God in the Wilderness

The top of Mt. Rainier is visible above the clouds on Monday.  This impressive mountain is visible from most of the Seattle area on a clear day, and it is covered in snow year-around.
 
In each post I try to give you a glimpse into what is happening in my heart, what God is doing to train me up as a disciple, and what is currently happening in Everett.  I will attempt to weave these three threads together, sometimes through the symbolism of circumstance.  I believe God speaks to us at times through the apparent mundane activities we go through each day, and i will try to illuminate these things so that you can get a taste of what I experienced.  If you don't believe God speaks that way, read any of the prophetic books of the Old Testament to see how God sent a message to Israel by using the prophet to cook meat in a pot or lay a certain way on the ground for a long period of time.  These messages were all symbolic and were intended to communicate messages that would touch the hearts of His people.  And I need to say this before beginning...I do not think I am a prophet.

If you have kept up with this blog over the last couple of months you have probably noted my sadness mixed with joy.  That pattern has only continued.  I have had some extremely low points over the last few weeks where I questioned coming to Washington.  I got caught in the trap of believing that nothing was happening and nobody was being impacted by our coming here.  Both are lies, but when you are depressed you only see what you want to see, even if there truly is good happening right in front of your face.

My real issue as I have described before is pride, and God has decided that it must die in me.  Search scripture and you will find many passages about God's opposition to and open dislike of pride.

Proverbs 8:13

All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech.

Isaiah 13:11

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹¹ “I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil
    and the wicked for their sin.
I will crush the arrogance of the proud
    and humble the pride of the mighty.

Mark 7:21-23

New Living Translation (NLT)

²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

For one of His committed followers to truly do His work, pride must be gone.  Otherwise the work supposedly done in his name is only built on human enginuity and charisma.  Once the person is gone, everything falls apart because it wasn't built on The Rock, Jesus.

Psalm 127

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of Solomon.

¹ Unless the Lord builds a house,
    the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
    guarding it with sentries will do no good.
² It is useless for you to work so hard
    from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
    for God gives rest to his loved ones.

If you know me as a friend or have worked for me you know that I want everything done yesterday.  I have always wanted things done fast and done well, and that oftentimes is unrealistic.  Change takes time.  Growth takes time.  Building a body of believers and connecting with members of the community takes a lot of time.  No matter how hard I try we aren't going to be as connected in this community as we were in the Humble area.  Not yet at least.  And meeting people and building relationships in Humble, upon reflection, took years!  We didn't just wake up one day and have everything in place.  It was built brick by brick, and God did the building.  So now I am dealing with the strange discomfort of wanting to do more while, by nature, that relationship building will take many years.  The Lord is unmoved by time and not bound by it, but still we catch glimpses of the constant pull of His will, the unstoppable power of his plan.  As I have said before, we are passengers on this ride.

Please pray for us.  I can't describe it, but we absolutely know when we are being prayed for.  The same Holy Spirit that resides in the Humble area also resides in Everett, and He moves in power when we pray.

Mancation

While it may seem like this part of the post has nothing to do with the Lord or with ministry, I ask that you give it a chance.  God taught me through a mini-vacation that I took last weekend in New Mexico.

I was fortunate to get to travel to Red River and Taos, New Mexico for a camping trip with a couple of friends from Houston.  We do something like this every year to get away from it all.  Our variety of camping is backpacking, where you strap on a 40lb pack and hike into the wilderness for miles, carrying everything you need for several days.

For this trip we were greeted with deep snow which had only fallen a few days before our arrival.  This creates numerous challenges to hikers because the terrain looks the same no matter where you look.  The trail is gone and many times you have to rely on your compass, a map, and some instinct to find your way.  We made the decision to hike 3.6 miles in to our campsite and didn't start until 7:30PM, so it was getting dusky when we started.  This began one of the most intense trips I have been on.

Once we reached a certain altitude, snow was completely covering the trail.  At times it was at a 45 degree angle to the path, and we had to walk around corners on this slope next to a 200ft drop.  At other times we reached junctions where it appeared that you could go any of 3 directions and still be on the trail.  And then, night came.

 Imagine going across this in the dark when there were no footprints.

If you have been in the country at night you know how dark it can be.  Add mountains on two sides and it is deepest dark.  We all had headlamps to guide us as we trudged through the deep snow, but there is nothing like the light of the sun to help with navigation.  And yet the sun had gone down.  On top of this challenge was the snow itself.  Snow travel takes 2-3 times the energy one would normally exert because you are constantly sinking or slipping, which directs energy away from your attempted forward motion.

We stopped numerous times to check the compass and to look for a trail;  all the while the clock continued to tick and it was getting very late and very cold.  I was usually at the back of our group which was somewhat advantageous because I could step where the others had stepped and was more likely to have solid footing.

At about 10:30PM we continued to trudge onward and upward and I was beyond exhaustion.  Simply moving my legs hurt.  Taking a step hurt my feet.  Carrying the load hurt my back.  And there appeared to be nothing ahead but more trees, more snow, and more darkness.

I began to despair but decided all I could do was walk and pray.  Turning back was not an option because it would be extremely dangerous to go off by myself in the dark.  On my own I would probably get lost, have to retrace all of our prior steps in my exhaustion, and would have no shelter since I wasn't carrying our tent.  To move forward I could at least follow the lights ahead of me which emanated from the headlamps of my friends.  If they got far ahead I could still follow their footsteps  I had people to follow and one of them had done snow travel before, so I had hope, although at the time it seemed very small.  I was not in control at all.  We eventually reached our campsite at 12:00AM, spending 4.5 hours to go 3.6 miles.

What does all of this have to do with Jesus?  Everything  The Lord showed me that this hike resembles what our family is going through right now.  We march forward through deepest darkness on all sides, in a city that is literally separated from God.  We don't know the way to go other than to follow the steps of the One in front of us.  The light we have is just enough to see a little of what is around us and is only enough to help us travel safely.  We cannot see what is in the distance.  We hear footsteps ahead of us as our Leader moves, but we are the followers.  The going is incredibly slow, painful, and strenuous, but we have an eventual destination that we are getting closer to.  We cannot turn back, because the past is behind us and there is nothing there for us.  We must keep moving forward, one painful step after another.  Sometimes it appears that we can go in any of two or three directions, but there is only one trail.  And that trail is often the one with the fewest footprints on it.

What an amazing symbol of our experience following the Lord.  Is he mean to do these things to us?  No.  He wants fully committed soldiers.  Has he abandoned us?  Never.  He always has been right there to show us the way when we needed to know it.  Has he denied us adequate resources to follow him?  No.  We have everything we have needed at exactly the time we have needed it.  I still can't explain how we made this journey financially!  What this God wants is...us.  And 99% commitment is not good enough.  So He will march us in the small strength we have and in the limitless strength that he gives until he remakes us into the followers He wants us to be.

We march on.

This is largely symbolic of the road ahead for us.

2 Timothy 2:

2 Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. ² You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.

³ Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them.

Current Happenings at EFC
We have been moving many of the residents of Family Tree Apartments over the last month or so.  The complex is being renovated and they are forcing all residents to move to a different location so that their current unit can be gutted and redone.  This has been a great chance to connect with many of the residents and their families.  I am amazed every time I go over there with how many people I am able to meet.  God is truly in this, because within minutes of pulling up I am usually talking to at least 2 residents who have attended EFC and while we talk, at least 2 more show up to talk who haven't been to church.  God is moving in that place.

I discovered that we have a halfway house for former drug addicts that is within about 5 blocks of our house.  I am hoping and praying for a connection to form over there so that we can possibly make connection with some of the residents.  Please join me in prayer over this.

Amanda continues to be heavily involved in a women's Bible study that has attracted a number of women from around Everett.  She is even hosting a women's retreat this weekend at our house!  She meets regularly with several ladies throughout the week for discipleship and friendship, and the bonds are continuing to grow.  Please pray for this blossoming ladies ministry.

Amanda and I have begun meeting with the community pastors at EFC to plan the mission trip to Everett that Humble Area's First Baptist Church is planning.  We are planning for a large VBS event at Family Tree apartments and many opportunities for street ministry here in Everett.  We anticipate a number of people from Humble will join us at the end of July for this event, and the most exciting part is that we are planning this so that it will have a long-term impact on the ministry of EFC.  Please pray with us that the Lord would lead the right people to come work with us, and that we'd do the activities that He would have us do.  We want nothing less.

Habakkuk 3
 
Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
    and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
    and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
    and the cattle barns are empty,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
    I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
¹⁹ The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
    He makes me as surefooted as a deer,^[e]
    able to tread upon the heights.

  

Settled and Unsettled

Last weekend I was able to go on a Father-Son retreat with my 3 older boys.  We went to a church camp on Whidbey Island, which is a short ferry ride across from Everett and is in the middle of Puget Sound.  This camp is owned and operated by 7 local churches and they regularly hold events throughout the year for anyone who wants to attend.  This event was a welcome break for all of us.  It gave Amanda a chance to parent "just" the two little guys for the weekend, and for me it was a chance to bond with our three oldest.  The boys spent the entire weekend playing sports, shooting BB guns, learning to shoot a bow and arrow, building and firing rockets, and doing lots of other guy-things!

We ate a nutritious dinner of fried seafood as we waited in the line for the ferry.

I found that I didn't really plan very well for this trip with my own clothing and was very cold all weekend!  While Everett has warmed slightly to where our daytime highs are in the 50's or 60's, Whidbey Island is surrounded by water that is about 49 degrees!  Any wind off of the water creates a natural air-conditioning effect, and it was WINDY all weekend.  So I came home chilled to the bone and promptly got sick with a virus, which had me down for the count for the remainder of the week.

Happenings at EFC

Everett Family Church (EFC) continues to undergo a transformation.  While our numbers are still small we continue to see an influx of people into the church.  Each of them has a story and most are going through something that has deeply hurt them.  Our church is different in that we don't paste a smile on and allow everyone to remain comfortably anonymous.  Since we are small to begin with it is tough to be anonymous anyway, but when you have time to sit with someone and just talk, the doors open both ways.  It allows the person to gradually open up and share their hurts and fears, and in turn they can hear about our own hurts and fears and realize that we are no different than they are.

Our worship-time structure gives us a lot of time to connect with people and find out what is going on.  For example, after each worship and teaching time, we eat a meal together.  This provides more than an hour to talk and really get to know the person.  After that point it is much less awkward to get contact info from the person so that we can keep in touch for the week.  I have thoroughly enjoyed these times because to me it has shown what can happen when we allow ourselves to be used in the lives of other people.  This is a cruel world that has been shaped by the sin in all of our lives.  Those wounds don't heal easily or quickly, and many who come through our doors are simply seeking to be heard and are desperately seeking God because they find themselves at the end of the rope.  Fortunately our God can always be found at the end of any rope.

A view of Everett from the ferry to Whidbey Island.

In our neighborhood we continue to be amazed at how many people we have been able to connect with.  The boys have brought home numerous friends who don't have a lot of parental involvement, so we get a chance to invite them to dinner and spend time with them.  It seems as though we weekly meet someone new who either lives on our street or within a block or two.  This neighborhood is quite alive and active and we see people who do look out for each other as neighbors.  On the flip side we see many people who don't know Jesus or who have fallen away from church completely.  Many we talk to have attended various churches in the past but don't currently attend anywhere.  Still others can rattle off a list of denominations and faiths that they have participated in recently in an effort to fill the spiritual void in their life.  This neighborhood is absolutely ripe with potential and is full of seekers.  So what are we supposed to do?


Amanda and I talk about our plans a lot now, but we still don't really have a plan.  We both strongly believe we know who we are supposed to minister to in this city. We have always found a closer affinity for those who are at low points in life; those who are poor or nursing past hurts. Those who have nothing are definitely more open to the Gospel than those who have everything. And it is often the poor in resources or the poor in spirit who are neglected by our society and our churches. It is no different than it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus said this:


Luke 14
¹⁶ Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. ¹⁷ When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’
²¹ “The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²² After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ ²³ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. ²⁴ For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”

Here, like in Texas, there are legions of people who need nothing and desire nothing of Jesus. Their vast finances prevent them from seeing their spiritual need, and therefore they often go about their lives “buying fields and oxen” just like the people in the parable, substituting the perishable for the imperishable. Their hearts are hard and they have turned away from the Lord as either unnecessary for their lives or something that they can attend to later. But later never comes for most of them. While we will talk to anyone about Jesus, we don’t feel called to actively pursue individuals like these and start a church for them. Instead, we will pursue the “poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.”

We are hesitant to go charging off into the great unknown, especially since the Lord hasn't made clear that we are supposed to do that yet.  We can see that a church plant is needed here in our area, and we can see quite a variety of people that could come to know Jesus here.  But as the Word says, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few."  To this point we just don't have any other individuals who would partner with us to do this significant work.  And it is there that you see the great problem facing churches in the Northwest.  Of the ones that exist here, usually a very few people are doing all of the work.  EFC is a great example of that.  Before we came here Mike and his family were doing literally everything each Saturday.  This includes setup, lesson preparation, food preparation, worship music, lighting and sound, teaching, cleanup, and discipleship of church members.  We have now formed a great partnership with them and more of the load is being shared, but without this, and even sometimes with it, we all get tired!  It is tremendous work each and every week to engage with others from the church.  No matter what the Lord would have us do in the next few years, we know that we simply cannot do it alone.  To attempt something like that would be a recipe for ultimate burnout and disaster.


We are looking for partners who will go on this journey with us.  There are no wages for the work here other than the Lord's approval and blessing, which are both significant.  There is no recognition or status associated with it as this type of work isn't valued by the world at large.  There are no opportunities for advancement, defined work hours, or special benefits.  Instead, the thing that will keep all of us going is the Lord's movement ahead of us, and being involved in His plan each and every day.  That alone has to be enough for us.  Jesus Himself must be all that we need and desire.  Apart from Him we can do absolutely nothing of consequence.

A city street of Everett looking north toward the harbor and Puget Sound.
 

Is it possible that the Lord would call you to the Northwest for His name's sake?  Could you transplant your entire family and life to come to an unknown place?  Would you be willing to lay everything in your life aside to teach others about Jesus and show them how to find Him?  The need is here, and the consequences for your response to these questions are eternal.  On the other hand, perhaps you aren't called to the Northwest.  Are you called to be somewhere else?


Be brave enough to ask the Lord what He would have you do!