“In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.”

Ephesians 4:26 (NIV)

Scott and I recently had a guest from England stay with us after his group returned home from their Amor Mission Trip.  We wanted him to have a true Southern California cross-cultural experience so, we took him to Disneyland!  Taking an adult from another country on their first Disneyland experience was more fun than I could have imagined.  We bought him a ridiculous hat with mouse ears, put his name on it, took a picture of him wearing it, then promptly put it up on Facebook!

As much as I love the rides, my favorite part is the opportunity to people watch and listen.  Despite being the so-called “happiest place on earth,” one can often hear conversations that aren’t so happy.  For example, I nearly always hear a mom or dad sternly instructing a child with “We will have fun here today.  I mean it.  You are going to have fun!”

As this particular day was winding down, our group was walking to another ride when I overheard a very loud conversation.  An angry woman was yelling so loudly that I had to turn to get a glimpse of the beneficiary of such a verbal beating.

Her anger, directed at presumably her husband, seemed to stem from something trivial.  She had purchased a bottle of soda and had entrusted him to carry it.  Unfortunately, he made the mistake of opening it—which she repeated over and over again, she hadn’t given him permission to do.  She was furious because her plan to drink it at 10 p.m. was now ruined because all the carbonation had been let out at 9 p.m..

Anger manifests itself in many ways.  It can be represented by vile language, a vulgar gesture, or even a gun shot.  The woman at Disneyland reminded me that we spend needless emotional energy being angry about things that simply don’t really matter.

In The Message, Paul’s verse on anger is translated this way, “Go ahead and be angry.  You do well to be angry but don’t use your anger for fuel for revenge.  And don’t stay angry.  Don’t go to bed angry.”

I like this.  He goes on to say that there are things that should make us angry—like the exploitation taking place at the temple that caused Jesus to turn over the tables of the money changers.  Likewise, Moses was often really ticked off at the children of Israel because of their sin.

Lately, I pondered this issue of anger.  If Jesus were here today, would he be angry about the same things that set us off?  I seriously doubt he would be upset about the loss of carbonation in a coke bottle.  And, I just can’t see him driving with road rage.  What would make him angry?

I think the same things that made him angry when he walked the earth would probably make him angry today.  Conversely, I doubt that the politics of our day would move him to anger.

Rather, I agree with what Philip Yancy’s says in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew.  “If the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church, then I hardly believe the political contemporary scene is much of a threat.”  Likewise, I am reminded of what Dr. Jack Hayford said to his congregation after an election years ago: that God is sovereign and throughout history has had His way.  So, why do the temporary things of this world cause so much anger?  Let us remember that there is only one kingdom that matters.

Jesus made it very clear to the rich young ruler that he needed to sell everything he had and give the money to the poor in order to follow him.  What makes us think that we get a free pass on this?  Isn’t his promise of eternal life good enough?  Another consideration: To get what we want, people are often exploited.  How do we reconcile this when we are called to love our neighbors?

People are angry at each other.  Christians are yelling at one another and the world is watching and listening just like I did at Disneyland.  The issues have gotten so heated that prominent Christians in the United States signed a covenant of civility—committing to engage in thoughtful and kind discussions on subjects which they disagree.

I just read a story about Leonardo da Vinci that speaks to the true spirit of this.  As da Vinci was painting The Last Supper, he became angry with someone for impeding his progress and lashed out at that person.  After that incident, he went back to his painting. When he reached the point of painting the face of Jesus, he found that he could not continue without first making things right with the individual who caused his anger.  Regardless of our emotional makeup, anger affects all of us.  When we allow anger to control us, we feel poorly, knowing that we must make things right.

May we look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith and be angry about what makes him angry.  So, be angry but do not sin.

If you would like to see a list of things that make Gayla angry, click here.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

My oldest son, Will, is almost six years old and he loves planting seeds. He thought the exercise they did at school where they planted the small seeds in the little cup was very cool. He’s carried that over into planting seeds in our back yard.

I’m not quite sure what age it is when we begin to forget about the seeds and become focused primarily on what is blooming above the surface. But over time, in our fast-food culture and instantaneous world of communication, it’s almost hard to imagine anything taking “that much time.”

So, in the “get things done” spaces in our lives, our longer-term vision gets blurred by the demand for instant results. We often find ourselves racing from place to place, meeting to meeting, deal to deal – seeking instant closure and gratification. We become impatient and look for the quick-fix solutions in our relationships, our careers, and our pursuits. We somehow get tricked into thinking we can bypass the growing process and jump right to the harvest.

However, what if we could ‘Step Back’, slow ourselves down today, and turn our attention from the harvest back to the seeds? What if we could focus intentionally on planting positive seeds in our relationships, our families, and our work? What if we could plant seeds and then shift our attention to nurturing and cultivating those particular seeds?

I’m not nearly the planter Will is, but I can’t help but think that purposeful approach may improve the overall quality of our harvest in the long run. So, what seeds will I choose to plant today along my path? What seeds will you plant along yours?

“I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”

- John 15:16

Travel Gracefully.

Jason Barger, 11-Time Amor leader and creator of the “Step Back from the Baggage Claim” Movement

This photo was taken on a recent trip to Puerto Peñasco, where Amor works with local pastors to provide resources for families in need. It is a tent city made up of families who lost homes in the recent earthquake that shook Baja and California. Aid is slow in coming to these people and they have little to nothing to eat or drink. Pastors from our Baja Ministry Planning Board took a trip to the Mexicali area and brought with them 14 water filters to give to churches in the area. The churches are now able to make sure people have clean drinking water.

Click here to give a family access to Clean Water for Life.

Steve Yoder is chief of The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau. The following is an excerpt from a article he and his son,  Levi, wrote about Levi’s trip to Mexico.

Levi was exhausted, dirty and smelly several Sundays ago when he stumbled off the bus after an overnight ride from San Diego.

He was also beaming, which made Karen and me happy, too. He was just back from a weeklong trip with a local youth group to northern Mexico, where he and other teenagers built houses for low-income families by day and camped out by night.

Yet, when I had sent him off at near midnight a week before, I’d had some nagging questions.

I wasn’t worried about safety. My doubt: Were we sending Levi on a charitable endeavor that would also be an education for him? Or was this a glorified vacation, or something to look good on his college applications? And was it worth the hundreds of dollars we spent to send him?

Please take a minute to read the entire article.

The following is an excerpt from Lives Built on Hope: Spiritual Insights from an Unlikely Missionary

From Chapter 2: The People

Prior to a group’s arrival, I preview the sites looking for anything that might require a last minute adjustment. While there, I meet with the family one final time. I wish you could see the happiness and hope which lights up their eyes as we discuss every detail of their new home. Until now, they had gone through the application process without knowing if this could really happen to them. Like the Good News, it’s too good to be true! It won’t really dawn on them until the materials start to arrive and the groups roll in like a circus train filled with energy, joy, chaos, and excitement. In just four days, they are virtually drop-kicked into a new home. If that isn’t the love of God manifest in our lives, then I don’t know what is.

If the concept of salvation, regardless of variations in theology, is what unites the Christian Church worldwide, then why is the global Church, and even those local churches found in small communities for that matter, so disjointed?  In the previous issue of Matters of the Heart, it was determined that the local church itself radically differs by person, community, and the like.   By and by, it is perhaps this assortment of faith practices which allow the Gospel to be spread to multiple people groups and countries.

What’s more, these differences can create diversity amongst people and a multiplicity of ways to be sensitive to the guiding and leading of the Holy Spirit in sharing the “Good News.”  Yet, it is this same diversity which has created a distorted view of Christianity worldwide, particularly for those serving in short or long-term missions.  The end result is that the Church is often found fighting an uphill battle of bad public relations.  Should it?  Is there a better way to reconcile the mixed bag of language, affluence, denominations, local governances, social patterns, and morays in order to do mission?

If the answer is yes, then those looking to serve would likely never set foot onto a mission field.  One might become so daunted by the task that it would be difficult to imagine where to begin.  If, however, the answer is no, then those wanting to serve would have to ask themselves what does missions look like?

David Livermore, author of Serving with Eyes Wide Open, states in his book, “More than one million people participate in short-term mission projects outside of North America every year—and millions more are involved in domestic cross-cultural missions [in the United States].  This is encouraging news.  But the work is not done.  There are weaknesses in our approach and practice.  And these volunteers need resources to help them prepare for effective cross-cultural engagement.”  How does the broader church hope to have an impact on the local church when we enter as guests into their world?

Interestingly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ study “Volunteering in the United States” shows that “in 2009, the main organization—the organization for which the volunteer worked the most hours during the year—was most frequently religious (34.0 percent of all volunteers), followed by educational or youth service related (26.1 percent).“  Clearly, Christians are serving and have a desire to impact the world around them but do those eager to serve go in humility or go to impose a preconceived agenda?  Perhaps there is no “right” answer.

When we practice the well-known theology of missions called the “ministry of presence” so often associated with Henri Nouwen, one finds, however, that serving abroad is a two-way street—so that those desiring to serve are also served by the presence of those they work alongside of, in whose land they have the privilege to serve.  Fuzz Kitto, a church growth mentor in Australia says, “When we go in humility to serve, we are also served.  There is little we really have to give than, that of presence, for it is the spirit-to-spirit connection of our humanity united in the image and likeness of God.  There is no greater joy than having the privilege of serving another human being in the name of Christ, for it is surely the way of Christ.  It is Incarnational.  It is the prayer of the Kingdom come on earth as in heaven.  The impact lifts us up to our true worth as it brings us down from our false images of importance.”

The simplicity of this message is more likely to keep the Church out of the troubling problems occasionally found on the mission field when trying to do the “right thing,” minimizing the differences in faith practice.  Take, for example, the recent alleged kidnapping fiasco in Haiti.  According to Christian Post’s recent article “Freed Haiti Volunteer: I Thought We Had All the Paperwork,” where Jim Allen, one of the eight American volunteers arrested for kidnapping and freed from jail while in Haiti said, “He believed the team had all the paperwork necessary to take Haitian children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.”  Good intentions do not necessarily make for good missions.

When the larger, global Church serves in mission, it strengthens the hands of the local church and pastor in a community.  By becoming an extension of the local church rather than the focus of the work itself, mission teams can better assist our brothers and sisters worldwide by extending and strengthening their specific local ministries.  Mission teams can then truly build community among the global Church even as we give local churches and pastors the tools to build community amongst their neighbors.  For, while we work on the mission field, God is often working on us as well.  Thus, the mission trip fulfills its purpose in multiple and meaningful ways.  It is possible that in the end, this may be enough—that the Gospel is shared and that the Church is built up one person at a time.

Groups ask many questions about how mission works. One of the larger questions is, “How does a mission trip work in and for the local church when there are so many differences of culture, faith observances and economic backgrounds? How do we reconcile all the diversities of language, affluence, denominations, local governances, social patterns and morays in order to do mission? Do we have to?”

If the answer is yes, then we would probably never be able to set foot onto a mission field. We would be so daunted by the task that it would be too hard to imagine where to begin. Steve Horrex is Amor’s Vice President of Global Expansion. He just returned from a trip into Haiti to gather information on how we may be able to help rebuild some day when the conditions will allow. Our approach is to work through the local churches and their pastors. Much to their surprise we ask them first to tell us what they need. When approached this way in South Africa, the pastors said, “Are you nuts? All we ever hear from other NGO’s is what they want to do. None of them ever stop to ask us what we need!” We don’t begin by taking on all of those diversities. We begin by coming along side in partnership. In fact, one hundred and forty four participants were just here from England training for their next trip into South Africa. But, I ramble!

If the answer is no, then we have to ask our self what does mission look like? How does a church on a mission hope to have an impact on the local church when we enter as guests into their world? Do we go in humility to serve or do we go to impose our agenda? Andrew Lyde, of Amor Ministries, suggests that perhaps we could answer the question better by turning it around, “How does the local church impact the broader church?” Are we so distracted by our position in the “rich helping the poor” equation that we forget to see ourselves as brothers and sisters reaching across the void rather than reaching down into the void that separates us?

There is a theology of mission called the ministry of presence. It is a two way street where we are also served by the presence of those we work alongside of, in whose land we have the privilege to serve. My good friend, Fuzz Kitto, a church growth mentor from Australia, says, “When we go in humility to serve, we are also served. There is little we really have to give then that of presence, for it is the spirit-to-spirit connection of our humanity united in the image and likeness of God. There is no greater joy than having the privilege of serving another human being in the name of Christ, for it is surely the way of Christ. It is Incarnational. It is the prayer of the kingdom come on earth as in heaven. The impact lifts us up to our true worth as it brings us down from our false images of importance.”

When the church serves in mission, it strengthens the hands of the local church/pastor in a community. By helping the poor we become an extension of the local churches where pastors are on the ground 365 days a year. We serve them by serving the people they pastor, extending and strengthening their ministry. We truly build the community among the global church even as we give local churches/pastors the tools to build community among their neighbors.

Pastor Armando Ponce, the head of Amor’s Mexican Ministry Planning Board, once commented that Americans coming to Mexico to give with nothing expected in return are a curiosity, not the stereotype that many Mexicans have of Americans. When they see missionaries at work they see God’s love in a “raw form, paving the way for sharing the Gospel.” The local pastors often spend a good part of the interview with a family applying for a house convincing them that this is not a gift from the group on mission, or from the pastor or his church. It is a gift from God’s free love. Thus begins the mission of breaking open hearts and minds to the Good News of Luke 8:1, “Now it came to pass that Jesus went through every city and village preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him.” My brothers and sisters, we are the twelve!

Missionaries are often asked why they are doing this. Why would they help someone they don’t even know while asking for nothing in return? Eyes are filled with wonderment when they learn that the missionaries are not being paid to do this, but that they are even paying their own way to be here, that God has called them to serve. It is a free gift of God’s unconditional love. Nobody has ever done something like that for them in their life. The impact is dramatic. It is like a body blow to the soul. It is a head on collision of the spirit. It proves that you don’t have to be a cardiologist to touch the heart of another person. The radical impact of unconditional love brings tears, laughter, hugs, disbelief, and professions of faith reborn.

This impact is reciprocal. It opens the eyes and changes the hearts of those who have never seen such abject poverty. They are not only aware of, but also more committed to rectifying the injustices in the world. They are less absorbed with easing their own consciences as “the rich” than they are obsessed with how soon they can return to continue the journey with their new found brothers and sisters. They go home less preoccupied with seeking their own comfort zone. For, while they were working on the mission, God was working on them. As one pastor wrote, “We were changed through this year’s immersion. We don’t know exactly how, but we are all different, our minds, our hearts, our souls, and our life. God is going to work on us.” Another wrote, “Mexico wrecked me! Ironically, as I returned to what I thought was my reality at home, I realized that I wanted to bring that other reality back with me.” The journey continues…Luke 8:1.

It was fun to be in camp over spring break and to feel the excitement of building houses, building community, and building the kingdom. One youth pastor who survived the tsunami in Indonesia likened that experience to how he felt being here. He said that he witnesses the kingdom of God when he sees how people come together to help each other without reservation. We had a few muddy weeks as if to remind us to stay humble in our reverie. I like to call it “Mud, Sweat and Tears”. One particular group was special to me. I accompanied them on theirs and my first Amor Mission Trip back in 1993. So I asked how many of them were 16 or 17 years old. Most hands went up. Then I told them that they were new born babies on the year that we started doing this and that , in a certain sense, I had waited their whole life for them to get here. What took them so long?

Heads up to all you fans of X Projects. There’s one coming up fast on May 1st. After that we are planning one in August, September and October. Go on line at Amor.org to learn more about this popular program and other ways to get involved. You can also check out the Amor Store where you will find Lives Built on Hope, a beautiful new book with photos and reflections on life in the mission field. Go also to Amazon.com for the book reference.

The Peace of Easter be with you.

Howie.

With permission, I am posting an email sent by the Mission Pastor from Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, Tom Theriault. He was responding to the concerns being shared at the church about going to Mexico in light of the most recent events in Juarez.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this since the news hit the streets. On Tuesday I attended a town hall forum with the current moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA. Before we heard him speak, we did some small group digging into Luke 10 – Jesus sending out the 72. One person highlighted verse 3: “I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” His comment: “Just because there are wolves out there doesn’t mean we should stay home.” This hit me like a thunder bolt from heaven. Jesus makes it abundantly clear: “I am sending you out, not into security and safety, but to go into the world where there are wolves. If you stay home, the wolves win.”

Tom continues by saying that this word from on high has been “ringing in my ears and heart”.

Somehow, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ve got to press past the American faith that automatically rules out sacrifice and danger. I can’t find that kind of faith in the Bible (except in those held up as a negative example). The only way we and our ancestors got the gospel is because faith filled saints ventured out beyond the safety of home and took risks for and with Jesus. Where is that spirit of daring faith in our American churches???? We are not called to be foolish. The Lord of all, however, does call us to walk in faith, not in fear.

Tom finishes his call to serve this Memorial Weekend with these final comments:

The difficult situation facing our neighbors to the south give us a privileged opportunity to display the timbre of our faith. Are we fair weather only friends, or will we show up when there are dark clouds overhead??? Our Amor friends would not open the door foolishly. They are opening the door of faith. Oh Lord, inspire your people at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church to step up and walk through!

I read this and welled up with tears. Not because of what I hope you hear as much as Tom saying what we all need to hear. Amor Ministries has to continue being a “lamb among wolves” as we respond to God’s leading us to expand to other parts of the world.

Jesus is who we follow and he was definitely a “lamb among wolves”. I want to be like him.

“What is honored will be cultivated.” – Plato

What’s important to me? Will the time I spend this week reflect what’s important to me? What kind of person do I want to be in this world?

This week, I was fortunate to have a friend pass me a link to a video from 60 minutes. For football fans, it is an amazing story about the small island of American Samoa in the South Pacific, it’s community, and amazingly, the number of NFL players this small island has produced.

But, as you’ll see, this story isn’t about football. It’s not just about good genes and it certainly is not about top of the line training programs. It’s about a community of people that honor determination, discipline, and humility. And in their cultivation of this spirit, they accomplish what seems unimaginable to most.

WATCH THIS:  “60 Minutes – American Samoa”

We can’t duplicate another person’s story, experience, gifts or challenges. We have our own story to live. However, what would it mean for my life to cultivate a spirit of determination, discipline, and humility as I work for my goals? Just imagine what kind of communities, teams, organizations, or churches we can build when we cultivate a collective spirit?

The Amor experience for me has always been a community of people rooted in God’s love – determined to cultivate that spirit in the world. When we honor that spirit and bring it to life in the world, the world is changed.

So, what will I honor today?

Travel Gracefully.

- Jason Barger, 11-time Amor leader, speaker, and author of the book, Step Back from the Baggage Claim:  Change the World, Start at the Airport

Our groups often find themselves building for a family on a street where other families live in the same or worse conditions.  Overwhelmed and confused by the specter of poverty, they ask, “How do we pick the families?”  The pastors we work with are members of our Mexican Ministry Planning Board.  They live, work and pastor in the areas where we take our groups to build.  They know their people and the needs of the community.  When we give them a seasonal quota for the number of houses we can build, they bring in the applications for the families based on the greatest needs.  They pick the families as a Board so that we can be assured that we are doing the right thing.  At the same time, we are giving our pastors a meaningful opportunity to reach out to their communities in witness to the love of God.

Last month, one of our groups walked in on an unusual set of circumstances as told by their Amor Field Specialist, T.J. Putman.

“Sometimes our pastors will bump a family to the top of the list because of  extreme hardships such as a devastating fire or health and safety issues.  One week before Christmas, Pastor Ponce, the head of our MMPB, bumped a family to the top of the list.  Francisco, the 39 year old father of five, was in a car accident last April.  He was in and out of the hospital for eight months.  His wife, Silvia, regularly attended church. Francisco did not.  When Silvia called on Pastor Ponce, he started visiting Francisco in the hospital.  They became really close through the whole ordeal.  One wish/dream Francisco shared with Pastor Ponce was, ‘I always wanted to provide a house for my family.’  Pastor Ponce was able to share his association with Amor Ministries and give Francisco the peace of mind that his family would have shelter.

I showed up to build the house the day after Christmas with Abiding Hope Lutheran Church from Littleton, Colorado.  Step by step we learned the family’s situation.  I wasn’t aware of what was going on when we met the family on the first day.  The mother broke down in tears when she shared the story with the group.  I had trouble holding back the tears as I translated.  When the group showed up the doctors had given Francisco seven days to live.  His blood pressure dropped and he would slip in and out of a comma.  The family spent each day of the build at the hospital.  Francisco’s two teenage daughters stayed home to answer our questions about the house and to babysit the two year old daughter.

After three days of strenuous labor we got the house to a point where the family could move in.  We needed one more coat of stucco to finish.  As we were driving off after the third day, I saw Silvia and Francisco’s sixty year old mother, Francisca, walking arm-in-arm like neither of them could stand without the support of the other.  They came up to my truck with tears in her eyes.  She grabbed my arm and said, ‘My son died today.  Silvia is on her way into the house to tell the girls.  They don’t know.’

We drove off and I made some calls. I called Pastor Ponce and told him that the house was at a place where the family could move in and that we could come back the next day and finish it.  He went to visit the family later that night and explained everything.  The family asked Pastor Ponce to pass along this message, ‘This house is a gift from THE Father.  We want to be here with the group tomorrow.’  The group showed up on the last day to finish the house.  After laughing and playing all week nobody really knew how to act or interact with Silvia or her family.  They finished the house in a few hours.  Before the group left they met with the family inside the house to pray and to share the love of God.  Grandma Francisca told us the whole story about what had happened to her son.  She shared how much she will miss him, but she knew he was at peace with God.  He had accepted Christ the day before he died.  She gave each participant the most meaningful hug they had ever experienced.  I am amazed each and every day at how God works and saves lives.”

One of the group members shared how deeply they were affected.  None of them had ever met Francisco, but they all loved him through getting to know his family.  Praying with his family on the last day was an incredibly heartbreaking experience, but one of the beginnings of healing.  Even though the group had been here before on trips that were meaningful and life changing, this one was special.  It proved that God is not random, that He made everything line up so that Francisco could be at peace about his family having a place to live.  It proved how we can all be a part of His perfect plan when we open ourselves to His grace, His invitation to serve someone in need.  It also proves that we can’t always know how much we will impact the life of the family, the local church, or the pastors’ ministries for generations to come when we say yes to a mission trip.  We don’t just build houses.  We build hope.

Peace,

Howie

P.S.  I want to invite all of you to visit our web site at www.amor.org.  There you will find lots of exciting information about the work of Amor Ministries, including our quarterly newsletter, Matters of the Heart.  Learn about our work in the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona, our South Africa mission trips, and our trips to Puerto Peñasco, a small fishing town on the Sea of Cortez, just south of Arizona.  Also learn about our 30^th Anniversary Celebration Tour and many other ways to be involved with us and to support us. Thank you.