about the condition of someone’s heart.  She also thought of the laundromat across the street beside a Mexican grocer.   Anna and Salvio thought we should go to the megastore Wal-Mart, and Salvio got “palm tree” and someone else thought of “black hair.”  I wasn’t sensing anything but decided to join Salvio and Anna and head to Wal-Mart, even though I dislike this particular megastore. 

Meanwhile, Gracie and Paul headed across the street towards the laundromat, but as they passed by the Mexican grocery store, “Los Antojitos” they felt they should go in.  There Paul noticed a bag of big heart-shaped marshmallows by the cashier, and in front of it was a Mexican woman making a purchase with whom Gracie struck up a conversation.  They accompanied the woman outside into the cold December wind.  After they introduced themselves and briefly described how they were praying for God to bless people, they asked her if she needed prayer.

“Yes I do, but doesn’t everyone?” she said in Spanish.  Gracie agreed that everyone needs prayer but told her: “I think God is highlighting you,” and shared how they’d been praying and had gotten the impression of a heart as soft as a marshmallow.  At this the woman seemed to melt and said that in fact she needed prayer: for pain and swelling in her leg from deep-veined thrombosis and some other conditions.

The cold wind motivated them to duck into the laundromat, which was empty, and they prayed.  The woman cried as she told how she’d been longing for someone to tell her about Jesus and help her understand the Bible.  Gracie and Paul invited her to our Sunday service. 

At that point she invited them to her car and offered them bags of oatmeal and granola from the factory where she works.  She’s come twice in to Tierra Nueva’s services, and we recently visited her and her family in their home where we celebrated God healing her leg, and prayed for her family.  Afterwards she invited us to share a meal delicious home-made chicken tamales and strawberry atole (a sweet pudding-like drink) (photo below).

This woman truly has a soft heart towards God and us.   She is longing to go out with us on our Monday night outreaches, which shows us that Jesus’ call for disciples to beg the Lord of the harvest for laborers is a prime example of evangelism as recruitment. 

That same evening when Salvio, Anna and I went into Wal-Mart I was skeptical about our prospects.  However, as we walked down the first main aisle we ran straight into a big tower made up of stacked cases of Corona beer (a Mexican favorite).  Atop it was a big plastic palm tree! (photo below).  There beside it was a man with jet-black hair pushing a shopping cart full of hot chili cheetos. 

Salvio and I approached him about our mission and he immediately agreed to receive prayer: at which time we learned he was from India but living in Vancouver, BC.   We prayed for him and encouraged him, realizing that our church aisles were becoming strangely inclusive, and the nearness of Jesus’ Kingdom was coming into places I would never have chosen (Wal-Mart). 

We rejoined Gracie and Paul and truly could identify with joy of the 70 who returned to Jesus to debrief (Luke 10:17-21).  Last week I sensed God speaking to me to “double” these outreaches—which we plan to do beginning in January. 

May you too experience the joy of the harvest as you venture into whatever version of Jesus’ ministry the Spirit leads you into in 2013.

Why Celebrate?

In mid-October we gathered to celebrate Tierra Nueva’s 30-year anniversary.  A few weeks before that celebration I was fretting in the middle of the night, wondering: “why celebrate?” I experienced feelings ranging from ambivalence to disappointment to outright grief.  Perhaps mourning our many setbacks and outright failures would be more appropriate, I thought.

We've had so many losses and disappointments these 30 years: We’ve poured time and resources into projects that haven’t always born fruit; we’ve raised up leaders who have left us;  people we've led to Jesus and seriously advocated for have relapsed, re-offended, grown cold or been killed.  We’ve started and lost agricultural committees, Bible study groups and churches.  Truth-be-told we don't know what's happened to most of the people we've ministered to in Skagit County Jail or in the Honduran countryside.

I lay there feeling discouraged, thinking how successful other ministries and churches seem to be in contrast.  I struggled to believe that it’s not too late for us.  I found myself surrendering myself as fully as I know how, crying out to God to have mercy on us and to work with us and through us more effectively.  As I lay there praying I think God spoke to me.  

I found myself thinking about God’s own ministry experience promoting salvation/liberation. I thought back to the first humans in the garden, who distrusted God’s goodness and chose death, rapidly-- in spite of the most ideal beginning.  My thoughts moved to God’s failed efforts to prevent Cain from murdering his brother or getting humans to fill the earth and subdue it rather than starting from scratch after the Flood.

Jacob's family came to mind.  I remembered Simeon and Judah who killed all the men in a city to retaliate for one man raping their sister Dinah; the ten sons of Jacob who threw their brother Joseph into a pit to kill him, selling him to the Midianites instead; 400 years of slavery in Egypt; Moses who murdered an Egyptian, fled his people and then 40 years later reluctantly responded to the call.

I thought of the Israelites making it out of Egypt only to be disgruntled and rebel, worshipping a golden calf.  None of the original escapees from Egypt made it into Canaan but died in the wilderness. 

Then when God’s people do make it to Canaan they blow it over and over, turning to the gods of the land, being carried off into bondage, crying out and God showing mercy on them... many times (see Judges 10:6-16).  

Then the monarchy-- a bad start with Saul; David's life of violence and adultery; a seriously-broken royal family; the kingdom dividing; lots of kings that did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; the people and leaders ignoring the prophets, or killing them; the Assyrians carrying off the 10 northern tribes after they spurned God's prophets; the Babylonians destroying the temple and carrying off the cream of the crop into exile; returning to the land and rebuilding the temple, only to mess up again, and again. 

When Jesus is born Israel is under Roman occupation.  He embodies God’s total presence to heal, deliver and in every way save.  But religious leaders reject him, the Romans crucify him, and his disciples abandon him.  The church is birthed into this mess and we keep making similar mistakes. 

As I thought through the history of God’s people I felt strangely comforted-- like maybe I was feeling the paternal heart of God, the feelings Jesus must have felt and still feels (though I don’t think God is anxious or depressed).  Yet it seems God hasn't been totally successful yet, or has he?  

God hasn't managed full-on global revival through all the myriad of efforts to call, disciple, equip and mobilize.  God hasn’t succeeded in weaning his church from their current idols (money, politics, violence...).  Jesus and his disciples haven’t stopped global warming, human trafficking, mass incarceration, school violence, drug addiction, at least not yet.

I’ve concluded that I still like the way our great God goes about ministry and invites us to join.  God is kind, persistent and never gives up, in spite of human frailty, unreliability and outright rebellion (mine included).  Jesus shows us a God who reigns by serving, exercises power by emptying himself, wins by losing, and saves the world by dying.  God lets us fail and fall and learn hard lessons, but he is with us through it all.  The Spirit brings comfort and reignites faith, inspiring and mobilizing us anew.  I feel mobilized and grateful to be part of his messy (bloody) body of Christ.  

We ended up having a rich and encouraging 30th anniversary.  Gracie and I are grateful to be seeking Jesus’ kingdom in the company of 20 committed colleagues who now make up our staff. 

We value your prayers and friendship as we end this year and continue into our 31^st.  May the Spirit comfort, encourage, strengthen and inspire you this Advent season.

Jesus Frees Violent Men: from Gerasenes to Mount Vernon & Beyond

Last month I spoke at a conference called Unlocking the Future: From Mass Incarceration to Restorative Justice at Texas Lutheran University. I also preached about the Gerasene demoniac, inviting students to cross over to the other side with Jesus into the world of violent offenders (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjlmWSa9UOg)

That evening Michelle Alexander gave an unsettling talk on her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an age of color blindness.  Like an Old Testament prophet she exposed the injustice of society’s increasing use of imprisonment as the only solution, and decried the courts’ classifying disproportionate numbers of people of color as felons, damning them into a new caste system where they are stripped of basic rights (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jGm1E7w1c&feature=related)

At Tierra Nueva we have been immersed in these realities for 18 years as we’ve ministered to inmates and ex-offenders.  Leading weekly Bible studies in Skagit County Jail again after a year in France reawakens me to the needs right here in our backyard & re-ignites my calling.  Both the brokenness and spiritual openness I see among inmates right here in Mount Vernon, Washington rivals what I’ve encountered in Asian slums, impoverished Mozambican or Honduran villages and prisons around the world.

On a recent Thursday evening during a Bible study in the jail all four inmates in our first Bible study had experienced traumatic loss of a parent.  When I asked how the men were doing the first one told of his reoccurring anxiety around finding his mother after she’d shot herself in the head when he was eight years old.  The man beside him recounted tormenting memories of finding his father after he had hung himself.  The third man then described how his father had invited the family to a barbeque after coming back from being separated from his mother. In front of the whole family he then put a gun to his head and shot himself.  The fourth man sat beside me anxiously shifting back and forth.  He was still dope-sick, detoxing from a heroin addiction.  Two months before when he lived in Texas, drug-task-force police stormed his family’s house, mistaking them for the drug dealers next door.  When his father had jumped up startled, the police opened fire, shooting him eight times.  His father died in his arms.  

How was I to minister to these men so hammered by trauma in the remaining 15 minutes allotted to us by the jail?  I went around and prayed for each of them, lifting off the trauma and blessing them with comfort from the Holy Spirit.  

This past Thursday night I led four back-to-back Bible studies on the Mark 5 version of Jesus’ encounter with the Gerasene demoniac.  Inmate participants read the story in sections, beginning with Mark 5:1-5.  The guys resonate with the description of the tormented man who lived in the tombs and broke off his chains. 

“Do you know anyone who authorities have repeatedly tried to control through prison-time, fines and threats?” I ask.  A Mexican-American gang member named Antonio looks up and states matter-of-factly “yeah, that’s all of us!” 

The description of the man screaming night and day and gashing himself with stones leads the men to name their own self-destructive behaviors: meth and heroin addiction, alcoholism, self-condemnation, cutting themselves, re-offending.

We continue by reading the next section of the story, Mark 5:6-7: “And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God, do not torment me!” 

We notice how the man assumed Jesus would deal with him like all others had in the past—further tormenting him through confinement rather than effectively liberating him.  The men acknowledge that many people assume that God is out to punish people, on the side of law-enforcement and “the system”.

Jesus, in contrast, reveals a God who respects and liberates offenders.  Jesus also demonstrates what all humans are made for.  He embodies total love for a difficult person together with keen discernment and authority to separate out what is destructive and evil from that person.  We read next how Jesus deals with one violent offender with swift authority in verses 8-19:  casting out the unclean spirits, punishing them by giving them voluntary departure into a herd of pigs, restoring the man to the state of “clothed and in his right mind.” 

Jesus first responds to the man’s plea to not torment him by asking his name, and in the jail’s Good News version bible the translation reads, “My name is mob (legion in other versions) there are so many of us.” 

“Do you think demons exist?” I ask.  “Do you notice them in people around you or even in yourselves?”  “They all around us back there,” a man answers matter-of-factly, pointing to their cellblock.  “You can sense all kinds of evil: hatred, fear, anxiety… all kinds of things.”  Others elaborate in more detail. 

A man in his late twenties named James, still emaciated from years of addiction, suddenly bursts out: “I’ve got all kinds of them right in me. Can’t we just pray to get rid of them right now?  When I’m out on the streets high on meth I can see myself doing all kinds of shit I don’t want to do.  It’s like I’m just an observer.” 

I move on to comment further but James stops me.  “Did you hear what I just said?” he interrupts.  “Can’t we just pray for the demons to leave now?”

I explain to him that it’s important first to come to Jesus fully, trusting him to save you, even if you don’t understand him- like the man when he falls at Jesus’ feet. Otherwise, freedom from evil spirits will only be temporary as you have no protection.  James had been coming to our Bible studies for weeks, but always stressed how he had no background in religious stuff and all this was new.  Immediately he said he was ready to trust Jesus, but said he felt that something was blinding him, holding him back from faith.

2 Cor 4:4 comes to mind: “the god of this worldhas blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  I invite him to set himself against the god of this world, and to ask Jesus to save him.  James prayed and then I led him in prayers to command other confusing and tormenting spirits to leave and not come back and to ask the Holy Spirit to fill him.  He soaked in the moment and said he felt good, like something was happening.  

The men are struck that Jesus wouldn’t let the man leave his people to follow him, but rather sent him back as a missionary to proclaim “what great things Jesus had done for him.”  We read in Mark 6:7, 12-13 how Jesus rapidly empowered his disciples to themselves practice the authority he exercised.

“And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs; and He was giving them authority over the unclean spirits... And they went out and preached that men should repent.  And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.”

1 Peter 1:7-9 comes to mind as another explanation to encourage James regarding his quandary about not perceiving Jesus: “although you have not seen him, you love Him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”  James quickly wrote down the verse as the guards ushered the inmates out.

Curtis and I felt shivers going through our bodies after connecting James with the unseen yet very-present and loving Jesus, and I can’t wait to “cross over to the other side” again.

The figure of Jesus pictured below is made of shanks (clandestine inmate-fabricated weapons) that men in a prison in Paraguay gave a chaplain I met in Texas.

The Word Coming Close: Reflections on Romans 10 and Luke 10

Coming back to the Skagit Valley of Washington State was a bigger shock than we expected after a year in Paris.  Significant ministry trips into 15 different countries seemed to increase our time away from home and give us new eyes for what was once familiar, sharpening our priorities.  We are enjoying re-connecting with our family, ministry colleagues (see photo), faith community, supporters and also with jail inmates, ex-offenders, gang members and immigrant workers.

We participated in a baptism of Evaristo, an ex-gang member who is now a member of our community, in the frigid waters of the Skagit (see photos below).  He and others want unforgettable, even dramatic baptismal experiences that will rival violent gang initiations.

Today Tierra Nueva’s visiting Honduran director David Calix, our Mexican pastor Salvio Hernandez and I met to try to distill our distinct theology and strategies for working with people in extreme poverty here and in Honduras.

As we prayed Salvio got a picture of a big tree, whose large branches provide cover.  David saw a big roof that sheltered people from rain or hot sun.  Luke 15, Romans 10:5-17 and Luke 10:1-9 all came to mind which we read and discussed at length over delicious chile rellenos and carne asada at the El Gitano Mexican Restaurant across the street from Tierra Nueva.

In Romans 10 the Apostle Paul contrasts efforts at self-salvation through following the law to the “righteousness based on faith.”  This righteousness does not require frantic work bringing Christ down from heaven or up from the grave (v. 7).  “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” writes Paul.  How do we help people accustomed to seeing God as distant and punishing come to know God as close and loving? 

Paul’s emphasis on people confessing with their mouth Jesus as Lord and believing from the heart that God has raised him from the dead (v. 9) really struck us as a brilliant crystallization into two essentials that show the Word as close & faith- inciting. 

Jesus reveals that God (Lord) is not a distant law-enforcer but rather the one who comes down from heaven to seek and find the lost (Luke 15:4, 8).  Jesus shows God to be the friend of sinners, healer of the sick and liberator of the oppressed.  God raises Jesus from the dead, vanquishing death and all its authority, bringing him back to us as alive now. 

“Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed!” (v. 12) write Paul.  “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” he insists (v. 13).  But how will this message be proclaimed without preachers sent to communicate it in ways that instill faith? (v. 14-15).   If indeed “faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (v. 17) someone must agree to carry the message.  Luke 10 shows an early Christian strategy instigated by Jesus.

Jesus appoints 72 disciples and sends them out in groups of two ahead of him into homes to receive hospitality first & then heal and announce the Kingdom of God.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  So beg the Lord of the harvest to cast out laborers into his harvest” (v. 2).  Jesus sends them out needy and vulnerable (without money, suitcases or even shoes).  They humbly receive and also freely give in the homes where God directs them.

David has been practicing this in Honduras for the past few years, visiting the poorest families in fields and homes, establishing friendship, praying for people and leading them in Bible studies.

For the past six weeks we’ve been gathering on Monday nights to try out Jesus’ ministry strategy in Luke 10.  Four of us have been going out in teams of two, visiting families in rural migrant labor camps and in area apartments.  Every week people are welcoming us, receptive to prayer and many have experienced immediate healing.

On one of our first nights out we prayed for an older farm worker who had been working long hours harvesting blueberries.   She received almost immediate relief from pain in both her knees and arthritic wrists as Salvio, I and her husband prayed.

Two weeks ago a woman served us fresh blackberry juice from berries she’d harvested that day.  She asked us to pray for her to be freed from abdominal pain from a past operation, and then poured out her heart to us about having lost custody of her three children to her ex-husband.  She ended up confessing her bitterness and rage, asking for us to pray for freedom and God’s peace.

Last week we visited a Triqui-speaking couple from Mexico and their five children, who offered us soft drinks and then asked us to pray for healing for the woman’s leg.  As the pain gradually diminished, Salvio read Jesus’ teaching in Mark about the power of faith as small as a mustard seed.  The man asked us to pray for him to be filled with this faith.   We left with greater faith and excitement to follow Jesus, and are now inviting others from our staff and faith community to join us as part of Tierra Nueva’s weekly rhythm.

Through these weekly visits we are seeing that the closeness of the Word that Paul talks about can be experienced through our very closeness as carriers of the Word to people right where they live (under their roofs).  Jesus’ strength to comfort and heal people from emotional and physical pains wins them over to a God of grace and love.

Jesus in Jakarta

During a 24 hour stop over in Jakarta in late May I taught on the gifts of the Spirit to Servants of Asia's Urban Poor’s five-member Indonesia Team (photo below). While some of them were new to Servants, two of the women, Lina and Anna have been living in a slum community that had been ravaged by fires and forced evictions.

Team members were feeling vulnerable and longing for a fresh impartation of the Holy Spirit. I felt so very privileged to be able to minister to each team member in my role as Elder of Servants, and to visit the slum community where Lina and a new intern, Al, are living.

For several hours I went out with Lina to visit the people (see photos & video link). Lina and Anna had clearly won the trust of the residents through humbly living among the people, playing with the children and advocating for the whole community as they face eviction. After listening to a woman share about how difficult it is for her to leave her home of over 15 years, we asked her if she was suffering from back pain based a prophetic impression. She welcomed our prayers and experienced immediate healing.

We then moved on to talk to people in the adjoining house. Apparently the first woman we prayed for had told others, because one after another women were coming to us asking for prayer: for abscessed teeth, pain all through the body, back and shoulder pain. Each person was healed on the spot as we prayed. People were filled with visible joy and excitement. One woman pulled her husband over and insisted that we pray for his heart as he’d had pains and murmurs. As we prayed we proclaimed Jesus’ victory over the powers, and people received what we were saying.

A young lawyer who represented the slum dwellers was standing there watching as people were being healed. He approached me and asked if I prayed for land. He asked if we could pray for a legal breakthrough for the poor families he represented who had not yet received remuneration for their homes. A whole circle of people were gathered around as we explained to the lawyer how we would pray if he wanted us to pray.

“We understand the God is our father, and your father and the earth and everything in it belongs to him,” I explained with Lina translating. “The enemy of God, Satan, is ruling the world. But we believe that God sent his son Jesus to destroy the power of the enemy, which he did when he died on the cross. God has raised Jesus from the dead, and he is at the right hand of the Father. He intercedes for us, and sends the Holy Spirit to be our advocate and defender. "Is it okay with you if we pray for Jesus to intercede for you and to send the Holy Spirit to help you with these problems?" The lawyer and all the people expressed their agreement and we prayed. I was amazed to see people’s total openness to prayer in Jesus’ name.

On our way back as we passed by a woman in the doorway of her house the thought “pain in her left hip” dropped into my awareness. Ignoring this I continued on with Lina. After telling her about this impression she said that we should definitely go back and ask the woman. We did and sure enough she was in pain, and she wanted prayer for her hip and her knees. She was healed immediately, and totally touched that God had revealed her hip problem. Another neighbor who was a washed clothes by hand for a living asked us to pray for her elbow- and she was healed on the spot. Lina had not yet seen physical healing-- and she was watching her neighbors receive immediate healing as she laid hands on them. We were both so excited by what we’d witnessed that we decided to go back and talk with the first women who had been healed, and ended up praying for more healing. Watch this video clip to learn more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUwupwOfNk0 .

A few hours later I was on a flight to Sydney, praising God for the beautiful signs of Jesus’ Kingdom that we were able to witness, and the coming together of aspects of ministry that too often are separated (incarnational presence, service, advocacy, healing prayer, proclamation). Please intercede for the Servants team’s following requests:

For the slum: Eviction is moving forward (several more people have moved out) and there have been some tense moments between those who tear down the houses and those who are moving). Pray for peace. Pray for justice and a fair price for those who are still in negotiations for the compensation money. Pray that these women (and others) will see Gods provision and protection. That we will have opportunities to lift up Jesus in this place.

For the team: Over the last few weeks 4 of 5 of our team members have experienced significant illnesses which have sidelined us for sometimes a week or more. Considering the timing (it started right after your visit) and that the illnesses are not common things we have experienced before we feel that these are coming from the enemy to distract and discourage us. Pray for both our bodies and our spirits to be protected.

Following Fire in Bangkok

The Kingdom of God is advancing in the darkest places through people who love Jesus and serve the least. A few weeks ago I was in Bangkok leading a training called “Following Fire: Signs and Wonders where they’re needed the most.” This training was organized by Urban Neighbors of Hope (UNOH), and drew together street-level ministry workers from across the body of Christ for two days of training on transformational bible study, moving in the power of the Spirit for healing and deliverance, hearing the voice of God, and other related topics.

People who work with the most broken know all too well that they need continual anointing by the Holy Spirit, more wisdom for strategy and problem-solving and constant refilling with God’s strength, love and joy. The spiritual hunger and longing for learning was evident during these two days of training—and experiences on the street showed that there can’t be big gaps between theory and practice.

For me it was a big dream come true to be able to teach and minister to UNOH workers living in the slums of Bangkok and along the border with Myanmar (see www.unoh.org), people working with prostitutes through Nighlight and Youth with a Mission (YWAM), Iris Ministries and others. I stayed in Bangkok’s biggest slum in one of the UNOH houses (photo below), walked the streets with Jennie-Joy of Nightlight (see http://www.seedswillgrow.com), and with Iven and Kashmira Hauptman of YWAM (ivenandkashmira.com). As a lone white male in my 50’s I felt the alienation of being viewed as the prototype client. Yet as I walked with friends who knew the people in the slums and streets I benefited from the trust they’d established through living among the people. Praying for people came natural, despite their animism, Buddhism or Hinduism. The Hauptman’s two little kids broke through barriers, drawing the homeless and the many selling their bodies into normal conversation and even delight (see photos below).

All these workers need serious intercession from the larger body of Christ. Right in the midst of my last session all the UNOH workers suddenly had to rush off after getting a call that a fire in the slum was consuming their next-door-neighbors shack. Fortunately it was stopped, but 1/3 of the course participants missed out on the final listening prayer exercises and ministry time. Please intercede for Ash and Angie Barker and their UNOH team, for Iven and Kashmira, Jennie-Joy and others working to advance God’s Kingdom in Bangkok.

I left for Jakarta and on to Australia and New Zealand filled with admiration as well as joy and thankfulness. The Kingdom of God is being announced to people in great darkness. The harvest is plentiful and the number of workers are few but growing. “Beg the Lord of the harvest to cast out more workers” is Jesus’ imperative most on my heart.

Refused Entry or Welcomed In

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.” (Col 2:2-5)

Paul’s words here strike me as especially relevant today after being briefly detained and denied entry into the UK this past Friday. I feel called to invite others too into Paul’s posture—especially after seeing how a dear Mexican friend, Evaristo faces deportation over legal details (see below).

Paul writes as someone who has done serious jail time for crossing boundaries for the sake of the Gospel. He shows true humility, calling for devotion to prayer, alertness and thanksgiving “that God may open up to us door for the word,”

This past month Gracie and I have traveled freely through the Euro zone, responding to invitations to teach and minister in Stockholm, Riga (Latvia) and Tallin (Estonia). We assumed there would be no problem leaving France for the UK last Friday. We have done this fairly often, though not always without difficulties. We were heading over to celebrate Anna’s 17^th birthday with friends, and I was scheduled to preach and lead a Kingdom Theology Taster Day in London on Sunday. Now we are reminded that doors that open to us (and others) are fragile and need to be approached even more prayerfully. We have an adversary who seeks to thwart our movements—refusing us entry or even casting us out.

Getting on the Eurostar train from Paris to London involved first going through French immigration in the Gar du Nord train station in Paris, where National Police officers stamped our passports as we officially left France. Then on to the UK border, where a Caucasian UK Border Agency official chatted amiably with us, looking like she was going to let us in. Suddenly, though, a wary look came over her face, and she started asking questions about our legal status in France.

Since every time you re-enter France from outside the Euro zone you are permitted three months as a tourist, our family has coordinated our trips to comply with this law. Many people who are here less than a year do this without problems.

The eager official cited some technical illegalities about what we were doing, took our passports to the French police, and returned to tell us that the French would not guarantee us re-entry on Sunday night, so consequently she would not admit us but was turning us over to them. She couldn’t tell us what they would do with us.

So there we waited where the officials had left us for three hours, beside long lines of passengers who were successfully going through British immigration in this in between countries zone where our future felt suddenly really uncertain. I was texting friends in the UK and France about our dilemma, asking for prayer, when I received an encouraging text from Gilles Boucomont, our pastor friend here in Paris. “As a French citizen and in the name of Jesus I welcome you onto this territory.”

Just then another UK Border official, an Afro-Caribbean woman who herself migrated to the UK took over the process, escorting us into a room to be fingerprinted. She was amazingly friendly and surprisingly critical of what was happening. She even let us take pictures of the process before turning us over to the French “Police Nationale”.

The French official, looking very serious said: "So, we have a problem." We told him that we thought we were in compliance with the law, and that we had been leaving the country every three months since we arrived last August. He searched our passports and found all the stamps that showed we'd left France and re-entered as stated. He said: "OK, no problem," showing us that based on our last stamp we still had 9 days before three months was over (affirming what we'd been

doing).

We had an interesting conversation about immigration politics, where he expressed his grave concern about France being overrun by immigrants. “Look, Monsieur Obama has expelled 400,000 illegal immigrants this past year— and we only 3,000!” He corrected me when I used the word “deporté”, which for the French refers to French Jews and others being sent off to their death in German concentration camps during WWII. “Expulsé” is the word he said, which didn’t sound any nicer. Finally he gave us back our passports, telling us to get extensions at the Prefecture for the rest of our stay, and had another officer usher us back into official France. Yesterday at the Prefecture I learned that the only way to get an extension, is to leave the country as we were trying to Friday.

Fortunately, I leave midweek for nearly three weeks in Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and Gracie joins me next week in Sydney. I am reminded of what a gift it is to be welcomed across borders, into new lands and communities for the work of Jesus' Kingdom. I am also grateful that we can experience even to this small degree what it feels like to be strangers and aliens, risking deportation-- since for so many years we have worked with illegal immigrants. I'm also reminded of how critical it is that we have people praying for us so barriers are removed, doors will open and ministry can go forward. We appreciate your intercession.

On another front back in Burlington, WA on this same day, May 11, I learn that a young Mexican man we have been advocating for is facing deportation. I include my colleague Chris Hoke’s update on him below and ask for your prayers.

“Evaristo Solano is one of the most hopeful stories we at Tierra Nueva have encountered in our ministry with both undocumented migrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, and with Chicano gang members. Five years ago, after losing his big toe in a firearm accident with delinquent youth, Evaristo lost his high school wrestling opportunity.

He began to drink, heavily, like his father. When in despair he robbed a corner market for a case of beer, Evaristo landed in jail with a theft felony charge. Just before being handed over for deportation, he came into relationship with us as jail chaplains, and things began to change. He came to renewed faith, received healing in his leg and foot, and we connected him with an immigration attorney.

Through the last five years, Evaristo has seen miracle after miracle: getting immigration bail dropped to just about nothing, getting back into university as a minority student with a scholarship, moving into our ministry community building, getting married to his wife Alicia, having a son Alex, beating one immigration court after another even when our lawyer said he was done for, and all the while coming into relationship with God as the Father he never had.

Through these massive changes, a wide community of support has come around Evaristo and his family. Professors, church members, pastors, parenting class teachers, artists, counselors, tattoo removal clinics, former enemies, and more.

In the last year, he has become an example of hope for many other young men trying to imagine leaving the gang life and becoming the kinds of fathers they want to be. He was about to get his green card, as a resident in the U.S., this month.

Then, possibly due to current anti-immigrant sentiment and political pressure in the country, the immigration officials surprisingly rejected his overwhelmingly positive application for status. Now he could be deported and separated from his wife and son permanently.

Please help us pray in these three ways regarding Evaristo’s case:

1. By blessing the county prosecutor, Erik Pedersen, who has the power to go back and vacate (forgive) Evaristo's felony five years ago, when he stole the beer from the corner store. Even the store owner has reconciled with Evaristo and is on his side--but the prosecutor is not moved. Yet.

2. By praying for more of the Holy Spirit--the defense Counselor--to push with us in

our appeal case this month. It will take legal savvy, lots of paperwork, and God providing the funds from among his people to cover many of the legal fees ahead.

3. By covering Evaristo and his family in prayer. His heart, his identity as God's prized and adopted son, is at the heart of this struggle. When Evaristo is closest to his Father, living out his calling as a son of God, reconciling with each person in his past and present, the Enemy has less hold on his life.

There are high calls on Evaristo and Alicia’s lives, and on your as well. May God make us prayerful, alert and thankful, “opening up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.”

Jesus Kingdom Now in France

I have been seeing God at work in beautiful ways these days. Two weeks ago we prayed for a 28-year-old French woman who had suffered for 20 years with pain from scoliosis (she had a 14% curvature of the spine). She was surprised when she felt something move in the middle of her back as we commanded her spine to straighten in Jesus’ name. And then the pain went away completely. The next day her doctor told her that her spine was completely straight! She even has x-rays to show the before and after.

Last week I traveled to Clermont-Ferrand in the center of France, 3 ½ hours South of Paris for some speaking and outreach. The first day I went out with my pastor friend Jean-Paul Fritz and two people from his church for their weekly Thursday outreach to the homeless. We walked through the city and whenever we came to a homeless person, Jean-Paul and his team pulled out a bag from their cart with a freshly-made sandwich and bottle of water, offering it to the person. They knew nearly everyone by name from having done this for over a year, and everyone gratefully received and talked with us.

We asked each person if they wanted prayer for anything, and nearly everyone said yes. We prayed for a number of people and ended up in a park on the outskirts of town that was full of homeless men and women with their dogs. They were drinking beer and many were playing bocce ball. I talked with a man in his early 30s named David who lives in his car, moving from place to place with other homeless people. He said he didn’t believe in God, but was eager to talk about faith and life, and said he really appreciated the way we talked with him. Jean-Paul is bringing him a Bible as he was open to read about Jesus, whom he did not know at all.

The next day I visited the city jail with Jean-Paul, one of the chaplains there. I led a Bible study on Psalm 23 and Luke 15, focusing on Jesus as personal Shepherd-Advocate who cares for an d protects. They were amused and seemed genuinely moved by the story of the Shepherd who leaves the 99 to seek and find the lost sheep, who was doing nothing worthy of being found and got carried home to a party in his honor. The ten men who attended were mostly French. They were humble and extremely open.

I don’t know why I decided at the very end to tell the story of a man whose hand was broken by the police when he was resisting arrest years ago in Mount Vernon. I told how he cursed the police out loud throughout my jail Bible study, and how I sensed God urging me to offer to pray for him, to show him that Jesus had nothing at all to do with the police violence, but wanted to show he loved him. I told how the man had accepted prayer in front of the other inmates, and how I asked Jesus to undo the damage done by the police, and learned the next day while visiting someone else that his hand was healed overnight.

A French inmate who had fought in Bosnia and Iraq came up afterwards. He told me that the police had broken his hand that year when they arrested him. He asked me if I could pray for Jesus to undo what the police had done. He showed me a long, swollen scar that extended 6-8 inches up his wrist. I prayed several prayers, asking him each time if he felt anything changing. But there was no letup in the pain. I then asked him if he had forgiven the flic (police officer). He hadn’t, but was totally willing to and repeated a prayer after me, forgiving the officer for breaking his wrist with a baton. We prayed, asking God’s Kingdom to come right then and there in his wrist as in heaven, then I asked him if he noticed any improvement. He said he felt heat all over the scar and could no longer feel any pain. That afternoon we saw another inmate healed of pain in his middle back. Jean-Paul is seeing God confirm his teaching and one-on-one visits with inmates with signs of healing and other answers to prayer.

The last few days I’ve been going to the Louvre (art museum) with Luke. I sometimes go when I’m feeling spiritually hungry, hoping to be fed by contemplating some of the amazing Christian art. Yesterday I was moved by Lotto’s Jesus advocating for the adulterous woman (above), and Jesus’ healing the blind man of Jericho by Poussin (second below), and by Lorenzo’s depiction of Jesus carrying the cross (third below)

May you experience more of Christ’s Kingdom, on earth as in heaven as you step into your inheritance as a beloved one.

Honduras Update: Contending for life in a climate of death

When Gracie and I moved to Honduras in July 1982 the country was considered the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Wars raged in the region and death-squad violence created a climate of terror. Over the last 30 years we’ve witnessed the power of God’s love at work in individuals and communities, bringing visible relief through increased production, water projects, improved health, reconciliation between enemies, discovery of the good news in Scripture and healing. Right now the “not yet” of Jesus’ Kingdom has been in my face as violence increases in a climate of near anarchy. I have been accompanying one of my closest friends, Angel David, from a distance by phone as he’s walked through terrors and deep sadness in this seemingly interminable valley of the shadow of death.

The last six weeks in Honduras have been some of the darkest after a prison fire in our department capital Comayagua on February 15 burnt over 400 inmates to death. The next day Tierra Nueva’s past president Paco and his wife Gloria buried their 33-year-old son Edwin who suddenly fell sick after a flare up of aplastic anemia that had been in remission for 13 years. Back in 1999 Tierra Nueva had organized a big fund-raiser to pay for medical treatment and prayer campaign, which brought this disease into remission... until last month.

In the midst of all this pain it has become once again clear that God’s preferred way of coming close to human suffering is a mediated way—through human beings who themselves come close: Jesus, me, you—Christ’s body, the church.

I was in the UK teaching a course on missions to 50 or so graduate students at Westminster Theological Centre (WTC) in Cheltenham when I heard about the fire and our friend’s death. Paco and Gloria actually comforted me, telling me how their son had become active de corazon (from the heart) in a church in the months before his death, reading the Bible and seeking God’s presence. While clearly grieving, they told me they were at peace, glad for these last 13 years with their son.

The students interceded for Honduras, for our ministry there-- and the course was a powerful time of reflection, worship and prayer. The following week I taught my missions course to two different WTC groups. I was deeply moved when an offering was taken that brought in $20,000-- enough to purchase a truck for Tierra Nueva in Honduras.

Right now two of our colleagues from Tierra Nueva in Burlington, Nick and Salvio are visiting Angel David and the ministry there in Minas de Oro. I include Nick’s prayer update below, and greatly value your intercession for prayer points below.

“So much to share, but so little time before the internet cafe closes here in Minas de Oro. Here are a couple highlights with some prayer requests at the bottom:

Yesterday, Salvio, Angel David, and I were able to visit Tierra Nueva's coffee finca in Alta Mira. It's a bumpy 3.5 hour drive from Minas de Oro, and we took a truck that I'm pretty sure didn't have any shocks. Right when we got to the top of the 1510 meter rise (altitude is great for growing coffee but not for climbing unpaved pot-holed roads), the truck began to hemorrhage water from the radiator and oil from the gear box below the chassis. It was an amazing lesson in campo mechanics though: they put some powder from a coke bottle into the radiator, tightened up some things under the chassis, filled the radiator with another two gallons of water, and then we were on our way again. All in all, it was great to see the finca and check in with the muchacho who is running the finca for us, but by the end of the day Salvio and I both felt like we'd been on a 7-hour carnival ride--a seemingly endless agitation cycle only slightly easier on the body than the saddle sore we would have no doubt had making the trip ten years ago.

Today we went to Mal Paso, the town where Angel David is from. It's a town that a lot of us have been praying for through this past year. Unfortunately, it's almost a ghost town, with almost 70% having fled for their lives after a series of homicides that has left a pall of terror on the town's inhabitants.

Salvio and I led a Bible study on John 10, about the enemy's desire to steal, kill, and destroy--something that he's achieved all too successfully in Mal Paso--by sowing division, enmity, vengeance, and unforgiveness. We briefly touched on John 17--Jesus' prayer for protection, that the disciples would be one as he and the father are one--and we prayed for everyone for healing from the trauma from this last year. It was beautiful, but it was also really sorrowful. On Sunday we hosted a gathering of a lot of the local leaders who have been participating in the house churches in Minas de Oro and the surrounding communities. Salvio and I each led a Bible study, and we also got to play some Pictionary.

Lolito came and spent the night with us (Lolito is a great friend who lived with us at Tierra Nueva for two or three years before returning to Honduras). It was a sobering evening though as he described the escalating violence around his community. About a month ago, there was a gruesome homicide in a small village called Paradise just below where Lolito lives. Unfortunately the details are too graphic for me to relate, but suffice to say that an older woman was chopped to death by three young men just outside her house. The young men killed her because she had reported them when they slaughtered a cow illegally on her land. Two weeks later, each of the boys was shot and killed at midnight in his bed. Relatives of the woman who was killed have even been promising retribution on the families of the young men.

Which brings me to the sad news: although I reported earlier that things here in Honduras are a lot calmer than we initially feared in coming down here, we've been realizing that there is an undercurrent of violence and fear that pervades this community. Last week, we visited a woman who has lost two sons to hired hit men (sicarios in the local language); you could still see the shotgun holes in the door of her adobe home. If you ask people in Minas de Oro, most report that things are more calmado (calmer). But that calm has come at a price.

We’ve learned that Minas de Oro has a covert network of citizens who collect money from local resident collaborators to put into a special account in the local bank. When some of the local youth get out of hand, they pay someone to kill that person, which has resulted in the death of 60 youths in the past 5 years. So yes, things are calmer here in Minas de Oro, but it's an artificially wrought and superficial peace enforced by the threat of violence.
Please pray for the following:

• A restoration of appropriate social order. There is very little justice here in Honduras, which is why civilians have had to resort to hiring hit men to carry out reprisals for petty thefts and delinquency. As many of you are already aware, the prisons and justice system are a wreck here, not only because of over crowding, the horrific fire three weeks ago, but also from the intrusion of gangs (today, from what I understood on the news, 17 were killed in one of the San Pedro Sula prisons). While I believe whole-heartedly in God's kingdom that goes beyond justice (loving enemies, generosity, and Calvary-like sacrifice), I am also appreciating how important justice is in a context like Honduras. I don't even know what to ask you to pray for without seeming trite, but hopefully you know what I'm getting at.

• Salvio and I leave Sunday morning for Tegucigalpa to visit the clinic before leaving Monday morning. Please pray for safe travels and getting around Tegucigalpa without trouble.

• Please pray for discernment and a smooth and honoring transition for the old guard of Tierra Nueva in Honduras as we try to invite more young leaders to participate in the new work of Tierra Nueva in Honduras.

Please pray for us as we work with Angel David to upgrade our accountability system for the administration of the coffee finca, the water project, and the pastoral fund so it can handle future growth.”

Nick

Please pray for the following additional requests, and consider if there are other ways the Spirit may be leading you to bring relief to Honduras.

• Pray for Angel David as he leads Tierra Nueva in Honduras—for lots of wisdom, grace and for the power of the Holy Spirit as he leads Bible studies and prays for people in their homes, reaches out to at-risk young people on the margins and identifies and raises up leaders.

• For collaboration and unity between the churches in Minas de Oro. For a true movement of renewal to sweep through Honduras that includes turning away from violence, forgiving enemies and pursuing all the is required for peace.
• For comfort for Paco and Gloria and their family, and for the many others who have lost family members to the violence.
  

Finally, plans are in the works to upgrade the coffee farm through replanting, pouring cement drying patios, and building solar coffee bean dryers ($3,000). Tierra Nueva Honduras also is hoping to remodel their water purification plant building to include a home for Angel David and his wife Esperanza, guest rooms and a meeting room ($8,000). If you would like to designate support to these projects, please send your contribution earmarked for TN Honduras to:

Tierra Nueva
PO Box 161
Burlington, WA
98233 USA

Prophetic Advocacy

Saturday in London I was on the tube (London Underground) on my way to visit a Servants of Asia’s Urban Poor missional community in Southall, an Indian immigrant community in West London. In the crowded metro I saw an African couple with young boy and girl in a baby carriage. The thought “give them £20.00 ($30.00)” suddenly dropped into my consciousness.

“Okay, if that’s you God tell me again in some way,” I thought, resisting the idea of giving that much money to a complete stranger. I got off the metro in one of downtown London’s busiest stations (Paddington) and made my way to the over-ground train to Southall, barely making the next train for another 25 minute ride. Towards the end of my journey I went to find a bathroom. I followed the signs, walking through the train from car to car—and then decided to stop as I realized we as were nearing my destination.

There in front of me was the African family I’d first seen in the underground! Rather than immediately giving them money, I briefly initiated conversation, focusing on the kids. Just then the train stopped and I figured they were likely going further. “If they get off here, then I’ll know for sure,” I thought. I got off the train and they did too. At that point I approached the man, handing him a £20 bill and said: “I think God is telling me to give this to you.”

The man immediately began telling me how he and his family were immigrants from Nigeria and had been homeless for the past week. “Last night we found a cheap B&B for £15, but we don’t know where we are staying tonight” he said. He told me how they had come to England seeking medical treatment for their three-year-old son, who suffered from what they’d thought was congestive heart disease. After some initial exams the British Social Services told them there was nothing they could do for them. “Can I pray for your son?” I asked. The father told me they had learned that exams that he has an enlarged heart that caused many health problems. They said they were Christians and would gladly receive prayer. Right there on the train platform I crouched before the boy and prayed for healing for his heart and a place to live for the family.

“Do you know anyone here in Southall that might know about housing?” the father asked. In fact I was on my way to visit Servants, a community committed to serving the urban poor (http://www.servantsasia.org/index.php/en/united-kingdom.html). I took his cell phone and email. There was joy in our faces as we parted company—and I was glad for the Spirit’s persistence with me in spite of my resistance. Later I called him with phone numbers of groups that offered services to homeless families.

It was inspiring to hear about the ministry of Servants that afternoon— whose community members and interns are each imbedded in different churches and existing ministries to the poor, helping with community gardens, children’s ministries and other social services and promoting Christian unity in the heart of some of England’s largest Sikh and Somalia communities.

Later that evening in a church near London Bridge I spoke to several hundred people gathered from five churches that form part of C4T, Christians for Transformation (http://c4t.org.uk). The title they had given me for my talk was “Your kingdom come in Bermondse & Rotherhithe as it is in heaven.” African immigrants joined English believers from different denominations—all longing to see Jesus’ Kingdom make a difference in traditionally working-class London neighborhoods marked by racism, alcoholism and spiritual indifference.

I had just completed two weeks of teaching my missions and Old Testament courses at Westminster Theological Centre in the UK. My objective is to prepare people to ministry outside the church, with a focus on the poor, immigrant groups, inmates and others on the margins. In the UK and Europe these days mainstream Christians are challenged by the rise of poverty, visible in homelessness, illegal immigration, human trafficking and other social problems. People are expecting increasing social unrest as European nations cut back on social benefits. My mission course includes sessions on Kingdom identity vs. national identity, with an emphasis on Jesus’ call for his followers to be differentiated from the dominant powers.

I am accustomed to some resistance when talking about Jesus’ way of combating evil (announcing the Kingdom of God, teaching, healing, deliverance, prophetic confrontation…the cross, forgiveness) in contrast to normal human approaches (law-enforcement, violence, war). Increasingly though I find people agreeing that our identity as sons and daughters of the Father in heaven must trump our visible identity markers (race, nationality, profession…), and even praying to be transferred from being under “the authority of darkness” (Col 1:13) into “stranger and alien” status. Our upgraded status in Christ includes being filled with and led by the Holy Spirit so as to carry the present reality of Jesus’ Kingdom more deliberately into our work places, cities and wherever we go.

The last two sessions of each of my three mission courses were on healing and prophetic evangelism. When demonstrating how to pray for healing in public we witnessed firsthand students being healed, including a woman from Zimbabwe who received healing from chronic ankle and knee pain from a car accident 11 years before www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp5kXHrMGj8&feature=youtu.be

As part of the course students actually went out into the cities of Cheltenham and later Litchfield in groups of three to pray for people the Spirit guided us to. People were often amazed that they would actually find specific individuals in places that the Holy Spirit revealed to them during the listening prayer time beforehand. Most had never stepped out of their comfort zone to publicly engage strangers in conversation—let alone with offers to bless them or pray for their healing. People were surprised and delighted by how many people welcomed their prayers (though there were some who refused). Highlights for me during these two weeks were the three debriefs after these mini missions—when students told stories of stepping over the lines from private to public faith in ways that brought visible blessing.

This past Sunday in the Gar du Nord just after getting train from London I said a prayer, giving the Spirit permission to use me then and there. While buying a metro ticket a young couple approached me, asking for money for a hotel. He was from Romania and she from France. Rather than giving them money I invited them to go with me to meet people in our church, and then offered to pray for them. Surprisingly they accepted, asking me to pray for her anxiety and pregnancy as she is three-months pregnant. I took their phone number and invited them to church that evening.

In the next three months we will be offering a course at Eglise Reformée du Marais on “diaconia prophétique” followed by three evening street outreaches in April, May and June in downtown Paris. Gracie and I travel to Belgium this weekend to speak to church leaders on how Christians can prepare for growing social unrest as Belgium is expected to soon cut back on social services.

A deeper, more holistic advocacy is needed today that combines respectful presence, concrete assistance and organizing for social change with prophetic proclamation of Jesus’ kingdom enhanced by the gifts of the Spirit. As we prepare for and actually practice stepping outside our comfort zone in keeping with Jesus’ teaching and example in the Gospels, guided by the Spirit, I am sure that we will be led into new adventures in effective social advocacy and evangelism.