SOFM Pt. 2

Picking up where we left off… The third objective of the School of Frontier Missions (SOFM) is to impart missions strategy to the students. The SOFM stresses that the goal of missions work is to see a church planting movement started. With this foundation set the SOFM looks at how different methods/approaches can be used to foster a church planting movement. The primary topic covered is Church Planting Principles, which takes a look at how to start a church and train leaders in a way that will lead to exponential growth. We also cover oral Gospel presentation, Business as Missions, spiritual warfare, and basic healthcare to give students training in a few different areas.
The fourth objective is to help the student grow in the area of personal and team relationships. We cover topics including spiritual disciplines and inductive Bible study to enhance the student’s personal walk with the Lord. We work through the Sharpening Your Inter-personal Skills seminar to improve teamwork, and also cover spiritual gifts so the students knows how they fit best within a team.

Here are a few pictures from the 2007 SOFM.

Florida Heat

What a fun week it was! Last Tuesday we went to a Jacksonville Suns game with some friends from church. Lyla really enjoyed it. She watched the game with rapt attention. The only thing she found more interesting than the game was Southpaw (below right), the mascot. She thought that it was Wags, the dog from the The Wiggles (below left) . The game was a bit of a dud, but Lyla was very entertaining.

Friday we went to the Jacksonville Zoo. When I asked Lyla what animals she wanted to go see, she told me she wanted to see the giraffes, otters, and snakes. She got her wish as we stopped to see all her favorite animals. When Lyla decides to pose for a picture she is the cutest thing on planet earth (ok, she's always he cutest thing on earth). She wraps her arms around whoever is near her, smiles really big, and says, "cheese."

The 4th of July was packed full of fun times. We started our day with a birthday party for Lyla's friend Noah, who just turned one. As with most children's parties, this involved chasing Lyla around as she tried to get her hands on everything. After the party we headed over to our landlord's house to relax in his pool. Lyla tried out her new pair of floaties. She is such an independent little girl. As soon as she figured out that she could stay afloat without our help, she preferred to be left to her own devices instead of having us hold her. After a lovely dinner of grilled foods (after all, it was the 4th of July) we headed over to enjoy our friend's firework display. Lyla wasn't really sure what to think of it. She went back and forth from saying, "ooh, that's cool" to screaming, clinging to my neck and saying, "it's ok, daddy's got you."

Yesterday was Vanessa and my sixth wedding anniversary. Sometimes its hard to believe that so much time has gone by and other times it feels like ages since we sat on a train in Thailand talking about what we felt Father was calling us to do. It truly has been an amazing six years. I've been blessed to have such an incredible wife. She is sooooo different from me and that is exactly what I need. She is my biggest encouragement and also the one who gives me a good kick in the pants when needed, which can be quite often. I think that all we've gone through together, from our time overseas, to walking through the heartache of losing her brothers, to learning how to be parents has drawn us closer together than I ever imagined possible. I probably don't say it enough, but I am so thankful that Father brought her into my life.











I was reading in the bathroom this morning (yes, I'm a bathroom reader and I'm proud of it) and I came across this quote from CS Lewis that I thought was spot on.

"I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a good bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity."

It seems like to many Christians, especially in the U.S., have forgotten that Jesus calls us to "Take up your cross and follow me."

SOFM Pt. 1

This is the first of a two part look at the School of Frontier Missions (SOFM), which is the school I lead at YWAM Jacksonville. The purpose of the SOFM is to prepare the students for living and ministering overseas. Our goal is to equip them with tools that will make adjusting to life easier while stripping away their own cultural biases to make ministry easier. There are four main areas that the SOFM aims to address. Today we'll look at the first two.
The First objective is to build a foundation for missions. This involves giving the student a Biblical foundation, seeing Father's heart to reveal himself to all the peoples of Earth, and a historical foundation, learning from those who have gone before us. Many of our speakers touch on these areas, but by the far the most in depth look comes from working through the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course. Another vital aspect is to help the students recognize the difference between the ideal universal church and cultural expressions of that church. We spend an entire week looking at what scripture has to say about God's bride, the church. Another facet of building this foundation is making the students more aware of the world around them. Learning more about the people groups that inhabit this world, their cultures, religions and lifestyles.
The second objective is to help the student learn how to communicate inter culturally. The first aspect of intercultural communication is language learning. The students learn different methods for learning language while finding language tutor locally, if possible, to begin learning their target language. The next skill covered is cultural acquisition. This takes the form of learning about anthropology and ethnography. Learning the culture of the people you desire to reach is vital to learning how to present the Gospel. The students are also expected to do a research project on the people group they will be working among. This is done to help prepare them for the type of religious, political and environmental situation they will be living in.

Take a deep breath

     Today is the first day in almost a week that doesn't feel kamikaze crazy. I spent last Wednesday and Thursday helping out a friend who runs an online fireworks company (If anyone is in the market for fireworks check out his website). Picture this, the outside temperature is 95º and we're working in a metal warehouse slinging cases of fireworks. On the bright side, it definitely helped me shed a few more pounds. Friday afternoon Jacksonville spent an hour and a half under a tornado warning. During this time, there was a water spout on the St. Johns River, no more than 2-3 miles from our house. At our house we mainly saw heavy rain and crazy lightning/thunder which brought Psalm 97:2-5 to mind.

 ² Clouds and darkness surround Him;
         Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
 ³ A fire goes before Him,
         And burns up His enemies round about.
 ⁴ His lightnings light the world;
         The earth sees and trembles.
 ⁵ The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD,
         At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
 

Shortly after the warning had expired we headed out to have dinner with some friends who are moving to Texas. It was pretty cool to look in front of us and see clear blue skies while behind us the sky was black as night.

Saturday morning we woke up early, for a Saturday, and headed to the airport. Mark and Janet, our base directors, arrived back in Jacksonville after spending a year in China. It was good to see them again after all this time. From the airport we headed out to spend the day at the beach with the youth from GCA.  It's been really awesome getting to know the youth better.  Lyla really enjoyed playing in the sand, but wasn't a big fan of salt water. I broke my sandal playing volleyball and discovered how extremely hot sand can be.


After regrouping at home, we headed out to find me some new sandals. Unfortunately with my gigantic feet (size 13), it was difficult to find something I liked.  So, for the time being I'm wearing these beauties that I bought for $3.

After a long day in the sun, we decided to forget about our diet for a couple hours and enjoy some ice cream. All in all it was an awesome summer day.

Last night our good friends Kyle and Danielle came over to grill out and get in a rousing game of Ticket to Ride. My family gave me this wonderful Cherry Peanut Ginger Wasabi finishing sauce that I used to marinate the chicken. It was delicious. The night was finished off nicely with a personal victory in Ticket to Ride.

Lyla's first sparkler

Looking forward to the rest of this week. We're going to a Suns game tomorrow with friends from church, youth group on Wednesday, the zoo on Friday, a birthday party on the 4th and Sunday is our 6th wedding anniversary.

Summer Weekends

Wow, this past week feels a bit like a blur, it went by so fast. Since Rebekka moved out, we discovered there was a broken pipe in the wall between that room and our shower, so our landlord had to cut out and replace a large section of soggy drywall.  Lyla continues to amaze me with her cuteness, whether in actions or words.  Over the weekend we went to Lyla's friend Leonard's 1st birthday party.  She loved playing in the water and eating watermelon.  

After a long weekend a girl needs to relax

Saturday night I went to another friend's party at Clark's Fish Camp.  The food was delicious. I had the prime rib philly.  The food was trumped, however, by the pod of manatees that were hanging out by the restaurant's dock.   This was the first time I'd seen these amazing animals.  Father's Day was really special.  Lyla made me a bookmark, because she loves to find my book and remove my marker, and I also received Ticket to Ride, a really fun board game.  This morning Lyla and I made muffins for the playgroup she goes to with Vanessa.  She loves stirring the muffin mix together and then gets super excited when she hears the timer go off. I also enjoy the daily request of, "daddy, play guitar?" 

Last week I was able to start working on recording some of my music. This excites me for two reasons. First, because it'll be good to have my songs recorded. The other reason is that I'm learning how to run a studio, which is one of the things I hope to do when we return to Asia.

I think lately Father has been helping me work through dealing with Casey's death. It's already been over a year, but in a way it's still sinking in. Knowing that as Lyla grows up she won't get to enjoy knowing both Casey and David hurts. It almost feels like there will be a hole in her life from not experiencing who they were. I just started reading The Journey of Desire by John Eldredge as part of a study the YWAM staff is doing and he shares something Nicholas Wolterstorff wrote which seems to sum it up pretty well,

There's a hole in the world now ... A center, like no other, of memory and hope and knowledge and affection which once inhabited this earth is gone. Only a gap remains. A perspective in this world unique in this world which once moved about in this world has been rubbed out ... There's nobody who saw just what he saw, knows what he knew, remembers what he remembered, loves what he loved ... Questions I have can never now get answers. The world is emptier.
(Lament for a Son)

While that sounds a bit depressing, and it is, Father has also been showing me the truth of the situation. In my last post I mentioned the new Hillsong United song You Hold Me Now. We've done this song the past couple of Sundays and I can't help but think of Casey. Check out the chorus lyrics, "No weeping, no hurt or pain, no suffering You hold me now, You hold me now, No darkness, no sick or lame, no hiding, You hold me now, You hold me now." What an awesome picture of Heaven. When looked at from this perspective I find it really hard to wish he was still here instead of experiencing that. Here's the song if you'd like to check it out.

Cuteness

We were at the airport today seeing off our friend Rebekka, who is moving back to the motherland (Holland).  As we passed the "meditation" room, which is marked by a sign showing a person kneeling, Lyla points to the sign and says, "daddy, he do head, shoulders, knees and toes" and then proceeds to sing the entire song while doing the motions.  Apparently to her a kneeling person looks a lot like someone dancing to a kids song.  I love how children's minds work.  Lyla has been spending lots of time in her kiddy pool recently.  What better way to beat the sumer heat?  Oh for the days when all it took to stay cool was sitting in six inches of lukewarm water.

Couple personal notes.  First, Hold Me Now, a track off the new Hillsong United album is amazing.  The words are so powerful and evoke a wonderful image of the big picture.  It was a great way for Father to gently guide my focus back to where it should be.  Secondly, with the end of the Redwings  playoff run, and boy what a crappy way to go out, I was able to trim my playoff beard.  I figured I may as well get a haircut as well, seeing as how it is incredibly hot and humid here.  Initial reactions are in, and apparently I now look ten years younger than I did a few short days ago.  Which begs the question, how old did I look before?  See for yourself. (Unfortunately, in the only recent picture of me I have a puppet bear on my head.  Does that make one look older or younger?)

OLD

NEW

Life

Its hard to believe a couple weeks have gone by since I last posted. Life has been interesting since then. Lyla took a nice spill on Memorial Day and bloodied both knees, her lip and chipped one of her teeth. I can empathize as that's how I've felt lately, like I take a step forward only to crash to the ground. We're in an interesting place right now. I know where Father wants us to be in the long run and I know He wants us to work at preparing ourselves to be ready when he calls us to return to Asia, but I have no idea how that looks in our day to day life during this season. As a person who lives largely in the here and now, I find that I tend to overlook planning for "down the road," but I feel like Father wants me to become more balanced in that regard. My prayer right now echoes a line from the Hillsong United song Came to the Rescue that says, "in my life, be lifted high, in my world, be lifted high." In other music news Vanessa found a new singer/songwriter who we really like, Dot JR. He has a song called Love song for Everyone that I think really speaks of Father's heart for his creation (even though I don't think this guy is family). I'm hoping to start spending some time in the studio next week learning how things work and getting some of my stuff recorded. Ness and I went a saw Star Trek this week. Awesome movie, and I'm not a Trekkie. I particularly enjoyed Sylar as Spock and Simon Pegg as Scotty. Good Times