If You Must Die...

There's a great scene in the movie First Knight where Sean Connery, playing King Arthur, says "Here we believe that every life is precious, even the lives of strangers.  If you must die, die serving something greater than yourself. Better still, live... and serve."  


What do you think our communities and our world would look like if every church and every follower of Christ took that as their life goal?

One Type of Friend Everyone Needs

I think everyone of us should have at least one person in our lives that has the ability to both affirm us for who we are and what we're doing AND challenge us to be better.  My friend Rich is one of those people in my life.  You can check out his blog here.  I had a meeting with him today and as always I left feeling better about myself and the work I'm doing AND challenged to take things to a new level.

Do you have anyone like that in your life?  If not I'd suggest you ask God to send them or show you who he's already sent you.

The Power of Feedback

I love feedback.  I would go so far as to say I crave it.  Whether it's something I'm about to produce or something I've already done, I want people's input on it.  Anything I write (except for this blog) I have someone proof and edit it.  I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of people around me who know how to do that well.  They know how to, not CHANGE what I am saying, but GET what I am saying and then help me make it CLEARER.

I know a lot of people though, who see feedback or editing as a threat.  I don't get that.  I would much rather be affective than original any day of the week.  And a part of being affective is being clear.

Here's a blog post from Seth Godin.  He's very clear about being clear.  Enjoy.

Share your confusions

If you're building for digital, for a place where you can't possibly be present to guide or to answer questions, I think it's vital you have someone who can review your work. Same for instruction manuals, secret ballots and road signs.

Not to make suggestions to make it better (what do they know?) but to share their confusions.

I don't think that's a phrase, but it should be. Share your confusions is a way of asking someone to dissect your work and point out what's not totally clear.

An Update From Africa

Here's an update from Ryan in Africa.  Ryan is one of the Uncharted Waters staff that our church supports financially.  I can't wait to see what God does this summer because of Ryan's hard work over the last few weeks.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!
What a great phrase to say, because it carries in it so much meaning for us as believers. I had the opportunity today to teach this phrase to a group of pastors who had come from all over the Nyanza province to worship with us. It was a such a great experience to hear, after several practice tries, the entire body saying back as loudly as they could 'He is risen indeed!' I heard that so many times growing up, and said it so many times, I almost forgot the power that such a tiny phrase has for us, and it was great to receive a reminder. 

Things have been going well so far here in Kenya. I am not going to go into too much detail, but it has been a good trip so far, as we have been traveling all over the country meeting with different groups. It is exciting to see all these pastors coming and being enthusiastic about learning more about sports ministry and how they can use it. Since I was first here in Kenya last March, the idea of sports ministry has spread like wildfire here. We had that large training in Mombasa where over 300 churches were represented, and from there it has grown to a rather astonishing size. Literally hundreds of camps and teams have been run and put together by churches all over the country, and they are just looking for more information to help them continue to move forward. It has been a blessing to see how God has used such a simple tool as sports evangelism to change the lives of so many.  

Our trip turns south in a few days, and I mean the direction, not in a bad way. If you received my newsletter you know that Levi and I will be traveling down through Tanzania, spending a few days there, and then finishing up the trip with a week in Malawi. Please keep our travels in your prayers, as well as that God will set up the right leaders to meet with out in those areas. 

By now most of you have probably heard that I caught malaria. One of my brothers already offered to come over and take care of the mosquito for me, so that was nice to hear! Seriously, it has been one of the most uncomfortable situations I have ever been in, and unfortunately it is not over. I still get really bad headaches, and I have developed some sort of back pain as well that causes a pain to shoot down my lower neck and back every time I take a step. On the positive side, after 4 straight nights of fevers and completely ridiculous sweating because of it, I have had two night free of fever. It still flares up a little during the day, but nothing like before. The rash that I got has seemed to die down a little, which is really nice because it was creeping into my face as well, but please pray that it will completely go away as soon as possible. And probably the best improvement I have seen so far is it seems my stomach is almost back to normal, and I have been able to eat meals for the last couple days, after going three days without eating a thing. 

Thank you for your prayers. God has been good, even during the malaria, as great things continue to happen in the side of ministry. One of the negative side affects of the malaria is I have times where I struggle to concentrate, but it hasn't seemed to affect me during our meetings with the leaders just yet.  

May God bless you all, 

Ryan Van Hoven

Divine Appointments

Yesterday I was sitting at a table in Caribou Coffee; it’s one of the places I like to work when I’m not in the office.  The only seat that was available was at a large table where two ladies were having a conversation and a guy was reading.  It turns out the guy was one of the veterinarians that we take our dogs to.  I reintroduced myself and then we began to chat.  He was reading about the importance of meditation, especially when it comes to reading scripture.  We had an interesting conversation about that.

The ladies sitting across from us were speaking another language.  Dr. Voell evidently recognized it as being Russian and began a conversation.  I listened as he began asking them where they were from in Russia and telling them how he met his wife while in Moscow on a mission trip with his church.  He subtly wove his faith into the conversation.  The ladies seemed to really enjoy the conversation; especially when he tired to speak the few Russian words he learned twenty years ago.  As the two of them left, Dr. Voell handed one of them a small book – the Gospel of John.

Now I don’t think Dr. Voell is the kind of Christian that goes around jumping into conversations and bombarding people with his faith.  He is, however, the kind of follower of Christ that all of us should be – one who looks for natural opportunities to share his faith and make the Gospel more appealing.  He had a connection with those two ladies; he spoke their language (literally) and had been to there country.  He had an in that I didn’t have and he saw he opportunity.

I believe those kinds of experiences are “divine appointments and we all have them, probably everyday.  But we have to look for them.  We have to slow down.  We have to be open and willing to allow God to use us wherever we are.  And yes, we have to risk getting out of our comfort zone.

Have you had an experience like that lately; an opportunity to share something that you know about God or faith with someone in a way that was unplanned and unexpected?  I’d love to hear your story.

Ordinary People

We're wrapping up our Hypothermia Relief Week ministry tonight.  I'm so thankful that the weather has warmed up; it will help make a difficult transition a little easier.

The thing I love most about HRW is it allows ordinary people to be used by God in extraordinary ways.  Our team of volunteers is made up of regular folks; none of them have any professional ministry training.  They are government workers, school teachers, contractors, accountants, IT professionals, daycare workers, at-home parents, folks who have retired, and so on.  Yet the amount of ministry they've achieved this week and the way in which it was done is simply amazing; it's a God thing.

Here's an example of God working in our team:

One of the guys in the shelter (I'll call him "W") was able to secure a job, a pretty good job at that.  He's going to be working for the DC Public Schools.  The problem is he only had the clothes he was wearing.  He was afraid to tell his new employer he was homeless; he was afraid it could cost him his job.  And he didn't want to show up everyday at work wearing the same clothes day after day.

Our team recognized that this was "make it or break it" for "W."  He needed this job and wanted to succeed and achieve something better for his life.  So our team mobilized.   By the next evening, when "W" came back, they had several sets of brand new or slightly used clothes for him.

Here's an excerpt from this morning's shift report:  "'W' got his clothes and looked good for his first day of work."  

I've got to say I got a little emotional when I read that.  It may seem like a small thing but to "W" it's huge; it's everything!

That's just one of many examples I heard of this week of ordinary people allowing God to use them to do extraordinary things.  That's what being a follower of Christ is all about.  And our church is on it's way to changing the statistics of how the world views "the church."

HRW Launch

Our team always does an amazing job as they serve during Hypothermia Relief Week.  We have folks serving around the clock from 3pm until 8am everyday for over a week; and everyone always goes the extra mile.

I loved how the kitchen crew launched tonight with homemade place-mats that our children's ministry made, real plates and silverware, and the best of all, Chipotle style burritos.  The food was amazing, as good as Chipotle itself.  Great job to Mike and his crew.

Pray for our guests this week.  It's the last week of the program so as the week goes by the stress levels will rise.