Barefoot Mission Journal

Catch up day.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. We finally finished the Bella Vista building project to where it is now in the hands of the local water board to provide a welded, lockable gate to secure the unit when we install it. Christine and the girls along with Jen are out at the school today finishing up the Health and Hygiene, and sanitation aspect of the project.

The building was a real challenge, with me doing about 3 days solo, and most of the project with one local guy named Marco Tulio. There were punctuated days of other assistance, including two heavy days for the floor and the roof, coming from a few teachers and about 6 students. Thank God for this, because we were able to do a "bucket brigade" for all the concrete work. Roel was involved as often as he could, working like a dang mule every time he was there. He can sling brick and steel all day. We are both getting so buff we don't need a gym membership!

We learned a lot on this project, more cost effective ways to finish the building, and how to utilize the locals and their skills on a pay basis to drastically reduce the time and the struggles of working an hours drive a way.

We had a great time at a youth event at the local YWAM base called LEGACY. This event happens twice a year or more, and changes location so more youth across the country can attend. I can not express how much that weekend blessed me. Christine and I had a chance to pray one on one with the kids that wanted to receive a parental blessing. The majority of these kids do not have a father, and often lack a mother at home to send them out into the world with the biblical blessing so often seen in the old testament. How can we expect this generation to be a legacy maker, with no legacy of their own? So we prayed as Abraham, Noah, Elisha, Samuel, David and so many others would have done. We prayed for strong minds and hearts, for Godly character to shine in their lives. That the boys would be the husbands their future wives deserved, and that the girls would be the wife of purity that their future husbands deserve. We prayed that they would be fruitful with their education and hands, that their spiritual territory would be increased as they walk the halls of their schools, and the trash filled streets of their villages. That they would, as I close every letter, e-mail and blog I post, BE the standard in their homes and towns.

I was moved beyond tears as we prayed and sent them out, as adopted sons and daughters, and we as stand in prophets. I prayed no less sincerely or intensely for them as I would my own daughters. And THAT my friends, is where God reigns eternal. There are no fatherless motherless children, only those that have not been found by we, the church, yet. Keep your spiritual eyes open people, the mission field is not here in Belize, it's right outside your door.

BE the standard

 

I'm not impressed.

I'm not easily impressed. Easily entertained? Absolutely! but not easily impressed. So don't come to me about how many people raised their hands at your 2 hr camp meeting, unless you have serious discipleship and constant follow-up with them. Don't just save em and send em out so you can feel good about yourself.

Don't you even THINK about telling me about the street/homeless evangelism you do, unless you listen twice as much as you talk, bring burgers and cokes to everyone you talk to, lay hands on them when you pray, and pick them up in your car and bring them to YOUR church on Sunday no matter how bad they smell.

 

Wanna impress ME?

Work like a Latino. Hard. Steady. Without complaint. No 15 minute breaks every 45 minutes of work. Get your hands dirty. Grab a shovel when it's just sitting there and move some earth. Take your 5' frame that weighs 140 pounds and haul those 100 Lb. bags of cement off the truck and into a room 50' away. Run like a camel without begging for water like some dehydrated Oliver Twist. Show up for work at 5am, and take your siesta at 1 and you won't hear me complain one bit. Because I know you'll do it all again from 2-6.

Wanna impress ME? Dance like a Sudanese Christian with real joy, real passion, real faith, real worship, in spite of the theft, slavery, murders and child rape. Sing in the Spirt, entering into the Holy of Holies, kneeling before the throne of the Living God with the killing fields dyed red with the blood of the innocent lay just down the road from your house.

Wanna impress ME? Hold a bible study in China even though the bad guys know where you are, who you are, and where your family is. Don't sing in hushed tones out of fear of your voice being followed by the servants of darkness. But raise your voice to Heaven and shake the kingdom.

Wanna impress ME? Choose death when the local Imam in your Muslim village tells you to renounce Isa as Messiah while your bible is burned and urinated on by the Taliban. Refuse to marry a man you don't love and that is not a Christian because you refuse to be unequally yoked. Deny the men who charge you with adultery when you were in fact raped. 

Wanna impress ME? RAISE that flag. LIVE the life. TALK the talk. WALK the walk. And as always.....

BE the standard.

Sweat Equity

On Tuesday we began work on the building to house our LWTS unit at Bella Vista School. From the beginning we had it planned out that local people should help with the work involved in the entire process wherever they could. We have had several guys helping out along the way, with politics, community awareness, meetings etc. And when it came down to the sweat equity involved, putting muscle where their mouths are, they came out in force.

To name a few, Juan Carlos, who works at the dock, and is sort of a youth mentor in the village. Juan Carlos (dos), who is on the water board, and produces cinder blocks that he sells. Eric Guiterez, who is on the village council, and a few other guys. From the get go, they brought shovels, and prepped the site, dug the footings, unloaded sand, stone, cement, rebar, and block. We worked together to cut, bend and tie the rebar, and mix and dump the cement with a borrowed cement mixer! I can not tell you how happy I was to see this machine show up, I was dreading having to mix all this stuff by hand and shovel!!

 

 

We had no shortage of supervisors either...

 

 

At every class break, we were nothing short of mobbed by the kids who stood around and watched our every move. Once in a while one would be brave, and ask us what we were doing, and we would explain it to them, and a light would go on"You're the ones bringing us clean water!" and smiles would be everywhere. Just like this little girl.

 

 

Bella Vista is what we hope to be more than 100 such projects for Belize. A gift of $10. brings clean water to one person for life. To be blunt with you, if you and 10 other people brought lunch to work instead of going to McDonalds for the McRib combo, supersized, with an apple pie for dessert, we could make some real changes. If those 10 friends find 10 others, and so on, we can bring clean water to dozens of villages over the next 5 years.

Please consider supporting Water Missions Belize, by going to www.watermissionsbelize.org, and clicking the DONATE button.

More from this project over the next few days.

BE the standard

 

Filthy Worship

Christine and I left the kids home last night and went to Church service in Seine Bight. We meet in the yard of one of the young guys that really gets the Gospel, and is walking it out in his community and his school. His home, is like all the others in Seine Bight, dilapidated structures with gaps between the planks so large in some places you see the light streaming through and you just know what happens when it rains or when it's really buggy out.

But Kenneth really puts a lot of work into the sandy yard. He weeds, picks up all the trash, rakes the entire yard, and sets out the chairs before anyone else shows up. There is no question that his yard is the cleanest in town on Sunday evenings! Standing in the yard, you look at neighboring homes and you see all the trash, grass, broken bottles, animal waste, and smell the muck and mud from the ditches. But on this night, there was a new element: A burning trash pile not 100' from where we were getting ready to offer praises to God. (this pic is a representation)

It got me thinking about what worship must smell like to God. You have a perfect picture here, of a heart that offers pure worship, and of one that is tainted with sin, that amounts to nothing more than lip syncing. A heart that is purged of sin, humble before God, and that seeks to empty itself before moving into worship, has that clean yard, that white cloud of smoke that contains the sweet odor that God adores, and receives from His people. But a heart that has hidden sin, that clouds itself in a shroud of secret shame, or that is unrepentant, that has the audacity to think that it can worship God as true and blameless while wrapped in filth, is like that burn pile. It's black acrid smoke rising into the air, chocking out anyone who is around it, causing watery eyes, and making you gag, must be exactly what God feels. It is sour, bitter, and just nasty, God will not receive it.

I think about Korah and his sons offering profane fire before the Lord (Numbers 16). God opened up the earth and killed about 250 people that thought they were holy enough to engage in worship. It's not merely a false sense of leadership here, it's the act of trying to engage an impure heart, in sacrament. After they died, Moses told the people to pick up the censors, for they were still pure. The means of delivering sacrifice remained pure. Worship, is the means in which the sacrifice of praise is delivered, it remains untainted in spite of the filthy heart trying to carry it into the throne of God. And the impure heart, is in danger of being swallowed up in some way or another.

I personally know people at my home church who are living in sin. Unmarried couples living together, men with internet addictions, a constant gossiper, I know these things are true in their lives. Yet here they stand on sunday, unrepentant, blowing their burn pile of worship into the church, and offering profane fire before the Lord, and it's ok. Yep. It's ok. It's ok because it's not my job to be Moses. That is the Holy Spirits job. And He is constantly moving up and down the aisles and working on people, including myself. I move into intercession before worship service starts. For myself, the worship team, the Pastor, the elders, the sound team, and the congregation. That God would receive from the hearts that are right before Him, and not "swallow up the tents" surrounding those that are not. That my friends is mercy and grace, not throwing out the baby with the bath water.

My question to you is this: What color is your smoke? What does it smell like? Does your life of worship draw people in, or push them away gagging. Are you a part of bathing our Savior in a sweet smelling incense? or blotting out the stars with the soot of sin. The thing is, I can worship God in a filthy environment like Seine Bight. But God can not receive filthy worship. 

 

BE the standard

Flywheel

Went to the youth service in Independence on Saturday that our friends Emilio and Liz run. We watched the movie flywheel, which is from the folks who did Facing The Giants. This one deals with a used car salesman who is cheating folks by overpricing used cars by several thousand dollars. Hey, what they don't know won't hurt em' right? But it does hurt US when we lack the integrity and moral plumb line that God measures us by. Several passages come to mind, the one dealing with dishonest scales, the one about Zack the tax man, and the one about robbing and lying to God in which two people got killed. I won't give the verses here, but trust that you will look them up and check it out.

The best part of the evening for me was talking to a guy named Joe outside after the movie. He came in about an hour late, but caught the message of the movie. Joe is a bicycle mechanic, buys used bikes, rebuilds them and then resells them for a profit. Good job. Problem is, Joe would take money on bikes that he did not have. Selling a product that did not exist. This amounts to simple theft. But his conscience was being stirred, after watching the guy in the movie do the same thing, on a larger scale.

As a kid I did the same thing with BMX bikes, except that I would steal bikes, strip them down, build up a new bike out of several bikes, and then sell it to some other kid. I also sold parts out of my house or my backpack at school. Getting $25.00 for a $100.00 crank set I paid nothing for was a good deal. I did not become a believer until I was 21. I didn't repent of what I had done until I went through the "Steps to Freedom" course at 38, and was in a place of prayer where I could hear God speak about it. It was one of those things I just forgot about doing. I am in no position to repay anybody, as was done in the movie, because I have no idea who they are. But, God knows the measure of my regret, and my desire to serve in spirt and truth in all areas of my life. So it's cool.

Sharing this with Joe, really connected with him. He has charged for work he never performed like repacking wheel bearings, or aligning a wheel that was already true. Connecting the message of the movie with the Flywheel and the heart was already being done by God, I was just a part of confirming and making that message take root in his life. Opportunities to plant and water are everywhere. We just got to keep our eyes and ears and hearts open to the move of the Holy Spirit so we can take that "walk across the room" or just step outside and be a tool in Gods hand.

BE the standard

Y.W.A.M

Youth With A Mission took a lot of damage to it's property in Belmopan after the recent storm. So I took (I mean really TOOK) Christine and the girls with me to go help clean up, pray, and do what we could to help out. I spent most of the 3 days there cutting, hauling and stacking trees and branches into piles to clear the grounds, and so it can dry out into burn piles over the next few weeks.

Christine really had some good long talks with Sara who runs the base with her husband Jason. Reanna, got to ride some horses and play with  Jason and Sara's daughter in between helping haul a branch or two, Indya, helped a lot too. Ministry was happening on many levels that weekend.

We knew that we would be heading up there on Wednesday of last week. There were arrangements made for me to go alone, catching a ride with a friend and a bunch of guys. Friday morning, I woke up and just had this impression that I was not supposed to leave so early, that I was to wait and see what God had in mind. This was a blessing to me for two reasons.

1) I HATE rain. 

2) I hate being in a situation where I do not have my own vehicle

Well, about an hour after tarrying, I get the call I have been waiting for. The truck we were wanting to buy was all fixed, come get it. WOO HOO! So I went and got the truck, got back to the house and kidnapped my wife and girls to go to work with me. Plus, the fact that the truck is a 4x4 dually w/ a 7.3 liter diesel engine, meant we could do some tree pulling and hauling if we needed to.

While I didn't get to do any manly removal of tree stumps while engages in 4x4 mode with smoke belching out from my 4" exhaust, I did get to do some hauling. My buddy who I was supposed to ride up with along with 6 other guys has a little dodge and a big trailer. His truck broke down the morning we were to head home. We were going to leave the base at 9am, but again, God said "wait" so we did. My friend calls, and asks if we could take him, the 6 guys, and his big trailer back home with us. Big "duh" here, yeah, we did, finally leaving about 1pm.

So it was the girls and I up front with our friend, and 5 guys sitting in the back, all while towing a trailer that was a mere pea for my new truck to handle. (insert Tim Allen man bark here). During the 2 hour ride home, we were talking and praying and just sharing our hearts and thoughts on ministry, and something happened: God was confirming, affirming, and assuring us about a much longer future here in Belize. 

So there was a greater purpose in our "delay" to go work this weekend, and it was very, very fruitful and just an awesome experience. I love the fact that we can walk onto any YWAM base any where in the world, and just feel like home. 

BE the standard.

Upcoming Studies on Soul to Sole (in no particular order...)

1) "What's in a name?" A look at the lineage & hidden prophecy of Genesis 5.

2) "Praise and the Hell we raise" The effects that worship has the kingdom of darkness.

3) "Cosmic Chicken?" A study on the wings of God, man and the foretelling of Messiah (Ps91:4).

4) "You gotta nip it in the bud Andy!" A study on the error of baptism replacing circumcision.

This and much, much more on Soul to sole! 

What would YOU like to see first?

BE the standard

 

 

The Olive Tree

A tree stands in the field

      Roots running deep, drinking

of heavens sweet water

 

Her boughs are heavy

     and she offers her fruit

to all who look upon her

 

"Come!" she says, "partake of my gift

     For it will sustain you

on your journey home"

 

"No" says one

     "I am sustained 

by my own hand"

 

"No" says another

     "For another tree

sustains me"

 

The olive tree cries out

     and she says "No,

you are not sustained

not by your own hand,

nor by another,

you will not make it home"

 

And she wept for them

     her boughs heavy

as oil pours from her leafy crown.

 

A man stands in the street

     Love running deep, pouring out

heavens sweet water

 

His heart heavy with compassion

     And He offers His feast

To all who look upon Him

 

"Come!" He says "partake of my gift

For it will sustain you

     on your journey home"

 

"No," says one

     "I am sustained

by my own hand"

 

"No," says another

     "For another hand

sustains me"

 

The man cries out

     And He says "No,

You are not sustained

     Not by your hand

Nor by another

     You will not make it home"

 

And He weeps for them

   His heart heavy

As blood pours from beneath

     His thorny crown.

The weight of sin

My wife is a loser, in the way that I am a nerd. I love Star Trek, Star Wars, and anything to do with Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, or Universe. She, loves Biggest Loser. I can't stand that show, because with the exception of So you think you can dance, I hate, hate, hate reality television. But since my big TV is broken at the moment, I sat with her to watch the chubby chanel.

It was during the time when these behemoths step on the truck scales that I started to pay attention to something I had not thought about before. These folks are struggling with their weight, on a larger scale (no pun intended, honest) than I am struggling with mine. Granted, I am only dealing with 20-30 pounds that comes and goes in proportion to my work outs when I do them. I can drop 20 pounds in two weeks easily. But, it always comes back because I have not changed my eating habits to balance out the effort I put in. Much like sin.

I continue in my pattern of going to McDonalds and gulp down two Mcribs at a time with two or three refills of coke and a large fry. If not McD's, then it's Moe's, Fiesta Fresh,Down town Deli, Atlanta Bread Co., or the roach coach that is at the gas station by the bridge. Point is, I have not changed my habits, even though I am putting in an effort to change. I am battling myself, much like sin.

Same thing with these "losers". They struggle, with a food addiction that is more severe than my own. Plates of chemicals and preservatives laughably labeled as "food". But that is another issue. The things that come to mind are gluttony, sloth, greed, and simple laziness. Technology has created an environment in which we never have to leave our homes. We can bank, shop, tele-commute, Skype, e-mail and magic jack our way into society and give the illusion of "being there". We have refrigerators that order food, on-line doctors, at home blood tests (very useful with the wave of type 2 diabieties crashing into our culture). I have seen at least 6 articles about a person so large, that they had to cut a hole in the wall, use a fork lift to get them to the dually pick up or flatbed truck used to haul cars, to a hospital due to their planetary proportions. 

California, ordered a dozen custom built ambulances to handle the ever widening girth of it's people because 1) they wouldn't fit inside, and 2) They broke the 1/2 ton axle. That is a ridiculous insult to the human condition, and a cry for the weight of sin.

Sin must be approached the same way. If we make a decision to "work out" on it, but don't change our habits, we will readily fall back into what we are trying to stop doing. Smoking, sexual addiction, porn, dirty jokes, alcohol, what ever, if we don't change our environment, we will never conquer it.

If alcohol is your problem, stop buying it, going to bars, or socializing in environments where it is tempting. Porn? Have somebody other than you install a web monitoring thing like cyber sitter or something, and keep the password for themselves, while having their home computer set up to see everywhere you go. This is accountability, not simply covering up the problem. Don't stand near the water cooler at work if you have a problem with gossip. 

Me? I had to stop buying Coke (the soda, duh) It's made with real sugar down here in Belize, and it is the best Coke I have ever had, and I have been all over the planet. No Coke, means no salty chips, no salty chips means no chocolate, no chocolate means...well, you get the point.

I am down 20 pounds again, and I feel great. Like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders (waist). It's different this time, because I realized it was an addiction, and dishonoring to God for ME to continue in what I was doing. I am in God's army, I am a soldier. And I want to be all that HE can be IN me. Marines ain't got nothin on my Saviour. I am delivered from a bondage that may seem simple, but was really weighing me down (pun intended). Freedom, ain't it grand?

BE the standard

 

 

 

Power down and recharge

There is nothing like a little storm and a 18 hour power outage to get the wheels turning in your head. I often go into a room, turn the lights off, and read the bible by candlelight.  Since we have been in Belize, the downtime in the evening has lent weight to my song writing. I have a desire to put the song I sing when no one is around down on paper, and work out the music with garage band or something.

I know that the bible says that there is nothing new under the sun, but I am working on a new interpretation of what worship music can be. I am using very unique instrumentation and rhythms from around the world. I know some of you are thinking to yourself, "it's been done." Nah, it hasn't. Not this way, not with these instruments.

Quiet time is something that I don't really get into. Honestly, I get a little bored sometimes just sitting there, and reading a book I have read through literally a few dozen times. I love the Word, I love to read stories. But when you know what's coming, it's not as thrilling every time. Then God does something cool. He shows you something that was there all along, and then reveals some new level or understanding of what a passage means. 

This was the case on the night of the hurricane that glanced by us. I have done an inductive study and teaching on Malachi, regarding the reference to Messiah coming with "healing in His wings". Talking about the hem of Messiahs robe, indeed any robe, being called a wing. I tied in hidden prophecy from the book of Ruth into this teaching as well. But in the course of this teaching, I overlooked something that God pointed out to me this night.

The woman with the issue of blood in Mark, knew the prophecy in Malachi, and acted on it by touching Messiah while she was in the crowd. This is where Yeshua turns around and says "who touched me?" He then proceeds to have a conversation with her in which she publicly confesses that it was her. He sends her on her way with a blessing of "go in peace and be healed". 

What hit me that night, led to a song called "The touch" (with all instrumentation written out by the way) It was then that I realized that my teaching focused on using this text as supportive evidence of Yeshua being the Messiah. I ignored a very important part of the text. The woman, was unclean because of her issue of blood. She was violating Torah simply by leaving the house. To be in a crowd, while bleeding, made everyone she brushed against unclean by law. Then for her to reach out and touch Messiahs robe resulted in Him feeling the power go out of Him. THIS was what necessitated the need for public confession. So that the crowd and the religious leaders would see the Yeshua was the one with healing in His wings. That He was the culmination of this womans faith, and that her FAITH is what healed her. "Daughter, your faith has made you well". Healed, by believing without having first seen. Cool.

Lastly, I want to point out that she was not rebuked for violating Torah by being in the crowd or touching Messiah's robe. She was unclean, touched Him, and was healed. This does not mean that He became unclean like the masses, for He is Messiah. Part of the miracle lies in the fact that she was healed, before actually touching His garment. This is similar to the passage in Matthew where Yeshua told the man with the crippled hand to reach out, and his hand was healed. It was healed in the reaching towards Messiah, not in the touching of Messiah.

Messiah healed an unclean woman, as she reached for him, and stayed undefiled in the process. We, as sinners are unclean. And our healing comes in the reaching.

So reach.

BE the standard